What is Trafficking

The conditions under which a crime is considered trafficking (presence of Act, Means, and Purpose) are defined below1: 

ACT refers to “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons,” (UN General Assembly).

These actions are the initial steps in the human trafficking process which can look like: 

• Recruiting: tricking someone into a situation based on false promises of economic security or a better life

• Transportation: moving people from one place to another, usually through force or coercion

• Harboring: keeping someone in a situation against their will

It is important to note that a victim does not need to be transported from one location to another for the crime to fall within this definition.

MEANS is “the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person,” (UN General Assembly).

This definition encompasses a wide range of practices, including: physical violence, false promises of a job, non-physical control—manipulation, threats, wielding debt to coerce, or even abuse of legal processes (i.e. threats of prosecution, deportation, or other legal actions being used against their intended purpose). Abuse of power may look like someone in a position of authority—an employer, spiritual/religious leader, person with economic advantage—using their power for coercive means. Abusing a position of vulnerability may look like taking advantage of a person’s debt, lack of language knowledge, economic position or migration status. 

PURPOSE of the act “is exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs,” (UN General Assembly).

Purpose is the reason a trafficker uses force, coercion, or other means outlined above, which is to exploit for profit. It is important to note that children under 18 cannot legally provide consent. Therefore, for minors, exploitation—or ‘purpose’—sufficiently crosses the legal threshold for trafficking.

In addition to the AMP test, federal or local laws may dictate what is considered trafficking under your jurisdiction. Trafficking can be difficult to categorize, as it involves complex and mutable power relations. For more information, visit our resource hub.

Trafficking Myths and Facts 

Glossary of Terms

• Begging: general term for people asking for assistance such as food, shelter, or money.

• Coercion: persuading someone to do something by use of threat or force.

• Commercial: making or intending to make a profit. 

• Commercial carriers: any transportation company or the owner or operator of any means of transport.

• Consent: consent must be voluntary (consent is invalid once any use of violence, fraud, coercion or power imbalance is involved), given under full disclosure and understanding (to consent, you must be fully informed on the conditions of the act, and reserve the right to withdraw consent at any time), and only by those with the capacity to consent (for minors, consent is never valid in the context of trafficking).

• Coyote: a person who smuggles undocumented immigrants across a border for a fee. Coyotes are of great cultural significance for many communities, and serve complex multidimensional roles in the trafficking apparatus. 

• Exploitation: the use of a person for another person’s gain (forms include: the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs). 

• Forced criminality: situations where victims are forced to engage in illegal activities as a form of labor or services (growing or transporting drugs, shoplifting, pickpocketing, credit card fraud, or other crimes carried out for the trafficker’s benefit).

• Forced labor: all work or service which is extracted from any person under coercion or threat of penalty.

• Forced mobility: the involuntary movement of people.

• Labor trafficking: the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. 

• Mobility: the ability to move or be moved freely and easily. 

• Panhandling: someone asking for money in the street.

• Prevention through deterrence (U.S. border enforcement strategy enacted in 1994): policy designed to deter undocumented immigrants from crossing through the U.S./Mexico border, by closing off urban ports of entry. The intention was/is to funnel individuals to entry points where the natural environment would act as an additional deterrent. It was anticipated that the difficulties people would face when crossing hazardous terrains would discourage them from making the journey in the first place.

• Profit: a financial gain, especially the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent in buying, operating, or producing something.

• Racial Bias: preconceived opinions or feelings about a person or group of people based on their perceived race.

• Receipt of Persons: the act of a trafficker or third party receiving a person who has been recruited, transported or transferred for the purpose of exploitation.

• Sex trafficking: sex trafficking is a federal crime that was defined by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) as “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion or in which the person induced is under 18,” (Trafficking Victims Protection Act). 

• Shoplifting: taking merchandise from a store or similar establishment without paying. 

• Smuggling (as compared to trafficking): the procurement, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of the illegal entry of a person into a State Party of which the person is not a national or a permanent resident.

• Visibility: the state of being able to see or be seen.