Human trafficking runs rampant in the United States and has severely changed the lives of innumerable victims, survivors, and families. While many are conscious of the physical, emotional, mental, and sexual abuse those who are trafficked face, financial abuse is most times disregarded, though it is a recurring tactic used by traffickers to further exploit victims.  

Debt bondage takes place when people are compelled to provide labor to pay off a debt. Human traffickers execute this by engaging in harmful behaviors that greatly affect the victims’ financial statuses to the point they are unable to get a job, rent a home, or anything else to diminish their reliance on the abuser. It is suspected that traffickers exert financial abuse not only to earn money but to maintain a method of control. Dr. Marian Hatcher, cofounder of ALIVE (Alliance of Leadership & Innovation for Victims of Exploitation) stated in a testimony to the court, “In addition to exploiting their victims through commercial sex or forced labor, traffickers- particularly in the context of domestic trafficking- may also exploit their victims’ credit histories by using their social security numbers to take out loans and make large purchases, such as vehicles, intending not to pay, thereby destroying their victims’ credit histories in the process.”