Familial trafficking is a form of human trafficking that refers to the trafficking being perpetrated by family members. While more research is available on familial sex trafficking, minors have also been exploited in other forms of human trafficking, such as labor trafficking (e.g., in manufacturing, agriculture, domestic servitude, begging, and criminal activities). The involvement of family members varies and may consist of ongoing exploitation. At the same time, the child lives at home or a decision to “sell” the child to traffickers in exchange for money, debt reduction, drugs, and more. Historically, there has been evidence globally of various practices that could today be defined as familial trafficking. The reasons behind familial trafficking are complex and related to several factors, such as culture, community, and individual characteristics of each family member. The framework of risk factors frequently used in human trafficking studies can shed some light on the driving forces of familial trafficking. The consequences of being trafficked by a family member are delineated, and treatment considerations are offered.
AllertJ. L. (2022). Domestic minor familial sex trafficking: A national study of prevalence, characteristics, and challenges across the justice process. The Samaritan Women Institute for Shelter Care, https://instituteforsheltercare.org/familial/
Author 2 (2022). Unpublished raw data from interviews with human trafficking survivors. XXX University.
4.
BachrachL.TruschelL.Chisolm-StrakerM. (2022). Human trafficking of children and adolescents: Recognition and response in the emergency department. Pediatric Emergency Medicine Practice, 19(7), 1–24.
5.
BadejoF. A.GordonR.MayesR. (2021). Transforming human trafficking rescue services in Nigeria: Towards context-specific intersectionality and trauma-informed perspectives. Journal of Services Marketing, 35(7), 878–890. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-07-2020-0290
CharnleyH.NkhomaP. (2020) Moving beyond contemporary discourses: Children, prostitution, modern slavery and human trafficking. Critical and Radical Social Work, 8(2), 205–221. https://doi.org/10.1332/204986020x15945756343791
DallaR. L.RoseliusK.ErwinS.PeterJ.PanchalT. J.RanjanR.MischraM.SahuS. (2022). Family sex trafficking among the Bedia Caste of India: Defying the dominant human trafficking discourse. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37(23–24). https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605211073104
10.
EdwardsE. E.MiddletonJ. S.ColeJ. (2022). Family-controlled trafficking in the United States: Victim characteristics, system response, and case outcomes. Journal of Human Trafficking, 10(3), 411–429. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322705.2022.2039866
11.
EvansS. T. (2020). Human trafficking: Extreme profitability leading to shocking growth. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 17(2). https://doi.org/10.33423/jlae.v17i2.2871
12.
EzehU. C.OliN. P. (2021). Socio-economic determinants of children’s vulnerability to trafficking in Awka South local government area, Anambra State, South-East, Nigeria. Practicum Psychologia, 11(1).
13.
FanF. A. (2021). Trafficking in persons (tip) in Nigeria: Its etiology and control measures. Social Science Learning Education Journal, 6(03), 386–395.
14.
Feldman-SavelsbergP. (2020). Kin-care and well-being for children and youth in Cameroon’s intersecting uncertainties. Health & Well-Being in Uncertain Times: Centering Children & Youth, 12(2), 44–53.
15.
Franchino-OlsenH.ChesworthB. R.BoyleC.RizoC. F.MartinS. L.JordanB.StevensL. (2022). The prevalence of sex trafficking of children and adolescents in the United States: A scoping review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 23(1), 182–195. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838020933
16.
GibbsD. A.Aboul-HosnS.KluckmanM. N. (2020). Child labor trafficking within the US: A first look at allegations investigated by Florida’s child welfare agency. Journal of Human Trafficking, 6(4), 435–449. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322705.2019.1594551
17.
GozdziakE. (2016). Trafficked children and youth in the United States: Reimagining survivors.Rutgers University Press.
