2025 Impact

While women and girls remain disproportionately affected, trafficking impacts people of all genders. Male survivors are often underidentified globally, due to stigma and misconceptions about who can be trafficked.

Nearly 1 in 5 survivors freed this year by our teams were children. Minors are especially vulnerable to traffickers who exploit their need for safety, belonging, and financial stability.

*Gender and age was not always reported/collected

Sex trafficking involves exploitation through commercial sex acts. Labor trafficking forces victims to work in industries like agriculture, manufacturing, or domestic service under coercion, threat, debt bondage, or deception.

Traffickers are not just men. Women often play critical roles in trafficking networks by recruiting victims, managing day-to-day operations, or serving as the public face of seemingly legitimate businesses.

*Gender was not always reported/collected

"Disrupted" means a network's operations were significantly impaired. "Destroyed" means the network can no longer function.

When a trafficking network is destroyed, it can't exploit new victims.

Evidence packages include surveillance data, witness statements, digital forensics, and case documentation that law enforcement needs to make arrests and build prosecutable cases, as determined by their own local jurisdictions.

Traffickers increasingly use social media and online platforms to recruit and advertise victims. Our cyberinvestigators specialize in tracking digital footprints and gathering online evidence.

Influenced™ teaches middle and high school students, as well as the adults caring for them, to navigate online spaces safely, recognize manipulation tactics, and protect themselves and children from online exploitation and human trafficking.

Through our Influenced™ program, we train local facilitators to deliver our curriculum in their own communities, creating sustainable prevention education that continues without our direct involvement in facilitation.

In the critical first days and weeks after being freed, survivors need safe housing, medical care, and basic necessities. We prioritize family reunification when safe, or provide residential care when it's not.

Trauma doesn't heal overnight. This phase focuses on mental health treatment, legal advocacy, and addressing the complex challenges survivors face — including PTSD, addiction, and navigating legal systems.

The ultimate goal is independence. We help survivors gain education, job skills, and financial literacy so they can build sustainable lives free from vulnerability to re-trafficking.

Children are targeted because they're easier to manipulate and control. Traffickers exploit their need for love, security, and belonging — often posing as romantic partners, mentors, or providers.

*Gender and age was not always reported/collected

Nearly 40% of arrested traffickers in 2025 were women. Female traffickers often recruit victims — sometimes having been victims themselves — because they can more easily build trust with potential targets.

*Gender was not always reported/collected

Traffickers use different tactics depending on their target's vulnerabilities. These are the most common methods we observed in 2025 cases:

Immediately after being freed, survivors need safety, medical attention, and basic necessities. We work quickly to place them in appropriate care — ideally with family when it's safe to do so.

Healing from trafficking takes time. This phase provides ongoing mental health support, legal assistance, and help addressing the complex trauma survivors carry.

True freedom means having the skills and resources to build an independent life. We invest in education, job training, and financial literacy to break the cycle of vulnerability.

Sex trafficking involves commercial sex acts induced by force, fraud, or coercion — or any commercial sex act involving a minor. Labor trafficking forces victims to work in industries like agriculture, construction, domestic service, or manufacturing under threat or debt bondage.

Contrary to popular belief, most trafficking doesn't involve crossing international borders. The majority of victims are exploited in their own countries — sometimes in their own communities.

These are the most common tactics we observed in 2025 cases. Often, traffickers combine multiple methods to control their victims.

The rise of social media has transformed trafficking. Two-thirds of our 2025 cases involved online recruitment — making digital safety education more critical than ever.

Most people assume trafficking means smuggling people across borders. In reality, the majority of victims are exploited without ever crossing an international line. They're trafficked within their own countries — and sometimes their own communities.

Our teams in Brazil, Colombia, India, Thailand, the United States, and one other undisclosed Latin American country lead and support work beyond their borders, with successful interventions or cases spanning multiple countries. Trafficking adapts to local contexts, but the exploitation looks similar everywhere.

Disrupted means we significantly impaired operations — key members arrested, infrastructure compromised. Destroyed means the network is permanently shut down — leadership imprisoned, assets seized, operations ended.

We calculate prevention impact based on a network's historical activity, average victim throughput, and operational lifespan. A single destroyed network can prevent dozens or even hundreds of future trafficking cases.

We train local facilitators to deliver our curriculum in their own communities. This "train the trainer" model multiplies our impact and creates sustainable prevention education.

Influenced™ teaches middle and high school students, as well as the adults caring for them, to navigate online spaces safely, recognize manipulation tactics, and protect themselves and children from online exploitation and human trafficking.

Through our Influenced™ program, we train local facilitators to deliver our curriculum in their own communities, creating sustainable prevention education that continues without our direct involvement in facilitation.

When we prevent just one person from being trafficked, we're protecting them from years of exploitation. When we support a survivor through recovery, we're helping them build a life of freedom and dignity.

Since our founding, The Exodus Road has worked alongside law enforcement and local partners to achieve lasting change in the fight against human trafficking.