Last week the State Department released the 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report, a congressionally mandated report that looks at the governments around the world (including the U.S.) and what they are doing to combat trafficking in persons – modern slavery – through the lens of the 3P paradigm of prevention, protection, and prosecution.
Here are seven figures you should know from the latest report:
1. The report estimates that only 44,758 victims of trafficking were identified in the past year, out of an estimated pool of more than 20 million victims.
2. In 2013, foreign governments reported 9,460 prosecutions and 5,776 convictions for trafficking offenses.
3. During FY 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice convicted a total of 174 traffickers in cases involving forced labor, sex trafficking of adults, and sex trafficking of children, compared to 138 such convictions obtained in FY 2012. Of these, 113 were predominantly sex trafficking and 25 were predominantly labor trafficking, although several involved both.
4. Illegal profits made from the use of forced labor in the private economy worldwide amount to $150.2 billion per year.
5. Two thirds of the illegal profits, amounting to an estimated $99 billion per year, are generated by commercial sexual exploitation exacted by fraud or force.
6. More than one third of the illegal profits – $51.2 billion – are made from forced labor exploitation: Nearly $8 billion generated in domestic work; $9 billion generated in agriculture, forestry, and fishing; and $34 billion generated in other industries such as construction, manufacturing, mining, and utilities.
7. Perpetrators make roughly $21,800 per year per victim of commercial sexual exploitation exacted by fraud or force, and an average of $4,000 per victim of forced labor exploitation outside of domestic work.
Other posts in this series:
The Shifting Religious Identity of Latinos in the U.S.
