Census: American Community Survey

Census: American Community Survey

The poverty and population data from the Bureau of the Census “American Community Survey” (ACS) relies on household responses to understand trends in the population (Census, 2019). It is unique among the data sets for including Puerto Rico in its report. Puerto Rico also has the highest percentage of its total population in poverty despite only having a population of three million. Of the states, New Mexico, Louisiana, and Mississippi have the highest percentage of poverty, at 17.8, 18.5, and 19 percent respectively—and further, with total populations of 2.1, 4.6, and 3.0 million. These are small southern states

In the graphs, one may be able to notice that California, Texas, and Florida have one of the highest levels of poverty per population. But if one were to also look at the rate of human trafficking both in many of the graphs shown below, as well as in the graphs given by the Human Trafficking Hot Line, one would be able to notice that these three states are among the top five states with the highest rate for human trafficking cases. What this details, and establishes is that populations living in poverty are one of the main demographics that are frequently targeted. However, it also details another story as well and that is its interactions with other countries. Unlike many of the states in the Midwest, which are also among the highest rates these states share a border with either another country, such as Mexico or with the ocean. Meaning that they are not only dealing with inter-regional human trafficking cases but that they could also be at higher risk of international cases, due to two factors. One is the spillover effect; in that, they now must face and even feel the effects of another country's level of poverty due to how close they are to the border. And the second is coyotes, in the case that some immigrants who were attempting to cross for a better life, might end up instead becoming the victim of a trafficker.

National Crime Victimization Survey

National Crime Victimization Survey

The regional household income and crime data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics “National Crime Victimization Survey” (NCVS) suggest that the highest percentages of crime reports occur in households of higher income, with $75,000 and above at 25% of the reports (BJS, 2019). Regional percentages were more evenly distributed. While the Midwest had 30% of reports, the South had 30%, the West 29%, and the Northeast 11%. The Northeast’s lower percentage might be due to its smaller geographic area. The lowest surrounding populations held the highest percentage of crime reports, at 44% from populations of up to 100,000, the next highest being unknown surrounding populations at 23%, then 250,000 at 10%, with consecutively lower percentages for higher populations.

Crime and Human Trafficking: Criminal Organizations

There might not be a direct correlation between crime in the vicinity and human trafficking, however, it is important to note, that the regions noted to have had a crime rate, such as the south and the mid-west, have also been noted to have contained states that have been identified to have higher human trafficking rates cases, such as Texas and Wisconsin. Now there might not be a direct connection, but there might be some correlation between the two when one investigates criminal groups. Oftentimes increased crime rates are an indicator of there being a presence of some sort of criminal organization, be it big or small. It has been noted in a report conducted by Vanessa Bouche that 58% percent of persecuted perpetrators of human trafficking worked in some other criminal organization. With mom-and-pop organizations, the smallest level, has been found in human trafficking cases 33% of the time. So, the seeming correlation between crime rate and human trafficking cases can be seen through this lens.

Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative

Gender

Minority

Age

Citizenship

Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative

The data on gender, age, nationality, and trafficking from the Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative’s “Global Synthetic Dataset,” filtered for the U.S. covers a wide range (CTDC, 2019). The data can be considered by percentages of sub-demographic, which is what portion of victims belong to a certain gender, age, or nationality. There are a variety of total changes for each demographic from 2015 to 2019.

Unspecified demographics dominate age and nationality, but for gender, women have made up 87% to 67%, steadily decreasing but maintaining most victims. Still, unspecified gendered victims had risen from 5% to 20%.

Unspecified ages have ranged between 54% and 75%, but ages 9-17 have consistently held the second-highest percentages, ranging between 9% and 21%, and making up 38% of specified cases in 2019. Still, unspecified cases have risen by 6% from 2015 to 2019, while ages 9 to 17 have decreased by 7%. Notably, ages 0 to 8 only make up 3.25% of specified victims even though minors make up 83% of total trafficking victims, suggesting most of these minors are ages 9 to 17. Still, Unspecified minority status has made up 53% to 71% of victims. While adults have gone down 5%, minors have increased 3% and an unspecified 2%.\n\nCitizenship is also largely unspecified and increased from 68% in 2015 to 87% in 2019. Those from the U.S. have decreased from 29% in 2015 to 5% in 2019. Otherwise, Mexican citizens are second-most specified and have between 1% and 6%. Countries comprising less than 1% of victims have collectively made up 2% to 3% of victims.

Minors: 9-17

One can see that these graphs show that one of the main age demographics that are targeted are minors, specifical minors from the age of 9 to 17. There are some explanations for this, however, the main one may very well be a vulnerability. Many people are quite vulnerable at this age, both to internal and external influences and as a result, may often end up being too trusting online or even in real life, causing them to come under direct harm. It also does not help that some young children have an additional quality, outside of the traditional labor or sex-based exploitation, which may increase their appeal to traffickers and that’s that they can be used for their image, and the length they can survive (i.e., how much time they still have left, their age).

