Sex Trafficking

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

Stories have the power to change things, for better and for worse. This detailed guide is designed to help content-creators for any medium tell compelling, realistic stories of human trafficking.

For decades, R&B singer R. Kelly preyed on young women and men, using promises of a career in the music industry to manipulate them into abusive sexual relationships. We examine this pattern of exploitation and highlight the importance of listening to and believing all survivors.

A new policy directive issued this summer from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) is an important step for the Administration to build trust with immigrant victims of crime, including victims and survivors of human trafficking, by ensuring that they receive the protections they deserve.

Two recent reports based on data from the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline highlight how the pandemic exacerbated systemic issues while trafficking adapted to the changing contexts.

A collaboration between researcher and survivor expert Megan Lundstrom, Polaris, PayPal and Capital One, provides anti-money laundering professionals with new insights to interpret the stories told by the bank records and credit card transactions of people experiencing trafficking.

An examination of the number of daily situations of sex trafficking reported to the Trafficking Hotline indicates a possible shift in where likely sex trafficking involving online sexual exploitation was happening during the pandemic. This in turn highlights how traffickers quickly adapt to changing contexts and the challenges and opportunities this poses to those trying to reduce and prevent sex trafficking.

This toolkit contains social media graphics and videos available for download to share with your networks and audiences to help them understand the grooming process and how sex trafficking really happens.

From the outside, it’s easy to tell ourselves we would never have been lured in by a trafficker who pretended to love us. But grooming - a methodical process of emotional manipulation - is time-tested and devastatingly effective. Learn more about how it works so you can spot it and protect yourself and those you care about.

In the wake of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, Polaris, in partnership with The Soufan Group and Limbik, has written a report that sheds light on previously unexplored links between QAnon, human trafficking, disinformation, and violent extremism.

There are many things the anti trafficking community does not agree on, and some very deep and very real divisions that make it hard to work together at times. We believe there are also real opportunities to work together toward things that will meaningfully improve people’s lives.

This January, Human Trafficking Awareness Month, Polaris and United Way are reflecting on compounding issues that are impacting human trafficking.