Anyone can experience trafficking in any community regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic status. Traffickers can be family members, acquaintances, pimps, employers, smugglers, or strangers, and not all traffickers are adults.  Traffickers recognize and take advantage of people who are vulnerable.  People may be vulnerable to trafficking if they:

• Have an unstable living situation

• Have previously experienced other forms of violence such as sexual abuse or domestic violence

• Have run away or are involved in the juvenile justice or child welfare system

• Are undocumented immigrants

• Are facing poverty or economic need

• Have a caregiver or family member who has a substance use issue

• Are addicted to drugs or alcohol

Traffickers may target minor victims through social media websites, telephone chat-lines, after-school programs, at shopping malls and bus depots, in clubs, or through friends or acquaintances who recruit students on school campuses.  The trauma caused by the traffickers can be so great that many may not identify themselves as victims or ask for help, even in highly public settings.