This guidebook for law enforcement, prosecutors, and victim advocates discusses the results from a study about the effectiveness of using the presence of online ads to detect human trafficking.
The purpose of this guide is to provide empirically based guidance on indicators of sex trafficking in online escort ads that might help increase precision in victim identification, to anyone that investigates or prosecutes sex trafficking cases. The authors used the federal definition of sex trafficking since it reflects the burden of proof requirement: recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, coercion, or in which the person forced to perform such an act is younger than age 18. The authors sought input and collected data from focus groups of law enforcement, sex trafficking survivors, and non-trafficked sex workers; field data from law enforcement and prosecutors; web scraper and data extraction; and ad coding and analysis. The final sample of ads analyzed included cases investigated in seven states and involved ads extending to 35 U.S. states and Ontario, Canada. The authors found four indicators that were associated with a higher risk of trafficking when included in escort ads: using language to indicate trustworthiness and professionalism; obscured phone number; explicit choice of ethnicity or race; use of youthful language that suggests targets are under 18. The authors also noted results demonstrating those indicators used by law enforcement that were not associated with a higher risk of sex trafficking, including client ethnicity, movement or controlled movement, stating age in ad to be under 23 years, client screening multiple providers (sex workers), emoji indicators, photo indicators, and payment. The authors emphasize that escort ads should not be used alone as a shortcut to determine the presence of trafficking, rather they should be used as a tool to narrow the focus of investigations.