According to the United States Department of Homeland Security, “Human Trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act.” A commercial sex act is the giving or receiving of anything of value to a person in exchange for a sex act.
Signs or “red flags” that might indicate that sex trafficking is occurring:
- Person seems overly fearful, submissive, tense, or paranoid.
- Person is deferring to another person before giving information.
- Person has physical injuries or branding such as name tattoos on face or chest, tattoos about money and sex, or pimp phrases.
- Clothing is inappropriately sexual or inappropriate for weather.
- Minor is unaccompanied at night or falters in giving an explanation of who they are with and what they are doing.
- Identification documents are held by another.
- Overly sexual for age or situation.
The North Dakota Human Trafficking Poster
The North Dakota law (N.D. Cent. Code § 54 – 12 – 33.1 (4)) encourages proprietors of lodging establishments to post and maintain the North Dakota Human Trafficking Poster at the lodging establishment’s check-in area, lobby, or transient guest services. Lodging establishment is defined as “any hotel, motel, resort, building, or structure that is used to provide sleeping accommodations to transient guests.”
The North Dakota Human Trafficking Poster encourages individuals to report suspected victimization, and provides North Dakota’s Human Trafficking Task Force contact information.