Which statement best defines sex trafficking?

• A. The recruitment harboring, transportation, provision, patronizing, soliciting, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act.
• B. The voluntary dating and paying for items of value.
• C. A consensual exchange of services between consenting adults.
• D. The purchase of sex acts in a legitimate business.

Answer: (A)

Sex trafficking centers on exploiting someone for commercial sex through control and coercion. The best answer lists a range of actions—recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, and obtaining—done for the purpose of a commercial sex act. This captures how a person is drawn into and kept in exploitative sexual exploitation, often using force, fraud, or coercion, and can apply even when the person is a minor.

The other descriptions describe voluntary or consensual exchanges that do not involve coercion or exploitation, such as dating or transactions between adults, or purchasing sex in a legitimate business. Those do not fit the trafficking pattern in policy and law.