San Francisco identifies 291 human trafficking victims during six-month period
California Attorney General Kamala Harris addresses the Domestic Human Trafficking symposium in April 2014. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
By Joshua Sabatini on September 1, 2015 1:00 am
Nearly 300 mostly young females were victims of sex trafficking in San Francisco during the last six months of 2014, according to a new city report that statistically begins to uncover the severity of the exploitation.
With a booming tourism industry and great business wealth, San Francisco ranks among the top hubs for human trafficking in California, along with Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego. Additionally, the Bay Area is among the 13 highest child sex trafficking areas in the nation.
But there is an effort to more deliberately curb the illegal activity, such as through better documenting how the $32 billion global industry has a foothold in The City. To do so, the first-of-its-kind report aggregates requested data from 19 nonprofits who work with survivors of human trafficking.
The nonprofits reported helping 291 survivors and suspected survivors of human trafficking, of which 224 were young females, between July and December of last year, according to The Human Trafficking in San Francisco report.
