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Understanding Human Trafficking in Our Communities
Human trafficking is a crime that takes place in the shadows but affects real people in our neighborhoods. It involves someone exploiting another person for labor or sexual activity, using fear, lies, or threats to maintain control. Traffickers search for vulnerability and turn it into opportunity. When a person is desperate for love, safety, housing, income, or belonging, someone with bad intentions can take advantage and make escape feel impossible.
On the Eastern Shore, trafficking might not look like what is shown on movies or national news. It often happens quietly in homes, hotels, workplaces, and online spaces. People may not identify what is happening to them as trafficking, and community members may struggle to recognize the warning signs. Learning what trafficking actually looks like helps all of us notice concerns sooner and support survivors with compassion and safety.
This section explains how trafficking works, how traffickers maintain control, who is most likely to be targeted, and how exploitation appears in different forms. It also connects these realities back to state and federal laws so you know what protections exist.
Explore the different types of trafficking to learn more.
What is Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is the exploitation of a person for profit. The trafficker uses force, fraud, or coercion to make someone provide labor, services, or sexual activity. Those three words — force, fraud, and coercion — are the core of how trafficking works.
Force can look like violence, assault, or being physically prevented from leaving.
Fraud can feel like promises of love, safety, or a new job that later turn into threats and control.
Coercion is often the strongest trap of all. A trafficker may threaten to report someone to immigration, take away a child, start rumors, or hurt a loved one. They may create emotional dependence or fear that makes leaving feel dangerous.
Trafficking does not require someone to be locked away or kidnapped. Many victims go to school, work in public places, or live with their trafficker as a partner or family member. They may appear “free” but every decision is controlled by someone who benefits from their exploitation.
Federal law recognizes two major categories of trafficking: labor trafficking and sex trafficking. Under federal law, when anyone under the age of eighteen is involved in a commercial sex act, that child is considered a trafficking victim, even if no threats or violence are used. A child cannot consent to their own exploitation. Any sexual service or sexually explicit materials exchanged for any items of value is considered child sex trafficking under federal law. That value might be money but it could also be a place to sleep, clothes, food, rides, drugs, or protection.
Maryland has its own criminal laws that align with federal trafficking statutes. State law makes it illegal to recruit, transport, control, or profit from another person’s exploitation for sex or labor. When a child is involved, Maryland requires a specific response to ensure safety and access to services through a Regional Navigator.
Who is Vulnerable
Trafficking targets vulnerability, not a specific gender, age, race, or background. Anyone can be trafficked, but risk increases when someone is facing major life challenges. A person who is struggling with housing, running away from home, experiencing abuse, searching for acceptance, dealing with trauma, or trying to provide for their family may be more easily manipulated by someone claiming to offer help.
Many victims believe their trafficker cares for them. Many feel responsible for the abuse. Many have been convinced that no one else will help them. Those beliefs are intentionally created by traffickers to maintain control.
What Trafficking Looks Like on the Eastern Shore
Our geography brings unique risks. Isolation between towns, tourism, seasonal labor, and housing instability all create opportunities for exploitation. Trafficking can take place in farm labor, seafood processing, family homes, hotels near beaches or highways, and online communities that reach across county lines. Youth and young adults may move from place to place, staying temporarily with adults who demand sex, labor, or illegal activities in exchange for shelter or survival.
Online spaces are the new doorway. Exploitation can start through a phone long before it becomes visible offline.
Recognizing that trafficking is a local issue — not just an urban one — empowers our community to respond.
Types of Trafficking
Sex Trafficking
Sex trafficking happens when a person is forced, tricked, or pressured into sexual acts in exchange for something of value. Sometimes the trafficker pretends to be a romantic partner at first. Later, the relationship changes and the person finds themselves controlled, threatened, and abused.
Sex trafficking can take place in hotels, short-term rentals, private homes, online listings, parties, clubs, and mobile settings that shift to avoid attention. A person being trafficked may not see themselves as a victim at first. They may believe they are simply doing what they need to survive or that they owe something to the trafficker.
Federal law defines sex trafficking as causing someone to engage in a commercial sex act through force, fraud, or coercion. If the person is under eighteen, it is trafficking even if they believe they agreed. Maryland law criminalizes sexual exploitation and punishes traffickers who profit from it or recruit others into it. When minors are involved, stronger penalties apply.
