Over the past three decades, we have seen an increase in awareness of and measures to address human trafficking. We have also seen increasing discussions of and legislation aimed at something called ‘sex trafficking’. These terms are often used interchangeably, particularly when discussing human beings trafficked for sexual exploitation.
This needs to stop. These two terms have different meanings, both linguistically and legally, and using ‘sex trafficking’ instead of ‘human trafficking’ is causing real-world harm to vulnerable populations. To understand why, we need to first look at what ‘sex trafficking’ means, and what the consequences of the proliferation of this term have been.
What is ‘sex trafficking’?
What do drug traffickers do?
