
Definition of Human Trafficking and Other Related Terms
Definition of Human Trafficking and Other Related Terms

Short Definitions – 22 USC § 7102
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The term “severe forms of trafficking in persons” means—
- sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or
- the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.
The term “sex trafficking” means the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act.
The term “commercial sex act” means any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person.
The term “involuntary servitude” includes a condition of servitude induced by means of—
- any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that, if the person did not enter into or continue in such condition, that person or another person would suffer serious harm or physical restraint; or
- the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process.
The term “debt bondage” means the status or condition of a debtor arising from a pledge by the debtor of his or her personal services or of those of a person under his or her control as a security for debt, if the value of those services as reasonably assessed is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined.
The term “coercion” means—
- threats of serious harm to or physical restraint against any person;
- any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in serious harm to or physical restraint against any person; or
- the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process.
Consistent with the provisions of the Optional Protocol to the Convention of the Rights of the Child, the term “child soldier”—
- means—
- any person under 18 years of age who takes a direct part in hostilities as a member of governmental armed forces, police, or other security forces;
- any person under 18 years of age who has been compulsorily recruited into governmental armed forces, police, or other security forces;
- any person under 15 years of age who has been voluntarily recruited into governmental armed forces, police, or other security forces; or
- any person under 18 years of age who has been recruited or used in hostilities by armed forces distinct from the armed forces of a state; and
- includes any person described in clause (ii), (iii), or (iv) of subparagraph (A) who is serving in any capacity, including in a support role such as a cook, porter, messenger, medic, guard, or sex slave.