Careers available in prevention of human trafficking?

I strongly urge you if you haven't gotten involved already to check out the Polaris Project based in D.C. and also the Department of Homeland Security's Blue Campaign > https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign

The best place to find work in this area is to with a nonprofit agency that work specifically with this or related concerns. As for majors, I would say anything along the lines of social work or sociology or even education. All the best!

Hi Lydia,

Picking a career path can always be challenging. The anti-sex trafficking movement is one that brings a multitude of professionals from all different backgrounds together. Our organization, Selah Freedom, collaborates with law enforcement, the legal system, policy makers, social services, clinical therapists, and more. I would recommend looking into any of these fields as they truly make a difference in bringing about change.

I would also look into school programs that offer a wide range of social studies courses (psychology, sociology, anthropology, etc.) with specific focuses on human trafficking.

You might also want to apply for internships and volunteer at local organizations to find your niche and gain experience. Selah Freedom would love to help you on your journey as we do a lot of work in your county and neighboring ones. Click on the link below if you are interested in volunteering or interning with us.

https://www.selahfreedom.com/getinvolved

Here is a list other national organizations that do great work:

https://polarisproject.org/human-trafficking

http://sharedhope.org/

http://www.fightingexploitation.org/

Please let me know if you still have questions. Wishing you the best of luck in your endeavors!

Gary and Chloe have wonderful feedback. The anti-human trafficking movement needs skills of all kinds, so the career path largely falls back to the question of how YOU can best use your gifts and abilities to serve.

Within fighting human trafficking, there is a spectrum from education and prevention, which includes research, teaching, speaking, writing, marketing. The movement needs storytellers, writers, graphic designers, and video producers. All of this helps raise awareness and prevent more people from being trafficked. Furthermore, non-profit organizations need financial experts, accountants, bookkeepers, and Public Relations professionals to further their mission. Moving from prevention to identification of the crime is where law enforcement comes in. A background in criminal justice could put you on a path to investigating the crime - keep in mind that becoming a police officer will not automatically put you in a path of fighting trafficking, specifically - you may end up working other crimes.

Once victims are recovered by law enforcement, social services are very important. We employ people with a masters in social work to serve as victim advocates. They meet the victims and help them receive whatever care they need to heal. This includes medical and emotional care. Therapists with experience in trauma therapy are crucial to the healing journey of our survivors. Once survivors are healing, they need access to good jobs, so the path of an entrepreneur who employs survivors is also an option.

As others have said, there is not one major or career path for you. I recommend looking within yourself to see how your talents and gifts can best be leveraged to serve the movement. Try volunteering with a local organization to see what they do and how you fit. In doing so you'll make a difference in people's lives. Thank you for your passion for freedom!

Hello, I currently work at Polaris with a dual major in anthropology and political science. There are many different degrees that would serve you well in this field. Social scientists are increasingly hired to better understand systemic social problems like human trafficking while political science and public policy are great for advocating for legislative change. Business administration and non-profit management will help you if you want to run an organization. A background in social work can benefit you if you wanted to directly serve survivors of human trafficking. Personnel with accounting, communications, and computer science degrees support us. Of course, there is no wrong degree to have as long as you’re passionate about the work that you’re doing. To get experience in the anti-human trafficking I recommend that you start volunteering or seek entry-level jobs at an organization near you. You can find all service providers who serve human trafficking survivors in your region at the Polaris-operated National Human Trafficking Hotline's Referral Directory: https://humantraffickinghotline.org/training-resources/referral-directory. You can also access free online training and get a sense of important information, including what it means to be trauma-informed at the Hotline's Resoource Library at: https://humantraffickinghotline.org/resources.

I hope that helps!

Working in Human Trafficking is a great goal and route to go. There are already a lot of different routes you can take with it and the options are expanding everyday as society is becoming more open about the issue. There are all kinds of different options you can take in regards to your major in college which would be useful in this area. The most broad or general route, which is the way I went, would be to get a degree in social work. There are a lot of different ways you can use this degree which could be useful in the subfield of Human Trafficking. Social workers can work in nonprofits, mental health, in hospitals or medical clinics, or in schools. People who are victims of human trafficking are dealing with a lot of different issues which social workers have the ability to help with either directly or in helping the client to find the specific resource they need. A lot of victims of human trafficking are dealing more specifically with mental health issues and so going the route of psychology or counseling can also be helpful. Both social work and mental health/psychology will be more fruitful with a master’s degree, but there are some jobs available for a Bachelors’ in Social Work.

If social services or mental health are not seeming like your choice there are other options as well. Law enforcement is a major player in human trafficking as well. Especially as education is spread, because a lot of victims of human trafficking are made to break the law by their trafficker, law enforcement is an ample piece in the solution. There are many different options within the law enforcement category to keep in mind. Depending on what stage of the trafficking you would like to help in, this may help determine which agency/level of law enforcement you look into. Some of the levels you may need to work up to, as they are comprised of deputies or officers from many different agencies. There are other options on the legal front as well, going to law school and becoming an attorney could assist victims in many different ways as well. As I said, a lot of the victims are forced to commit crimes or participate in illegal activities. Even once their trafficker is taken in to custody, these clients could have difficulties with their own arrest record. Attorneys are also needed in applying for T-Visas for clients who were trafficked from another country. As an attorney you can also work for the Prosecutors’ office and directly work on putting away the traffickers.

As I mentioned at the beginning human trafficking is very much becoming more well-known and society is working to end it. There are many nonprofits who are popping up, to which you could contribute with any number of different degrees. Nonprofits could benefit from a business degree, marketing, or political science in order to work on policies in this area. Accountants are needed to manage funding and an education degree could certainly be helpful as well.

Gary Petito provided a great answer. They only thing I would add, is internships or volunteer opportunities. You should contact some organization to see if you can learn about the different areas involved stopping human trafficking.

End Slavery Now has a great website and list of jobs if you're interested.

http://www.endslaverynow.org/act/job-opportunities

Try international justice mission and the un

Be proactive, ask for an internship or job shadowing

Hi, good question...there are a lot of career and education options for careers in the trafficking industry. It really depends a lot on how you would like to help. I live near the Mexico border so the first thing I think of is working for the Customs/Border Patrol in law enforcement, that is on the front lines so to speak. You could also work in the legal field to help prosecute traffickers or in the social services to help victims of trafficking directly. Some good education options are Criminal Justice, Social Services/Sciences/Sociology or Psychology. Also anything related to the law, Paralegal or Law school. good luck!