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LEARNING FROM SURVIVORS AND WITH SURVIVORS

NATIONAL SURVIVOR STUDY

Our groundbreaking survivor-led research study has revealed and examined what survivors of human trafficking have experienced, what they need to heal, and how the systems that were supposed to protect them are broken. It’s time to focus on survivors’ futures and create concrete pathways for action.

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28 Million people

ARE TRAFFICKED WORLDWIDE.

We cannot end this one person, one survivor at a time. But with your help, we can target the systems that make human trafficking possible.

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Myth

Human trafficking is always or usually a violent crime.

 

Reality
The most pervasive myth about human trafficking is that it often involves kidnapping or physically forcing someone into a situation. In reality, most traffickers use psychological means such as, tricking, defrauding, manipulating or threatening victims into providing commercial sex or exploitative labor.

Myth

All human trafficking involves commercial sex.

 

Reality

Human trafficking is the use of force, fraud or coercion to get another person to provide labor or commercial sex. Worldwide, experts believe there are more situations of labor trafficking than of sex trafficking, but there is much wider awareness of sex trafficking in the U.S. than of labor trafficking.

Myth

Traffickers target victims they don’t know.

 

Reality

Many survivors have been trafficked by romantic partners, including spouses, and by family members, including parents.

Who We Are

Founded in 2002, Polaris is named for the North Star, which people held in slavery in the United States used as a guide to navigate their way to freedom. Today we are filling in the roadmap for that journey and lighting the path ahead.

Serving victims and survivors through the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

Building a dataset that illuminates how human trafficking really works, in real time.

Turning knowledge into targeted systems-level strategies to disrupt and prevent human trafficking.

View our impact

Listen to Survivors

If we don’t represent human trafficking accurately, then people in trafficking situations will have an even harder time recognizing what is happening to them and finding a way to break free. It’s time to listen to survivors and represent their experiences.

Federal Criminal Records Relief for Survivors

By its very definition, the crime of human trafficking involves being forced, manipulated or tricked into activities that a person would not otherwise engage in – such as selling sex or picking vegetables for hours in the hot sun with no pay. Yet the federal government has no mechanism to ensure that people who have federal criminal charges on their records as a result of their victimization can get those records cleared and move on with their lives. This is long overdue. Tell Congress: Federal criminalized trafficking victims deserve relief.

Human Trafficking Training

Compassionate, committed individuals that care are the most powerful resource there is to prevent and reduce human trafficking. However, to leverage this power, we must ensure we armed with the knowledge necessary to do the work.

Need help? Polaris operates the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline.