Characteristics of Suspected Human Trafficking Incidents, 2008-2010, presented by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), describes the characteristics of human trafficking investigations, suspects, and victims in cases opened by federally funded task forces between January 2008 and June 2010. This report provides information about investigations, persons involved in suspected and confirmed incidents of human trafficking, and case outcomes. Data are from the Human Trafficking Reporting System (HTRS), created in response to a congressional mandate in the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 for biennial reporting on the scope and characteristics of human trafficking. HTRS currently is the only system that captures information on human trafficking investigations conducted by state and local law enforcement agencies in the United States. The report also describes HTRS data collection procedures and data quality issues. Highlights include the following: federally funded task forces opened 2,515 suspected incidents of human trafficking for investigation between January 2008 and June 2010, about 8 in 10 of the suspected incidents of human trafficking were classified as sex trafficking, about 1 in 10 incidents were classified as labor trafficking, and the confirmed human trafficking incidents open for at least a year led to 144 known arrests.

Characteristics of Suspected Human Trafficking Incidents, 2008-2010 (NCJ 233732), part of the Characteristics of Suspected Human Trafficking Incidents Series, can be obtained by accessing BJS’ Web site, http://www.bjs.gov.