Children are seen as innocent, and it is oftentimes exceedingly difficult to see them as anything other than someone who could not harm. And if it is found that they did something against the law they would oftentimes have lighter sentences due to their age. As a result, traffickers could use their imagination to benefit themselves, by forcing them to commit crimes, such as theft or moving drugs. Not only that, but they could also use said image to manipulate the public. It also does not help that some children are very malleable, which means that traffickers could purposely groom a child into doing specific tasks or even cause them to view the particular activity as being okay, thereby rewriting or even writing what they view as right and wrong.

Traffickers are also able to use children in various other industries as well, such as the adoption industry. There is often an elevated risk with international adoptions, in that children could have easily been taken from their families and then sold or set up to be adopted by foreigners or even people from outside of their state, as is the case with the private adoption industry that has been established in the US.

However, it is important to note that this is a difficult assertion to establish as child victims take up the minority of the subsection due to how much more difficult it is to find victims of child trafficking.

Citizenship

The graph notes that the frequency of victims found in the US is often people who are not US citizens. The study, “An empirical analysis of the intersection of organized crime and human trafficking in the United States,” mentions that most individuals in sex-based trafficking and labor-based human trafficking (especially for labor-based trafficking) are primarily from outside of the US. But this goes directly against what has previously been established, the trend that perpetrators tend to stay within the region where they found their victims. However, there might be an explanation and that is that this trend may only apply to minors and those involved in sex trafficking. A thought that can be further supported by previously mentioned age-based data sets.

Data USA

Data USA

The household income data by race and state from Data USA show different ranges (Data USA, 2019). The data’s geographic minimum mean household income lies in Puerto Rico with $20,800, and the maximum in Washington D.C. with $83,900. Of the States alone, West Virginia has the lowest at $40,600 and Maryland the highest at $76,300.

The data’s racial minimum mean household income is Black with $39,200, the maximum Asian with $69,700.

Ethnicity, Poverty, and Racism:

If one looks at household income and poverty based on race, one shall find that the rates that fall under the category of black, Hispanic, and Native American are among the highest rated. Compare this with sex-based human trafficking rates, and one will be able to find that two of the possible comparisons, Black and Hispanic, are also among the highest in this subsection as well, bringing into attention two of the most susceptible demographics. One of the demographics is those who live in poverty and minorities, such as African Americans and Hispanics, have often taken a good portion of this demographic. The second is those who are immigrants, a community that has been noted to be quite expansive in the Hispanic community.

Among these characteristics, it is also important to understand how these demographics end up interacting with other factors that may be affecting both racial groups: such as racism and ethnic bias. There are many ways these themes may be able to interact with human trafficking, However, there are two main ones that could be known to affect the rates of victims found. One is publicity. Oftentimes people of the majority often have more effort put forth by the public to find them. Be it if they are children or adults. The same is not true for minorities. This directly affects rates found, but one that might affect what group they target is the second factor and that is racial and ethnic bias and stereotypes. The Stereotype and hyper-sexualization of certain racial and ethnic backgrounds can cause many traffickers specializing in sex trafficking to prefer these said groups over others. A study by Thema Bryant-Davis & Pratyusha Tummala-Narra stated that “Their analysis revealed sexualized stereotypes of

racially and ethnically marginalized women, with … These findings highlight the connection between racist-sexist stereotypes and racist-sexist behaviors “These views could contribute to the reason why the African American and Hispanics graphs are at a higher level in comparison to their white counterparts, especially once one sees how these perceptions interact with their economic level, as it has been previously noted that the population of people who are living in poverty is primarily taken up African American, Native Americans, and Hispanics.

Cross Analysis

Target Demographics By State

The highest number of labor-based involuntary servitude is based in Texas.

Texas is part of the top ten in agricultural production and is the one state who has the largest border with Mexico as well as having the second largest population in the US. (Important to note that we do have California data). They are also noted to have the second largest number of reported victims of human trafficking, to the human trafficking hotline.

Houston has been noted to be one of the largest hubs for human trafficking. Cross-referencing the data collected by the hotline, it can be noted that California was the one to receive the highest number of calls with Texas second. With the data collected, it can be inferred that labor-based trafficking is at a higher frequency in Texas in comparison to California. [f] Implying that labor-based human trafficking can frequently be found in Texas farms and other agricultural areas.

However, this reasoning, while being an accurate fit for Texas, is not for Colorado letting the door be open for further investigation. Such as why Colorado, Florida, and South Carolina have a greater rate of labor-based human trafficking?

One simple answer may be that these states contain one of the largest populations that fit the description of susceptible demographics to human trafficking, poverty, and homelessness. Having such a high population of preferred demographics, therefore, cause the rate of human trafficking to increase, and therefore also cause it easier to find victims due to the increase of them. It also helps that it’s fairly likely that the victims come from the general vicinity as the perpetrator of human trafficking often prefer to stay in the general vicinity as it would be easier to be caught if they decided to travel internationally or even internationally.