Alaska ranked 32nd in the United States in 2019 for the number of active criminal human trafficking cases making their way through federal courts, according to a report from The Human Trafficking Institute.
The state had five active cases in 2019. Alaska initiated three new criminal human trafficking cases in 2019, ranking the state 15th in the nation for the number of new cases. In 2019, federal courts convicted one defendant in a criminal human trafficking case, ranking Alaska 43rd in the nation for number of defendants convicted.
Federal courts did not order any defendants to pay restitution to their victim.
Senator Lisa Murkowski spoke on the Senate floor in 2018 to reference a multi-state study involving Covenant House in Anchorage: “Out of that study, Alaska respondents reported more trafficking than both New Orleans and New York. Coming out of Anchorage, Alaska. More human trafficking coming out of Anchorage, Alaska than you’re seeing coming out of New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Detroit, Atlanta. Some of the most horrific stories that they heard were from trafficking victims in my home town.”
Murkowski also mentioned why the statistics regarding sex trafficking do not tell the entire story in Alaska, with rampant abuse of Alaska native women being unreported: “We talk a lot about statistics around here, and it just seems that we can’t get away from the horror stats: 28% of the respondents in the interviews from Covenant House Alaska were identified as victims of human trafficking. In other words, in that study, one in four homeless youths in Anchorage were trafficked. One in four homeless youths! Of those, 42% were Alaska Natives.”
She continued by saying that Alaska’s geographic isolation is no advantage: “I’d like to think that sometimes our geography allows us to be far enough away that we are away from the scourge and the evil, and yet, I’m just reminded that sometimes we are so far away that people think they can get away with it, and they cannot be allowed. We must make sure that the light is shone brightly on this.”