GreenbaumV. J.YunK.TodresJ. (2018). Child trafficking: Issues for policy and practice. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 46, 159–163. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073110518766029
HopperE. K.KinnishK. (2024). Psychological impacts of labor and sex trafficking. In DryjanskaL.HopperE. K.StoklosaH. (Eds.), Psychological perspectives on human trafficking: Theory, research, prevention, and intervention (pp. 177–198). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000379-009
JaecklS.LaughonK. (2021). Risk factors and indicators for commercial sexual exploitation/domestic minor sex trafficking of adolescent girls in the United States in the context of school nursing: An integrative review of the literature. The Journal of School Nursing, 37(1), 6–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059840520971806
26.
JijonI. (2020). The priceless child talks back: How working children respond to global norms against child labor. Childhood (Copenhagen, Denmark), 27(1), 63–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568219870582
27.
KaboS. E. (2014). Baby factories’: A new phase of human trafficking and human rights violation in Nigeria. Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities, 1(4), 179–194.
28.
KizilhanJ. I. (2019). Providing psychosocial care to child soldiers living in post-IS Iraq. International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT). https://doi.org/10.19165/2019.1.05
29.
KoomsonB.AbdulaiD. (2021). Putting childhood in its place: Rethinking popular discourses on the conceptualisation of child trafficking in Ghana. Anti-Trafficking Review, (16), 28–46. https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.201221163
30.
KostenzerJ. (2017). Human trafficking and exploitation for the purpose of reproduction. In GebrewoldB.KostenzerJ.MüllerA. T. (Eds.), Human trafficking and exploitation (pp. 90–111). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315212449-6
31.
LeP. D.RyanN.RosenstockY.GoldmannE. (2018). Health issues associated with commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of children in the United States: A systematic review. Behavioral Medicine (Washington, D.C.), 44(3), 219–233. https://doi.org/10.1080/08964289.2018.1432554
32.
LewolebaK. K.HarefaB. (2020). Legal protection for child victims of human trafficking. International Journal of Multicultural and Multireligious Understanding, 7(2), 111–116. https://doi.org/10.18415/ijmmu.v7i2.1470
33.
MaC. (2023). Developmental approach to child trafficking. In DryjanskaL.HopperE. K.StoklosaH. (Eds.), Psychological perspectives on human trafficking: Theory, research, prevention, and intervention (pp. 99–111). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000379-005
34.
MakG. (2020). Children on the fault lines: A historical-anthropological reconstruction of the background of children purchased by Dutch missionaries between 1863 and 1898 in Dutch New Guinea. BMGN: Low Countries Historical Review, 135(3/4), 29–55. https://doi.org/10.18352/bmgn-lchr.10876
MartinhoG.GoncalvesM.MatosM. (2020). Child trafficking, comprehensive needs and professional practices: A systematic review. Children and Youth Services Review, 119, 105674. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105674
37.
MbakuJ. M. (2019). The rule of law and the exploitation of children in Africa. Hastings International and Comparative Law Review, 42, 287–452.
Miccio-FonsecaL. C. (2017). The anomaly among sexually abusive youth: The juvenile sex trafficker. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma, 26(5), 558–572. https://doi.org/10.1080/1092677.2017.1304476
Miller-PerrinC.WurteleS. K. (2018). Sex trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of children. In SidunN. M.HumeD. L. (Eds.), A feminist perspective on human trafficking of women and girls: Characteristics, commonalities, and complexities (pp. 117–145). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315203904-7
MontgomeryM.PowellI. (March 1, 2018). International adoptions have dropped 72 percent since 2005 – here’s why. The Conversation. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429397868-37
44.
MsuyaN. H. (2019). Traditional “juju oath” and human trafficking in Nigeria: A human rights perspective. De Jure Law Journal, 52(1), 138–162. https://doi.org/10.17159/2225-7160/2019/v52a9
New International Version Bible. (2011). Zondervan. (Original work published 1978).
47.
NicholsA. J.PrebleK.CoxA. (2022). A state-level analysis of demographic characteristics and sex trafficking experiences of survivors. Journal of Human Trafficking, 10(1), 51–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322705.2021.2016268
48.
