Human trafficking

Human Trafficking Increased in 2016, Organization Reports

The National Human Trafficking Hotline found that 7,500 cases of human trafficking were reported in 2016 — up from 5,526 in the previous year, based on the group's data.

The hotline, which is run by the nonprofit organization Polaris, maintains a resource center for victims of trafficking and aggregates statistics based on incoming reports and phone calls. It also reported that California and Texas are again among the most egregious states for human trafficking.

California bore the lion's share with over 1,300 incidences of human trafficking last year, almost double any other state, the nonprofit reported.