While the anti–human trafficking field has largely focused on steps to prevent and respond to sex and labor trafficking, one type of trafficking—family-facilitated human trafficking or familial trafficking—can slip through the cracks and be overlooked by law enforcement, child welfare agencies, educators, and others. The Journal of Family Violence notes that familial trafficking occurs when a family member (a father, mother, sibling, grandparent, uncle, or aunt) or a guardian (a foster parent or intimate partner of the parent) facilitates the trafficking. This can include when parents or other family members allow sexual offenders to sexually abuse the victim in exchange for money, drugs, or a place to stay or when caregivers produce pornography of their children and sell, trade, or post the contents in exchange for money or other things of value.

In some cases, the parent is not actively facilitating, but is still complicit in the trafficking. Megan Mattimoe, Executive Director of Advocating Opportunity, has worked with victims whose families are aware that trafficking is occurring but may ignore it for a variety of reasons. “Parents may be complicit in the trafficking of their children. They may be reluctant to ‘see’ or accept that their child is being trafficked, especially by a member of their own family. Parents may also be trafficking victims themselves and see the situation as unavoidable and they don’t know what to do to help either with their own victimization or their child’s.” Additionally, familial trafficking can occur when minors are forced to engage in labor, sexualized or not, and the monetary proceeds are taken by the family member. For example, a parent may force their underage child to work at a strip club or a foster parent may force their child to work on a farm with the wages going to the parent.

In 2017, the International Organization of Migration estimated that 41 percent of child trafficking situations are facilitated by family members or caregivers. A study by the Polaris Project of 457 trafficking survivors found that 37 percent of respondents experienced familial sex trafficking. It is not only children who are at risk; family members and guardians can also take advantage and exploit individuals with disabilities and other vulnerable adults.

While researchers and antitrafficking stakeholders acknowledge that familial trafficking occurs, this form of trafficking is less publicized than others. Media reports, victim services, and law enforcement cases typically center on boyfriends, pimps, and strangers as traffickers. Even awareness campaigns are typically not geared towards outreach to familial trafficking victims.

Identification of Familial Trafficking

While there familial trafficking may be more common than generally thought, it can be difficult for anti-trafficking stakeholders to identify and respond to this type of trafficking. Many screening tools used by victim service providers and law enforcement officers do not include questions specific to familial trafficking and are not validated by familial trafficking survivors to allow for the identification of this type of victim. In fact, an article in the Criminal Justice Review notes that justice professionals themselves have spoken to the lack of training on this type of trafficking, which can also lead to less identification.

In familial trafficking, the trafficker may be grooming and trafficking the victim at a much earlier age than in other types of trafficking, as Shared Hope International notes. The abuse can be generational and normalized. Due to their young age, victims may not even be aware that they are victims and may not see the exchange of money or things of value. If reported, their experience may be misidentified as solely child sexual abuse or other crimes. This can make punishments less severe for offenders while also providing an avenue for continued abuse. As with child sexual abuse cases, the preferred solution may be family reunification, which can cause the familial trafficking victim to have ongoing contact with their trafficker—as a study in the Journal of Family Violence notes that almost 60 percent of victims do.

Additionally, the victim may find it challenging to speak out due to their loyalty to and reliance on their family. They may also feel deep shame about the situation and the need to protect their family. Victims may also fear what will happen once they report a family member, since the common approach is to permanently separate the victim from the offender. Given this alternative, many victims choose to stay with what they know. This can make them uncooperative witnesses; in some cases, they may refuse to participate in interviews or recant testimony. One study in the Criminal Justice Review found that the most prominent and consistent factor in domestic minor familial sex trafficking cases was that juvenile witnesses and other family members were uncooperative to the investigative process.

The indicators for familial trafficking differ from other types of human trafficking, and it can be difficult to find common indicators among victims of familial trafficking. One study in the Journal of Crime and Justice found that juvenile familial trafficking victims were less likely to run away (69 percent versus 92 percent) and less likely to use drugs and alcohol (56 percent versus 81 percent) than juveniles exploited by non-family members. The same study found that some familial trafficking victims may develop educational or social delays, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), psychological disorders, and other issues that educators and others may pick up on, while other familial trafficking victims may excel at school.

One doctoral dissertation found that substance use/addiction in the family was common in domestic minor familial sex trafficking cases reported by justice professionals: 75 percent of the cases in the study involved family members selling a child in exchange for drugs. One professional noted that family trafficking is often prominent in communities where drug addiction to heroin, fentanyl, and meth is prevalent. Other risk factors noted include domestic violence in the home and acute poverty.

Response to Familial Trafficking

Familial trafficking requires specific identification and a unique individualized response. Law enforcement officers, child welfare workers, and other stakeholders who specialize in human trafficking may not be trained in the unique characteristics of familial trafficking. Even when trafficking or abuse is suspected, parents or guardians of the victim may still participate in interviews, a practice which can be dangerous and harmful to the victim. Additionally, services geared towards reuniting a trafficking victim with their supportive family may not be useful to familial trafficking victims who were exploited by their own family and may not have a healthy support system to rely on. Even those familial trafficking survivors working in the antitrafficking field as consultants, service providers, and other professions often feel that their experience is neglected or overlooked.

It is critical that child welfare workers, law enforcement, educators, and others who interact with potential familial trafficking victims be aware of what familial trafficking can look like and how to respond. Law enforcement officers need to go beyond short interactions with victims. As Megan Mattimoe discusses, the ideal partnership between victims and law enforcement should involve “real relationships and rapport. Law enforcement officers should be open and available to victims, while acknowledging that the reporting and legal process is jarring and difficult—thus allowing victims to make their own choices and decisions.” It requires antitrafficking stakeholders to provide an individualized response rather than relying on the same approaches and resources that they use for other crimes, including other types of trafficking. While it can be difficult to identify and respond to this type of trafficking, Carolyn Potter, Chief Executive Officer of The WellHouse and member of The Alabama Attorney General’s Alliance on Human Trafficking, explains that additional attention and focus on familial trafficking can “lead to breaking generational cycles of abuse and empower survivors to have a voice in their healing.”

Learn More

On January 23rd, the International Association of Chiefs of Police will host a webinar, Understanding and Responding to Family-Facilitated Human Trafficking, focused on familial trafficking, including the signs or indicators, how to respond, and what organizations or agencies law enforcement should collaborate with to increase awareness and identification of victims. Those interested in attending can register online or email humantrafficking@theiacp.org for more details.

Resources

• Navigating the Unique Complexities in Familial Trafficking. U.S. Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons fact sheet, 2021.
• Uncovering Familial Trafficking: Adira James's Story. Survivor Study from National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), 2023.
• Family Members Are Involved in Nearly Half of Child Trafficking Cases. A data brief from the International Organization of Migration Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative (CTDC).
• Familial Trafficking Warning Signs. A list from Shared Hope International, 2020.
• Human Trafficking by Families. Margaret F. Henderson, NC School of Government Public Management Bulletin no. 24, 2023.

Erin Marsh
Project Manager
International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP)

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