Work Group 3: Deterring Traffickers and Buyers

Chaired by The Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (Michelle Price)

• Human trafficking is an illicit industry that profits from the exploitation of people and is fueled and sustained by three notions- the relationship between supply (victims), demand(buyers) and distributors (sellers or traffickers), the sum of (high profit) + (low cost + low risk), and systemic inequality.
• 2022 Initiatives:
  • To dent the business of human trafficking and deter traffickers, we have to disrupt the supply and demand, increase the risk and or decrease the profitability so that it is no longer worth it.
  • Work Group 3 is developing a curriculum purposed to define human trafficking as a public health issue and highlight the many harms of human trafficking and exploitation. An effort to shift individuals’ desires to participate in exploitative activities, but also attempt to identify the different elements in society and culture that create environments where exploitation is tolerated on any level. The hoped-for outcome is to decrease the demand for commercial sex and cheap labor.
  • Develop a toolkit or guide for various community programs on how to create a larger impact in reducing the risk to human trafficking that economic vulnerabilities can bring utilizing a two-generation and whole generation approach. The result hoped for is that a reduction in the power of vulnerabilities traffickers use to exploit individuals will lead to a reduction in the supply.