Sex trafficking
Commercial sex induced by force, fraud, or coercion. Traffickers use confinement, abuse, drugs, and threats. If the person selling sex is under 18, the law does not require force, fraud, or coercion to be shown.
The problem
It happens in Tarrant County.
Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, harboring, providing, or obtaining of a person — by threat, force, or other coercion — for exploitation. A person does not have to cross a border. They can be trafficked in their own city, even their own home. It is modern slavery. Age, race, and nationality do not decide who can be taken.
Two crimes, one fight
Labor trafficking
Recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for labor or services through force, fraud, or coercion — involuntary servitude, debt bondage, or slavery.
What a victim looks like
There is no single face. Trafficking happens to people of every age, gender, race, and faith. Missing youth are among the most vulnerable. Predators befriend them at home, in shelters, in public, and — most often — on social media.
Most victims are not behind a locked door. They are hidden in front of us.
Signs — not a verdict
These are indicators, not proof. Some cultures and jobs can look similar without trafficking.
- Cannot speak alone, or the conversation sounds scripted
- Submissive or fearful demeanor
- Signs of physical, mental, or sexual abuse
- Cramped living with many people
- Someone else holds the passport, visa, or ID
- Long hours with little or no pay
- Appears malnourished
- Forced into commercial sex while someone else takes the money
- A child with sexual knowledge far beyond their age
- Any person under 18 performing commercial sex acts
Who traffics
A trafficker can be any race, gender, or age, from any place. They often control speech, movement, and documents. Many victims already knew the person — family, an intimate partner, an employer.
How to report
If you have a victim with you, or anyone is in immediate danger, call 911. Do not confront a suspected trafficker yourself.
Elsewhere in the country, use the National Human Trafficking Hotline. In Fort Worth, the police report line is 817-392-4222.