Physicians on Front Line in Fight Against Sex Traffickers

Most sex-trafficking victims in this country are U.S. citizens. According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, sex trafficking is defined as “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining 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 to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age.” These acts include pornography, prostitution, sex tourism, strip clubs, escort services, brothels, massage-parlor work, truck-stop “companions” and Web and social-media sex. The average recruitment age of victims is 12 to 14, though there have been cases reported involving children as young as 7.