Sex trafficking
There are a number of misconceptions about sex trafficking. Sex trafficking and human trafficking are not to be confused with human smuggling. Human trafficking for sexual or other labor may involve transporting victims across international borders, but to meet the definition of trafficking, there needs only to be exploitation of an individual after they have been coerced or deceived, so it does not necessarily involve transportation across national borders. Human trafficking and sex trafficking are often used as synonyms. However, trafficking for non-sexual exploitation may be even more prevalent than trafficking for sexual exploitation, though accurate estimates of trafficking rates are extremely difficult to obtain. Sex trafficking tends to receive more attention from aid organizations and donors due to the greater public outrage that forced sexual labor evokes compared to forced non-sexual labor and thus incidents of sex trafficking are more frequently reported.
Human trafficking in California
Sex trafficking victims in California are primarily women and children, coming from largely from Thailand, Mexico, and Russia. In some cases, victims were born and raised in the US, and were coerced into sex trafficking through deceptive means. Prostitution and sex services represented the largest share of documented human trafficking activities in California (roughly 47%). Although it is important to keep in mind that most trafficking reports only take into account media publicized cases, and this could skew the actual numbers. It is likely that sex trafficking is overrepresented in the media due to high public interest, compared to other types of trafficking.