It’s a phenomenon that happens year after year.
As hundreds of thousands of football fans flood into designated cities across the United States in anticipation of the Super Bowl, ranks of human traffickers bring sex- and labor-workers to meet the demands of the crowds, says Amy Farrell, an associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at Northeastern who studies human trafficking.
On Thursday, 33 people in Atlanta were arrested on sex-trafficking charges ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl in the city.
The spectacle of the Super Bowl, including the parties, the influx of people from out of town, and a high concentration of men who, Farrell said, are statistically more likely to pay for commercial sex than women, make the big game a prime target for exploiters, she said.
