TraffickingFree Zones:
Demolishing the Demand
To Purchase Sex-Trafficked Victims
A Community-Wide Strategy to Fight Against Human Sex Trafficking
There were an estimated 4.8 million victims of sex trafficking, feeding a $150 billion industry worldwide in 2016. The United States of America is one of the largest global consumers of human trafficking goods and services. U.S. citizens purchase sex in their home communities and around the world in greater numbers than any other nation.
The hidden nature of child sex trafficking makes it nearly impossible to know how many U.S. victims there may be. Sex trafficking victims (those who are compelled through force, fraud, or coercion) are all genders, are children and adults, and are U.S. citizens as well as migrants and people who were brought here from abroad. While only 3,000 to 4,000 sex trafficking cases are prosecuted each year, some estimate that as many as 100,000 children in the U.S. are sex trafficking victims:
- Of 10,615 victims reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline in 2017, roughly one-third were minors[1] and a separate study of sex trafficking arrests found that 75% of cases had minor victims[2].
- 60% to 70% of trafficking victims come from child social services or the foster care system[3].
- At least 1 in 7 runaway children are trafficked— one study of adult women in prostitution found that 56 percent were initially runaway youth.
- Children who have experienced trauma are the most vulnerable to becoming trafficked, and their families’ financial and social circumstances often mean they have the fewest resources to get help.
The TraffickingFree Zone (TFZ) program is a community-based initiative to reduce the number of buyers, whose continuous financial investments create an illicit market for traffickers to exploit young victims. The TraffickingFree Zone program is implemented in collaboration with community members and leaders, law enforcement, businesses, schools, healthcare organizations, churches and the media, all while using technology to reach buyers and victims on a massive scale. The program helps communities come together to arrest and prosecute sex buyers instead of the victims who are being sold, educates people on sex trafficking, and uses technology and research to reduce demand.
[1] National Human Trafficking Hotline Report, 2017. www.humantraffickinghotline.org
[2] Roe-Sepowitz, D., Gallagher, J., Hogan, K., Ward, T., Denecour, N., and Bracy, K. A six-year analysis of sex traffickers of minors. 2017. Arizona State University Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research.
[3] According to an FBI Investigation in 2013
TRAFFICKINGFREE Zones
TFZ Businesses
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Join the Movement – Become a TraffickingFree Zone (TFZ)
Whether you join the TraffickingFree Zone as an individual, business, law enforcement, church goer or community leader – you will make a difference. You’ll be joining forces with one of the largest anti-sex trafficking movements in the world, and that’s something to be proud of. There are four steps that you will go through to become a certified TraffickingFree Zone:
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First step: Training
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Second step: Sign Proclamation or pledge
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Third step: Enact Policy Changes
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Fourth step: Share publically
Once you complete all the steps, you’ll be able to download your certificate to print and share. Get started today by clicking Become a TFZ
1. Get Trained
Ignorance is not bliss. Click on “training” to access short, informative, online training videos about human trafficking. The U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking training program offers industry-specific human trafficking content designed to educate and engage professionals, advocates, parents, and community members. Developed by experts within each industry, the trainings are strategically designed to increase awareness about human trafficking, advance the participant’s ability to identify those who are being victimized, and deliver tangible methods for participants to get engaged in combating trafficking.
2. Sign a Proclamation or Pledge
Issue a Proclamation declaring your state, county, city, district, company, church, or organization a TraffickingFree Zone. Signing a Proclamation demonstrates your stance against human trafficking and activities which support it. A proclamation sends a clear message to your sphere of influence that you are educated about human trafficking in your community, you are enraged that our children are being exploited, and you are engaged in the effort to stop the trafficking of our children.
As an individual, signing a Stomp Out the Demand Pledge, you’re making a formal promise to not participate, or stop participating in any activities which drive the demand for sex trafficked victims, as well as educating your sphere of influence about human trafficking, and discouraging them from sex buying activities.
3. Enact Policy Changes
Add an organization-wide value or code against sex trafficking and sex buying by using a provided statement, adding to an existing statement, or writing a new statement which suits your company’s needs.
Are You Seeking Help?
Whether you are a victim of human trafficking or are seeking to escape the impulse of purchasing sex, we can help you today.