Criminal Justice

Twenty years ago next month, when Polaris first opened its doors, human trafficking had only officially been a crime in this country for about a year. Creating awareness was an urgent undertaking. This year, Polaris celebrates two decades of building a movement and a world where the powerful cannot so easily exploit the vulnerable for profit. Today, we see a new urgency around awareness. It is more important than ever before to move past the myths, stereotypes, and unfounded fears that feed panics and conspiracy theories, which manifest in real harm to victims and survivors and fueled an unprecedented attack on our nation’s Capitol. Instead, we need to replace those dangerous myths with a deeper understanding of how human trafficking actually happens – and to whom – so we can craft policies that prevent the crime before it happens. That’s why we created this training.