Gang sex trafficking in the United States

Abstract

Gangs in the United States have long funded their activities from, and participated in, domestic and international sex trafficking. Whether Caucasian Motorcycle, African American, Asian, African immigrant, Native American, Hispanic, Eastern European, or other types of gangs, these groups have realized the potential in exploiting vulnerable individuals as a high-profit, low-risk enterprise. This chapter examines different types of sex trafficking networks in the United States by using federal case indictment documents as a starting point and then comparing these US gangs to what is known about gang and organized sex trafficking in several other regions of the world. The analysis seeks to understand the business operational processes used by these networks to recruit victims and maximize profits. Importantly, gang sex trafficking and gang-run prostitution operations often overlap, making it difficult to separate network members into distinct groups. Both types of activity are often intimately intertwined and must be understood as such. Gang networks do tend to differ from each other in terms of business practices along ethnic and cultural lines, which have implications for law enforcement tactics which must be adapted by network type to be effective.