Indicators of Sex Trafficking in Online Escort Ads

Although law enforcement and researchers have shared certain escort ad characteristics to detect sex trafficking, such as looking “young” or specific language cues, these indicators do not necessarily predict trafficking when tested against the counterfactual. We examined over 250 indicators in 1,263 ads from four states for which case outcomes were known (positive and negative for trafficking) and held focus groups with trafficking survivors, investigators, and non-trafficked sex workers on indicator meanings and ad posting practices. We found that language signaling a provider is trustworthy, use of an obscured phone number, language suggesting youth, and specification of the provider’s ethnicity were statistically significant predictors of trafficking. Additionally, and importantly for practice, photos in which the subject “appears young” or that displayed visible tattoos were associated more with ads that did not belong to a trafficking case than ads that were related to trafficking. <br><b></b> <br>Investigators can apply these results in practice immediately to increase precision in victim identification, and resource allocations can shift to cases most likely to be associated with trafficking, despite the difficulties in accessing such ads because of SESTA/FOSTA and the shutdown of Backpage. Policy recommendations to improve the laws governing advertising websites are also made.