Familial Trafficking
Recent statistics report that 42% of victims whose recruitment was known were brought into trafficking by a member of their own families. Family members are trafficked due to poverty, exchanged for illegal drugs, or bought and sold due to generational trauma.
Familial trafficking is the hidden process of exchanging a family member for goods, substances, rent, services, money, or status within the community. This type of trafficking is more difficult to identify because it takes place within family networks and victimizes young children, many of whom may not even realize they are victims. When a family member is a trafficker, the exploitation is often normalized and accepted within the family culture, sometimes spanning generations.