Polaris Project

25 MILLION PEOPLE ARE TRAFFICKED WORLDWIDE. We cannot end this one person, one survivor at a time. But with your help, we can target the systems that make human trafficking possible. Myth It’s always or usually a violent crime. Reality The most pervasive myth about human trafficking is that it often involves kidnapping or physically forcing someone into a situation. In reality, most traffickers use psychological means such as, tricking, defrauding, manipulating or threatening victims into providing commercial sex or exploitative labor. Myth All human trafficking involves commercial sex. Reality Human trafficking is the use of force, fraud or coercion to get another person to provide labor or commercial sex. Worldwide, experts believe there are more situations of labor trafficking than of sex trafficking, but there is much wider awareness of sex trafficking in the U.S. than of labor trafficking. Myth Traffickers target victims they don’t know. Reality Many survivors have been trafficked by romantic partners, including spouses, and by family members, including parents. Who We Are Founded in 2002, Polaris is named for the North Star, which people held in slavery in the United States used as a guide to navigate their way to freedom. Today we are filling in the roadmap for that journey and lighting the path ahead. Serving victims and survivors through the National Human Trafficking Hotline. Building a dataset that illuminates how human trafficking really works, in real time. Turning knowledge into targeted systems-level strategies to disrupt and prevent human trafficking.