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Writer's pictureJohn Caulfield

2021 FBI Human Trafficking Data

The annual update to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Uniform Crime Reporting Program for Human Trafficking (UCR-HT), 2013-2021, became available for download through the Crime Data Explorer (CDE) on 5 Oct 2022. The HT 2013-2021 dataset (File type: ZIP; File size: 83.3 KB; Rows: 3098; Columns: 19) provides totals by state and offense for commercial sex acts (HTCSA) and involuntary servitude (HTIS).


The 2013-2021 dataset reflects the offenses recorded by state and local law enforcement agencies that currently have the ability to report the data to the FBI UCR Program. As such, they should not be interpreted as a definitive statement of the level or characteristics of human trafficking in the nation as a whole. The Human Trafficking, 2020, 8th Edition, Data Declarations and Methodology section, provides background information to help users better understand the data and the methodology used in the UCR-HT Program. These data represent only one view of a complex issue—the law enforcement perspective. However, due to the nature of human trafficking, many of these crimes are never reported to the local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies that investigate them.


The number of states participating in the Human Trafficking Data Collection has grown steadily from 13 in 2013 to 49 in 2021. No data was provided by California, which is one of the known human trafficking hubs, so its absence significantly skews the Top 10 state rankings. The National Human Trafficking Hotline (Polaris) ranked California Number 1 is its listing of Human Trafficking Cases Reported by State (different data and methodology but indicative).


2013-2021 UCR-HT Data

Data show that between 2013-2020, there were a total of 722,059 offenses, 597,296 for commercial sex acts and 124,763 for involuntary servitude.


2020 UCR-HT Data

Data show that in 2020, there were a total of 139,617 offenses, 117,961 for commercial sex acts and 21,656 for involuntary servitude.


2021 UCR-HT Data

Data show that in 2021, there were a total of 129,703 offenses, 103,794 for commercial sex acts and 25,909 for involuntary servitude.


Table 1: Human Trafficking Offenses and Clearances by Top 10 States, 2020
2020 Human Trafficking Offenses

Table 2: Human Trafficking Offenses and Clearances by Top 10 States, 2021
2021 Human Trafficking Offenses

The corresponding 2021 topical reports (FBI, Human Trafficking, 2021, 9th Edition; Bureau of Justice Statistics, Human Trafficking Data Collection Activities, 2022) are not yet available. It will be interesting to see what insights they provide once published.




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