March 21, 2025
What’s the connection?
March is Developmental Disability Awareness Month. While trafficking can happen to anyone, people with disabilities have vulnerabilities that traffickers can exploit, particularly when strong support systems are not in place. Some developmental disabilities include cerebral palsy; vision, hearing, and speech disabilities; Down syndrome; intellectual/cognitive disabilities; and autism spectrum disorder (CDC, 2024a). This month, we’ll talk about the intersection between disabilities and both labor and sex trafficking.
Disability is defined in different ways, but current estimates indicate that 8-30% of the United States population has a disability (CDC, 2024b). Specifically, 2022 CDC data indicates that 29% of adults report a disability (CDC, 2024c), and 17% of children aged 3-17 have one or more developmental disabilities (CDC, 2024a).
Many disabilities are not immediately visible, yet they can significantly impact a person’s sense of belonging, safety, and security. Just like anyone else, individuals with disabilities seek connection, community, independence, and intimacy. However, challenges such as social isolation, financial strain, and limited educational opportunities can increase vulnerability to exploitation, including human trafficking. By fostering inclusive communities and creating meaningful opportunities for connection and support, we can help protect those most at risk.
What’s the extent?
In general, people with disabilities are four times more likely to experience violent victimization in the United States (Harrell, 2021). Little trafficking research has been conducted focusing on disability, and the small amount of research that does exist primarily focuses on minor sex trafficking. Adolescent males with severe physical disabilities or low cognitive abilities were 3-10 times more likely to experience minor sex exchange, while girls with a severe physical disability or low cognitive ability were 8-10 times more likely to experience minor sex trafficking (Franchino-Olsen, Silverstein, Kahn, & Martin, 2022, 2020).
Problematically, little research or analysis has been conducted on the relationship between labor trafficking and disability, which demonstrates limited awareness of or prioritization of this relationship.
Broad data on trafficking of people with disabilities is very limited in terms of scope because of limited screening for or recognition of the concern (National Human Trafficking and Disabilities Working Group, 2022). Trafficking in this population is likely underreported because victims may not recognize their experience as trafficking, know how to report, feel they will be believed, or trust the criminal legal system, which sometimes has limited training regarding interacting with people with disabilities.
Why is this happening?
Social Isolation
Having a disability can feel isolating if a person has barriers to developing close, healthy relationships within their family unit, their social sphere, or the general public. Society can make people with appearance, behavioral, or ability differences feel less than, patronized, or ignored. People with disabilities can also be excluded from the general population in schools and other settings, especially when behavioral concerns may lead to unsafe or unwelcome behaviors.
Increased Financial Need
People with disabilities are more likely to be unemployed, employed part-time, or out of the workforce than their non-disabled peers (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023). They also tend to have additional medical and care needs, which cost money. Moreover, the need for additional care can require varying degrees of dependence on family members or other caretakers. All of these things can be exploited.
Benefit Theft
Traffickers exploit individuals to make money—that is a component of all trafficking. In addition to trafficking people for sex or labor, traffickers may exploit people with disabilities, particularly older adults, to acquire benefits from Social Security, Veterans Affairs (VA), and other entities. These individuals may be denied basic needs and provided no or inappropriate medical care while also having their benefits stolen by traffickers (Thomas & Strickland, 2024).
Familial Stress
People with disabilities are much more likely to experience child abuse, neglect, and sexual violence, all of which relate to increased risk for trafficking. Some of this increase in abuse and neglect may be correlated to increased demands on caregivers—including a child’s risky behaviors like elopement/running away—and limited social and financial support for families. Children with disabilities are subsequently overrepresented in the foster care system. The additional trauma of abuse and neglect allegations and of family removal can then be felt by the child as well.
Limited Education
Parents, caregivers, and those who provide education to people with disabilities may think that the person they are caring for does not need education regarding their body, sexuality, and relationships in the same way as their peers without disabilities. This creates vulnerability that traffickers can exploit.
What can we do?
Provide developmentally appropriate education on identifying and establishing healthy versus unhealthy or abusive relationships, seeking help when unsafe, and setting boundaries. By empowering all people to understand these topics, individuals will be less vulnerable to manipulation and abuse via labor or sex trafficking.
Our organizational experience and data from the National Human Trafficking and Disabilities Working Group (2022) indicate a great opportunity for growth in collaboration between trafficking and disability organizations. This can look like having policies for screening for disability and trafficking, providing accessible physical spaces and access to ASL interpreters, and requiring training on both disability and trafficking for staff and volunteers.
Action Items
- Educate yourself through disability rights organizations about the needs of people with disabilities—from an advocacy and practical perspective. Focus on organizations led by people with disabilities when possible.
- Support organizations that serve people with disabilities who are also trafficking survivors. One example is the National Human Trafficking and Disabilities Working Group.
- If you work with an organization that serves people with disabilities or survivors of violence, encourage the organization to screen for both disability and trafficking and to create local partnerships to ensure that organizations serving both populations coordinate services and care.
- If you offer exploitation and human trafficking training, especially training that includes content on disability, offer to provide it to people who work with those with disabilities.
- If you work with, educate, or care for people with disabilities:
- Be aware of the relationship between disability and increased risk for multiple types of abuse to better recognize signs and know how to respond.
- Educate yourself about developmentally appropriate discussion points you can use to empower both youth and adults to understand healthy relationships and boundaries as well as ways to seek help for child abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, substance abuse, and trafficking.
- Look for opportunities to increase social support for people with disabilities.
- Be aware of potential financial or medical abuse of people with disabilities. If you suspect that someone is manipulating Social Security, Veterans Affairs (VA), or other benefits that belong to a person with a disability, know how to report this abuse.
- If you work in the juvenile or criminal legal system, seek training regarding interacting with people with disabilities and regarding trafficking.
- Support individuals with disabilities and their caregivers in meeting needs.
Where can I learn more?
- This Disability and Human Trafficking 101 presentation from the National Human Trafficking and Disabilities Working Group (2018) provides additional, general information.
- This article by Nichols and Heil (2022) provides context around state and federal cases that include human trafficking of a person with a disability.
References
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2023). Persons with a disability: Labor force characteristics – 2023. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/disabl.pdf
CDC. (2024a). Developmental Disability Basics. https://www.cdc.gov/child-development/about/developmental-disability-basics.html
CDC. Disability Datasets. (2024b). https://www.cdc.gov/dhds/datasets/index.html
CDC. (2024c). Disability Impacts All of Us Infographic. https://www.cdc.gov/disability-and-health/articles-documents/disability-impacts-all-of-us-infographic.html
Franchino-Olsen, H., Silverstein, H.A., Kahn, N.F., Martin, S.L. (2020). Minor sex trafficking of girls with disabilities. International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare, 13(2), 97-108. DOI:10.1108/IJHRH-07-2019-0055
Franchino-Olsen, H., Silverstein, H. A., Kahn, N. F., & Martin, S. L. (2022). Physical disabilities and low cognitive ability increase odds of minor sex exchange among adolescent males in the United States. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 31(8), 967–986. https://doi.org/10.1080/10538712.2022.2146560
Harrell, E. (2021). Crime against persons with disabilities, 2009-2019 – Statistical tables. U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics. https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/capd0919st.pdf
National Human Trafficking And Disabilities Working Group. (2022). National Data and Assessment Survey: Report Summary. https://w1669e.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Report-Summary.pdf
Thomas, A., & Strickland, H. (2024). Benefits Trafficking: human trafficking of older adults and adults with disabilities. Frontiers in rehabilitation sciences, 4, 1305926. https://doi.org/10.3389/fresc.2023.1305926