Familial Trafficking
Familial trafficking happens when a parent, relative, or guardian facilitates the exploitation. It is often missed because most anti–human trafficking efforts focus on sex and labor trafficking in general—not the specific, hidden abuse occurring inside families.
Key points:
• Offenders can be parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts/uncles, foster parents, or a parent’s intimate partner.
• Abuse may involve:
o Allowing sexual offenders access to a child in exchange for money, drugs, or housing
o Caregivers creating and selling/trading child sexual abuse material
• In one study, 75% of cases involved a family member selling a child for drugs.
• Grooming often starts younger than in other trafficking types; the abuse may be generational and normalized.
• Many victims don’t recognize they’re being trafficked because:
o They may be too young to understand what’s happening
o They may not see the exchange of money or items
o The crime is often misidentified as general child sexual abuse
• Victims often stay silent due to:
o Loyalty or emotional attachment to family
o Shame and fear of breaking up the family
o Fear of permanent separation once the abuse is reported