Act, Means, Purpose

There are many reasons why the human trafficking epidemic persists, and  one of those reasons is that trafficking cases are notoriously difficult to prosecute. Due to the nature of this crime, trafficking situations can be hard to recognize in the first place, let alone prosecute in a court of law. So what do  law enforcement and legal professionals look for to constitute human trafficking? They look to the "Act, Means, Purpose Model." This is a three pronged system for helping define trafficking.

To explain this model a little more, let's look at the legal definition of human trafficking. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 defines labor trafficking as the "recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery."

The first section of this definition covers the "Act" part of the model: "recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person..." Basically, the Act part covers how the trafficker is setting up their victim to be trafficked. The "Means" section is described in the second part: "...through the use of force, fraud, or coercion..." In other words, Means represents the ways in which  traffickers manipulate. Lastly, is the "Purpose" prong: "...for the purpose of subjection into involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery." Purpose covers the reasons for which people are being trafficked.

All three of these prongs, Act, Means, and Purpose, must be present to constitute a human trafficking situation.