![\"Over](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770039137_159_REG-L-HumanTraffickingAOPC.jpg\")
Over the past five years, 1,432 human-trafficking offenses were filed on 431 cases in Pennsylvania. (Courtesy of Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts)<\/p>\nThree counties in southeastern Pennsylvania were among the top five highest percentages in the state for human-trafficking charges filed from 2020 to 2024.<\/p>\n
Berks County had about 12% of the total retail human-trafficking charges filed during that period, according to data released by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.<\/p>\n
Over the past five years, 1,432 human-trafficking offenses were filed on 431 cases in Pennsylvania. (Courtesy of Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts)<\/p>\n
Delaware County had about 10% of the state total during that time, and Chester County had about 7%.<\/p>\n
Court officials said 1,432 human-trafficking offenses were filed in 431 cases statewide.<\/p>\n
Human trafficking is a type of human rights abuse where people profit from the exploitation of others \u2013 mainly using force, fraud or coercion to manipulate victims into engaging in sex acts or labor\/services in exchange for something of value, officials said.<\/p>\n
The top counties in the state:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Franklin: 208 charges; 14.53% of state total<\/p>\n
\u2022 Berks: 167; 11.66%<\/p>\n
\u2022 Dauphin: 151; 10.54%<\/p>\n
\u2022 Delaware: 148; 10.34%<\/p>\n
\u2022 Chester: 103; 7.19%<\/p>\n
\u2022 Blair: 75; 5.24%<\/p>\n
\u2022 Lycoming: 69; 4.82%<\/p>\n
\u2022 Lancaster: 58; 4.05%<\/p>\n
\u2022 York: 45; 3.14%<\/p>\n
\u2022 Cumberland: 31; 2.16%<\/p>\n
The following counties had one charge each, representing 0.07% of the state total: Clarion, Crawford, Fulton, Jefferson, Potter and Union.<\/p>\n
A breakdown for counties in the region by year:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Berks: 6 in 2020; 92 in 2021; 2 in 2022; 12 in 2023; 55 in 2024; 167 total offenses, 11.66%<\/p>\n
\u2022 Chester: 72 in 2020; 0 in 2021; 0 in 2022; 5 in 2023; 26 in 2024; 103 total, 7.19%<\/p>\n
\u2022 Delaware: 10 in 2020; 26 in 2021; 15 in 2022; 22 in 2023; 75 in 2024; 148 total, 10.34%<\/p>\n
\u2022 Montgomery: 0 in 2020; 6 in 2021; 3 in 2022; 1 in 2023; 16 in 2024; 26 total, 1.82%<\/p>\n
Court officials noted that 86% of defendants convicted are male, and the largest percentage of defendants \u2014 37% \u2014 are in the 30- to 39-year-old range.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three counties in southeastern Pennsylvania were among the top five highest percentages in the state for human-trafficking charges…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,1557,202,212,182,200,139,28,128,130,129,10918],"class_list":{"0":"post-102895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-berks-county","9":"tag-chester-county","10":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","11":"tag-delaware-county","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-montgomery-county","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-pennsylvania","16":"tag-reading-city","17":"tag-reading-city-headlines","18":"tag-reading-city-news","19":"tag-top-stories-tth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}