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Recognizing January as "National Human Trafficking Awareness Month" in Philadelphia.
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WHEREAS, Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery that occurs both within the United States and around the world; and
WHEREAS, Victims of human trafficking are subjected to force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of commercial sex, debt bondage, or forced labor; and
WHEREAS, Human Traffickers use violence, threats, blackmail, false promises, deception, manipulation, and debt bondage to trap the most vulnerable individuals in horrible situations; and
WHEREAS, Research into specific numbers related to human trafficking in Philadelphia are difficult to obtain because victims are often reluctant to or prohibited from coming forward; and
WHEREAS, The FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database lists 424,066 missing children under the age of 18 in 2018, the most recent year statistics were available. About 37 percent of those children were black, even though black children make up only 14 percent of all children in the United States. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that about 20 percent of missing children are Hispanic or Latino; and
WHEREAS, Although African American women make up only 7 percent of the United States population, they account for 10 percent of all missing persons cases throughout the country. The Black and Missing Foundation puts the total number of disappeared black women and girls last year around 64,000; and
WHEREAS, A 2015 study published in the William and Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice stated that although black children accounted for approximately 35 percent of missing children that year, they only amounted to 7 percent of media references; and
WHEREAS, Researchers from the Field Center for Children's Policy, Practice & Research at the University of Pennsylvania visited three major U.S. cities including Philadelphia and interviewed 270 homeless youth, finding that 20 percent...
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