Human Trafficking Data-Collection Activities, 2020

• NCJ Number: 256001
• Author(s): Erica L. Smith, BJS Statistician
• Date Published: March 2021
• Publication Series: Human Trafficking Data Collection Activities
• Publication Type: Publication

Annotation

This report describes BJS's activities during 2019 and 2020 to collect data and report on human trafficking as required by the Combat Human Trafficking Act of 2015 (34 U.S.C. § 20709(e)(2)(B)).

Abstract

This report describes BJS's activities during 2019 and 2020 to collect data and report on human trafficking as required by the Combat Human Trafficking Act of 2015 (34 U.S.C. § 20709(e)(2)(B)). The report details ongoing and completed efforts to measure and analyze the nationwide incidence of human trafficking, to describe characteristics of human-trafficking victims and offenders, and to describe criminal justice responses to human-trafficking offenses by state and local law enforcement, prosecutors, and courts.

Highlights

• In 2019, BJS conducted its first data collection on the roles of state attorneys general in combatting human trafficking, with an overall response rate of 84%.
• Of the 47 attorneys general offices that responded to the survey, 3 reported closing one or more cases of labor trafficking with a guilty defendant, while 16 reported closing one or more cases of sex trafficking with a guilty defendant.
• Participation in the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program Human Trafficking (UCR-HT) data collection, which tracks arrests and cases concerning commercial sex acts and involuntary servitude, grew from 37 states in 2015 to 45 states in 2019.
• The number of involuntary servitude arrests reported to the UCR-HT rose from 66 in 2015 to 146 in 2019. Arrests for commercial sex acts fluctuated between 2015 and 2017 then stabilized from 2017 to 2019, with 562 such arrests reported in 2019.