Awaken, a Reno based anti-trafficking organization, commissioned this report. HTI uses data science to collect, analyze and evaluate the scope of sex trafficking across the United States and to identify effective policy solutions. The research initiative is directed by Crysta N. Price crystaprice creighton.
Clark tclark creighton. Julie Faller JulieFaller creighton. She performed the majority of analysis for this report. A sex act encompasses any sexual encounter with another person with the goal of sexual gratification, including but not limited to an erotic massage, stripping, and intercourse.
Sex providers have diverse experiences within the commercial sex industry, and the degrees of agency and exploitation they experience exist along a continuum. This continuum extends from those sex providers with full agency who voluntarily participate in the commercial sex industry to those who are victims of sex trafficking and have severely constrained agency.
Even among independent sex providers, reasons to enter or stay in the industry are diverse and nuanced. For example, some independent sex providers exchange sex acts for basic survival needs food, clothing, shelter, etc. The industry includes independent sex providers as well as those who are managed, trafficked, or facilitated by a third party. In this report, we refer to relatively formalized structures that sell multiple individuals for sex as organizations or venues.
These can include legally licensed brothels, but also criminalized organizations selling sex such as escort agencies or massage parlors whose employees perform sex acts.
