Pipeline From Foster Care to Child Sex Trafficking Highlighted in State Department Report

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during the release of the 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report at the State Department in Washington on June 20, 2019. Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

The State Department’s annual report on human trafficking pinpointed the prevalence of foster care history among child sex trafficking victims in the United States.

While in many other countries, the report listed foster care among the tools used to protect victims of human trafficking, “in the United States, traffickers prey upon children in the foster care system,” it stated (pdf).