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Human Trafficking Data Collection Activities, 2021

NCJ Number
302732
Date Published
October 2021
Length
8 pages
Abstract

This report details ongoing and completed efforts to measure and analyze the nationwide incidence of human trafficking, to describe characteristics of human-trafficking victims and offenders, and to describe criminal justice responses to human-trafficking offenses. It provides information on arrests for human-trafficking offenses by state law enforcement officers, prosecutions of individuals in state courts for human-trafficking offenses, convictions of individuals in state courts for human-trafficking offenses, and sentences imposed on individuals convicted in state courts for human-trafficking offenses.

Highlights:

  • The first National Survey of Victim Service Providers (NSVSP) was conducted in 2019 to gather data on Victim Service Providers (VSPs), a relatively understudied source of information on victims of crime and the services available to assist them.
  • Between 2015 and 2020, the number of states reporting to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program's Human Trafficking (UCR-HT) data collection has increased from 37 to 47.
  • The number of arrests reported for human trafficking involving involuntary servitude increased from 66 in 2015 to 146 in 2019 before declining to 92 in 2020. Reported arrests for human trafficking involving commercial sex acts increased from 684 in 2015 to 880 in 2016 before declining to 301 in 2020.
  • From 2011 to 2019, the number of defendants charged with human trafficking in cases terminated in U.S. district courts increased by 79%, while the number of defendants convicted increased by 80%, and the number sentenced to prison increased by 82%.
  • Thirty-two states reported at least one human-trafficking offense to the National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP) in 2019. Among those states, 614 state prison admissions in 2019 were for a human-trafficking offense.

Date Published: October 1, 2021