Exploring Trends in Federal Sex Trafficking Cases

Abstract

Sex trafficking is quickly becoming one of the most prevalent issues in the realm of criminal justice and society in general. There are more slaves in the world today than at any other point in history, and this horrific crime is affecting the most vulnerable members of society, with traffickers using various methods of recruitment and control to enslave their victims. Using court records and data from Dr. Vanessa Bouche's Human Trafficking Data, this paper is an exploratory study on victims and offender demographics at the federal level of the judiciary. Also included is an in-depth examination of charging and sentencing trends, geographic patterns, and the progression of sex trafficking prosecution at the federal level.