Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Human trafficking can include, but does not require, movement. People may be considered trafficking victims regardless of whether they were born into a state of servitude, were exploited in their home town, were transported to the exploitative situation, previously consented to work for a trafficker, or participated in a crime as a direct result of being trafficked. When an adult engages in a commercial sex act, such as prostitution, as the result of force, threats of force, fraud, coercion or any combination of such means, that person is a victim of trafficking. Under such circumstances, perpetrators involved in recruiting, harboring, enticing, transporting, providing, obtaining, patronizing, soliciting, or maintaining a person for that purpose are guilty of sex trafficking of an adult. Even if an adult initially consents to participate in prostitution it is irrelevant: if an adult, after consenting, is subsequently held in service through psychological manipulation or physical force, he or she is a trafficking victim and should receive benefits outlined in the Palermo Protocol and applicable domestic laws. When a child under 18 years of age is recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, obtained, patronized, solicited, or maintained to perform a commercial sex act, proving force, fraud, or coercion is not necessary for the offense to be prosecuted as human trafficking.

Subscriber Account active since. The New York City mayor's office recently helped launch a program to give legal assistance to victims of sex trafficking , and a woman in her 40s who endured years as a virtual slave appeared at its news conference. That woman, who now goes by Kika Cerpa, survived an ugly crime that has started to get attention in America only in recent years.

Atlanta CNN The pathway leading to the dark corners of human trafficking began in the fluorescent-flooded hallways of a Florida middle school. More Videos How easily are children recruited in Human Trafficking Sacharay, which is how she wants to be known, was 14 years old and looking for a friend. I started wearing glasses and was called 'four-eyes.