Sex trafficking is an extremely traumatic form of human trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion; or a sex act in which the person induced to perform is under 18 years of age. Victims of sex trafficking can be girls, boys, women, or men—although the majority are girls and women. It is not uncommon for traffickers to employ debt bondage as an attempt to legitimize their confiscation of the victim’s earnings. Sex traffickers use a variety of methods to control and “break-in” victims, including confinement, physical abuse, rape, threats of violence to the victim’s family, forced drug use, and more. Victims of this form of trafficking face numerous psychological and physical health risks, which are covered in depth in later chapters.
Slavery by descent occurs when individuals are born into a socially constructed class or ethnic group that is relegated to slave status.