OwumiB.JeromeP. (2007). Changing family structure/values and the incidence of human trafficking in Edo state. The Nigerian Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 5(1), 104–120. https://doi.org/10.36108/njsa/7002/50(0180)
49.
PaolellaC. (2020). Human trafficking in Medieval Europe: Slavery, sexual exploitation, and prostitution. Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9789048551552
50.
PašagićA. (2019). Between child soldiers and terrorists: Reintegrating child members of the Islamic state. Journal for Deradicalization, (20), 109–155.
51.
RaffertyY. (2021). The identification, recovery, and reintegration of victims of child trafficking within ASEAN: An exploratory study of knowledge gaps and emerging challenges. Journal of Human Trafficking, 7(2), 145–167. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322705.2019.1689476
RaphaelJ. & DePaul University College of Law. (2019). Parents as pimps: Survivor accounts of trafficking of children in the United States. Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence, 4(4). https://doi.org/10.23860/dignity.2019.04.04.07
55.
RaphaelJ. (2020). Parents as pimps: Survivor accounts of trafficking of children in the United States. Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence, 4(4), 7. https://doi.org/10.23860/dignity.2019.04.04.07
RashadS. M. (2023). Child trafficking crime and means of fighting it: Egypt as a case study. Review of Economics and Political Science, 8(4), 290–308. https://doi.org/10.1108/REPS-03-2019-0029
58.
ReedS. M.KennedyM. A.DeckerM. R.CiminoA. N. (2019). Friends, family, and boyfriends: An analysis of relationship pathways into commercial sexual exploitation. Child Abuse & Neglect, 90, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.01.016
59.
ReidJ. A.HuardJ.HaskellR. A. (2016). Family-facilitated juvenile sex trafficking. In ReidJ. (Ed.), Human trafficking (pp. 83–98). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315623887
60.
Roe-SepowitzD. E.GallagherJ.RisingerM.HickleK. (2015). The sexual exploitation of girls in the United States: The role of female pimps. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 30(16), 2814–2830. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260514554292
SchwartzH. S. (2015). Letting kids be kids: Employing a developmental model in the study of domestic minor sex trafficking. Journal of Applied Research on Children, 6(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.58464/2155-5834.1233
63.
ShenA.AntonopoulosG. A.PapanicolaouG. (2013). China’s stolen children: Internal child trafficking in the People’s Republic of China. Trends in Organized Crime, 16, 31–48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-012-9167-z
64.
SidunN. M.RubinD. A. (2013). Sex trafficking of women. In SigalJ. A.DenmarkF. L. (Eds.), Violence against girls and women: International perspective (pp. 159–182). Praeger.
65.
SprangG.ColeJ. (2018). Familial sex trafficking of minors: Trafficking conditions, clinical presentations, and system involvement. Journal of Family Violence, 33(3), 185–195. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-018-9950-y
66.
SrivastavaR. N. (2019). Children at work, child labor and modern slavery in India: An overview. Indian Pediatrics, 56, 633–638. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13312-019-1584-5
67.
TathagatT.AkashA. (2023). Examining the challenges and concerns of human trafficking in India. International Journal of Law Management and Humanities, 2(6), 2846.
Van NguyenD.NguyenH. C.LeT. Q.DoT. D. (2020). Human trafficking in Vietnam: The issues and responses of the Vietnamese government. International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change, 13(7), 135–152.
73.
Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (V-TVPA). (2000). P.L. 106-386,114 Stat. 1464.
VuolantoV. (2003). Selling a freeborn child: Rhetoric and social realities in the late Roman world. Ancient Society, 33, 169–207. https://doi.org/10.2143/as.33.0.503599
76.
WhiteC. N.RobichauxK.HuangA.LuoC. (2024). When families become perpetrators: A case series on familial trafficking. Journal of Family Violence, 39, 435–447. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-023-00522-w
77.
WrightN.JordanM.LazzarinoR. (2021). Interventions to support the mental health of survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking: A systematic review. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 67(8), 1026–1034. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764021103924
78.
YesufuS. (2020). Human trafficking: A South African perspective. e-BANGI, 17(6), 103–120.
