5-Minute Emergency Consult
Human Trafficking
Basics
Description
Sex trafficking:
- Commercial sex act induced by force, fraud, or coercion
- Includes minors under 18 yr old involved in commercial sex acts
Labor trafficking:
- Recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor
- Use of force, fraud, or coercion
- Purpose: Involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery
Epidemiology
Incidence and prevalence estimates:
- Most human trafficking victims will present to the emergency department (ED) during their exploitation
- Global prevalence: >40 million victims
- Over 50,000 individuals trafficked into the US every-year
- Estimated over half of sex trafficking involves minors
- Up to 1% of randomly selected ED patients screen positive for trafficking
Etiology
- Exploitation for sex, labor, services
- Vulnerabilities exploited: poverty, abuse, isolation
- False promises: jobs, relationships
- Traffickers control victims through threats, violence, psychological manipulation
- Dependence on traffickers for basic needs and survival
- Can happen within victim’s home community or victims can be trafficked elsewhere
- Populations at greater risk:
- Minorities
- Migrant patients or patients with limited English
- Intellectually disabled patients
- LGBTQ patients
- Runaway youth
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Citation
Schaider, Jeffrey J., et al., editors. "Human Trafficking." 5-Minute Emergency Consult, 6th ed., Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2020. Emergency Central, emergency.unboundmedicine.com/emergency/view/5-Minute_Emergency_Consult/307714/all/Human_Trafficking.
Human Trafficking. In: Schaider JJJ, Barkin RMR, Hayden SRS, et al, eds. 5-Minute Emergency Consult. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2020. https://emergency.unboundmedicine.com/emergency/view/5-Minute_Emergency_Consult/307714/all/Human_Trafficking. Accessed June 14, 2026.
Human Trafficking. (2020). In Schaider, J. J., Barkin, R. M., Hayden, S. R., Wolfe, R. E., Barkin, A. Z., Shayne, P., & Rosen, P. (Eds.), 5-Minute Emergency Consult (6th ed.). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. https://emergency.unboundmedicine.com/emergency/view/5-Minute_Emergency_Consult/307714/all/Human_Trafficking
Human Trafficking [Internet]. In: Schaider JJJ, Barkin RMR, Hayden SRS, et al, eds. 5-Minute Emergency Consult. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2020. [cited 2026 June 14]. Available from: https://emergency.unboundmedicine.com/emergency/view/5-Minute_Emergency_Consult/307714/all/Human_Trafficking.
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