Human trafficking in Houston is defined as the "recruitment or transportation of anyone—using threats, fraud, or force—for the purpose of exploitation" by the Houston mayors office. Houston has been acknowledged by the United States Department of Justice to have one of the highest probabilities of human trafficking and was ranked first for the most reported trafficking cases from 2007 to 2016. Although Houston has been active in responding to the trafficking issue, such as in 2015 becoming the first city in the United States to have a labor and sex trafficking addressment position in the Mayor's cabinet, in 2019 the number of trafficking cases in Houston nearly doubled from the previous three years.
Statistics
Many studies have been conducted to gather data about human trafficking in Houston. In 2010, individuals were asked to estimate how informed they think Houston's general public is about human trafficking in the city, with 33.3% of responders saying people have no knowledge about the subject, 54.8% having little to no knowledge, and 11.9% saying people have some knowledge. A measure of data used to understand the human trafficking industry is the cost of risk to traffickers, with the higher the cost of risk for traffickers/buyers meaning the less likely a trafficking ring will successfully operate in that region. Houston has a $66.85 cost of risk for traffickers, which is 6 times lower than the neighboring county McLennan's cost of risk for traffickers, $441.05. In 2019, data only from online advertisements was used to estimate 14,539 trafficked individuals in Houston.
Types of trafficking
The industries in Texas that are most involved in trafficking are "hotels, restaurants, factories, farms, child care, massage parlors, health care, and sexually oriented businesses". These industries are connected to two popular forms of human trafficking in Houston, labor trafficking and sex trafficking.
Sex trafficking
The governmental Office of Justice programs defines sex trafficking as "a form of human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation". trafficking in Houston is common in various locations. Illicit Massage Businesses (IMBs) have been often recognized as cover ups for sex trafficking by In Houston, 292 IMBs have all together had an average of 2,869 customers daily between noon and 2:00 pm. The Offshore Technology Conference is an annual event where more than 31,000 people meet in Houston's NRG Park. This convention brings a spike to sex trafficking every year, and has led to police making "hundreds of arrests" relating to trafficking in 2017 and 2018. Another area with a reputation for prostitution and human trafficking is "The Track" or Bissonnet. In 2021, investigative reporter Robert Arnold reported that this 1.5-mile stretch is shown in YouTube videos as well as being mentioned in the Wikipedia article "List of red-light districts" because of prostitution activity. Bissonnet Track even held the title of being the top prostitution spot in 2017. The Sweet 16 Agreement was made in 2013, where the 16 strip clubs in on the settlement would donate one million dollars annually to Human Trafficking Houston Police Department Vice Squads in exchange for disregarding the 3-foot rule, distance between schools, and topless regulations for dancers at these clubs. According to data from a Houston based study, 77% of those who left working at strip clubs through the help of Rescue America (non-profit organization) 77% were underage, and 85% were working at these clubs because they had a trafficker or pimp. Occurrences of sex trafficking has in Houston strip clubs continued to be evident, with 3 men sentenced after smuggling women from Cuba and forcing them to work at clubs in the Houston area.