Human trafficking has long been a focus of the Virginia Attorney General’s Office, and we’re pleased to announce that a human trafficking lesson plan is being added to Virginia Rules this fall.

Human trafficking or ‘modern slavery’ is defined as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for the purposes of commercial sex acts or labor services through the use of force, fraud or coercion. The most common forms of human trafficking are labor trafficking and sex trafficking, and the United Nations estimates that 2.5 million people are being trafficked at any given time in over 160 countries.

Because human trafficking offers “easy money” at relatively low risk, new offenders such as gangs are increasingly turning to this crime.

Over 90 percent of human trafficking victims experience physical or sexual violence, and damage to both victims and society is high. Learn more about human trafficking, and be sure to create an instructor account to be notified when the new unit is available.