Human Trafficking Investigations

Sex Trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery and occurs when a trafficker uses force, threats, fraud, manipulation, lies, and/or violence to engage a man, woman, or child in a commercial sex act. Many victims are lured in by their trafficker and don’t realize they are trapped until it is too late. Often, goods such as money, drugs, a place to sleep, food, or clothing are exchanged. The victim may compromise their safety in order to meet their basic needs, including a need for affection and acceptance. Under U.S. federal law, any minor under the age of 18 years induced into commercial sex is a victim of sex trafficking—regardless of whether or not the trafficker uses force, fraud, or coercion.

Labor Trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery in which a man, woman, or child perform labor or services as a result of threat or force, physical restraint, manipulation, serious harm, or abuse of legal process. Examples can include but are not limited to, withholding documents, absent wages, physical abuse, psychological manipulation, and reputational deceit. In the United States, common types of labor trafficking include people forced to work in homes as domestic servants, farmworkers coerced through violence as they harvest crops, and factory workers held in inhumane conditions. Labor trafficking has also been reported in door-to-door sales crews, restaurants, construction work, carnivals, and even health and beauty services.

In the 2022 report released by the National Human Trafficking Hotline (NHTH), North Carolina ranked ninth in the nation for human trafficking. As of 2021, 922 signals were received by NHTH, 318 of those being from victims or survivors of human trafficking.