If you ever notice a relationship where one person appears fearful, controlled, monitored, or dependent — and money, housing, food, or substances are part of the dynamic — there may be exploitation behind the scenes. Offering help or calling for support can be life-changing.
Labor Trafficking
Labor trafficking happens when someone is forced to work under threats, lies, or restrictions on their freedom. A trafficker may promise a high-paying job and then trap a worker in unsafe conditions. They may take away identification documents, demand repayment of fake debts, or threaten to fire, evict, or report the person to authorities if they try to leave.
People who are new to the area, unfamiliar with worker rights, or financially dependent on their employer can be especially at risk. Labor trafficking can occur in agriculture, hospitality, seafood harvesting, landscaping, cleaning services, caregiving, construction, small businesses, and many informal jobs.
Federal laws forbid forced labor and prohibit anyone from recruiting or transporting a person for unpaid or coerced work. Maryland law mirrors these protections and punishes labor exploitation that uses threats, deception, or control.
If someone seems to be working long hours without pay, living where they work, unable to speak for themselves, or afraid to leave the workplace or talk to others, they may need support to safely exit the situation.
Child Sex Trafficking
Child sex trafficking is one of the most hidden but widespread forms of child abuse. Any time a child is exchanged for anything of value for sexual activity, that child is a victim of trafficking, even if they believe the trafficker is a boyfriend, a friend, or a caregiver. Traffickers often use emotional manipulation, promises of love or independence, or threats to keep a child silent.
Children targeted for trafficking may experience homelessness, instability with caregivers, past abuse, school disruptions, or heavy online contact with strangers. Youth who feel alone or misunderstood may be drawn toward someone who shows attention and support. Traffickers exploit that trust and then flip the relationship into control.
Federal law does not require proof of force or threats when a minor is involved. Maryland’s Child Sex Trafficking Screening and Services Act expands protection by requiring that professionals report suspected trafficking so the Regional Navigator program can respond and provide safety.
If a young person suddenly has unexplained money, is constantly with an older controlling adult, disappears overnight, or becomes secretive about relationships and online connections, trafficking may be present. Reaching out early can prevent deeper harm.
Familial Trafficking
Sometimes exploitation begins at home. Familial trafficking occurs when a parent or caregiver exchanges a child for sex, labor, or criminal activity in return for money, housing, drugs, or other benefits. Children may think this treatment is normal if they have lived in chaotic or violent environments since birth. They may also love or rely on the person exploiting them, making disclosure feel terrifying.
This form of trafficking is often hidden because the abuser is a trusted authority. A child may miss school, have unexplained visitors at home, be forced to perform work they cannot refuse, or show fear around certain family members. They may not know that what is happening is a crime or that help exists.
Federal and Maryland law both recognize familial trafficking as a serious offense. Caregivers who exploit children face severe penalties. Child welfare and the Regional Navigator program are trained to respond to these concerns gently, prioritizing safety and stability.
If you suspect familial trafficking, reporting can interrupt generations of harm.
Online Exploitation and CSAM
Many trafficking relationships and threats begin online. Social media apps, games, and messaging platforms allow traffickers and offenders to reach children directly. They build trust, ask for personal photos, and then use those images as leverage. Some threaten to expose the child unless more sexual content is sent. Others convince a child to meet in person where further exploitation occurs.
Child Sexual Abuse Material, or CSAM, is any sexual content involving a child. Viewing, sharing, or possessing CSAM is a crime and causes lifelong harm to the child involved.
Youth may not realize they are being exploited until the situation becomes frightening. They may hide devices, become anxious after being online, or receive gifts and attention from unknown contacts. Caregivers and community members must take those signs seriously.
Federal laws prohibit the creation, possession, or sharing of CSAM and criminalize online threats and coercion used to traffic minors. Maryland law also recognizes online exploitation as child abuse and a serious criminal offense.
If a child shares that they feel uncomfortable or afraid because of someone online, believe them and respond quickly. Support is available.
Your Role in Keeping People Safe
Trafficking thrives when no one questions what they see. If a person seems afraid, controlled, isolated, or dependent on another in a way that feels unsafe, your instincts matter.
When something does not feel right, speak up. Calling for help may be the first step toward freedom for someone trapped in exploitation.
Your community’s strength is built on awareness. Together we can notice warning signs earlier, connect survivors to trauma informed support, and prevent trafficking from taking further root in our region.
