Situation in Numbers
20-40 million. 50,000. 04%. These are not numbers ripped from the headlines or the latest statistics from the CDC regarding COVID-19, but they do concern another rising epidemic—one that has swept the world comparatively silently.
An estimated that 20-40 million people are trapped in modern-day slavery. Approximately 50,000 people are trafficked into the United States each year. A notoriously underreported crime, it’s estimated that only .04 percent of sex trafficking cases are identified.
Risk Assessment
Who are the vulnerable?
While people of any age, race, or gender can fall victim to trafficking, the nonprofit organization Polaris has collected data using the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline to identify groups who are more at risk. Their findings are summarized below.
Graphic from PolarisProject.org
Polaris also singled out the top five risk factors for human trafficking:
Recent migration/relocation
Substance use
Unstable housing
Runaway/homeless youth
Mental health concern
According to a 2019 report by the U.S. Department of State, a significant portion of child sex trafficking survivors were in the foster care system at one time. They also found that many victims are runaway girls who suffered sexual abuse as children. In the U.S., the average age that a teen enters the sex trade is just 12-14 years old.
Traffickers will often identify and exploit the vulnerabilities of their victims using manipulation, fraud, and threats of violence. The result is a dependent relationship that keeps victims trapped in a system of abuse.
Read the previous blog post here: The Path to Restoration for Survivors of Sex Trafficking
“This is not only a dominant issue, it’s an epidemic issue,” Cindy McCain, chair of the McCain Institute’s Human Trafficking Advisory Council warned. “It’s also something that is hiding in plain sight. It’s everywhere—it’s absolutely everywhere.”
And like a silently spreading contagion, it’s on the rise. Polaris experienced a 25 percent increase in reported cases from 2017 to 2018, and with victims reaching out to their hotline from across the nation, not a single state was immune.
Strategic Objectives
At Catalyst Farms, women and girls are not only offered a haven from their abusers, they also receive the care, guidance, and resources they need to lift them out of the circumstances that may have contributed to their victimization. These tools of restoration include housing, trauma therapy, wellness education, and job skills training, among others.
Recommendations and Advice for the Public
It is our collective responsibility to do our part in protecting the most vulnerable among us in our community, our country, and the world at large, be it by raising awareness, donating our time or money to charities committed to fighting human trafficking, or praying to our sovereign God for healing.
No matter what actions we take, we can’t simply wash our hands of this.
— Maggie
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
— Proverbs 31: 8 - 9