Child/Human Trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world. Child/ human trafficking is the world’s second largest criminal enterprise, after drugs. U.S. State Department

The global market of child trafficking at over $12 billion a year with over 1.2 million child victims. UNICEF

As many as 2.8 million children run away each year in the US. Within 48 hours of hitting the streets, one-third of these children are lured or recruited into the underground world of prostitution and pornography. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

The average age of entry for children victimized by the sex trade industry is 12 years. U.S. Department of Justice

Approximately 80% of human trafficking victims are women and girls and up to 50% are minors.  U.S. State Department

The average number of victims for non-incestuous pedophiles who molest girls is 20, for pedophiles who prefer boys 100! The Association For the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA)

300,000 children in the U.S. are at risk every year for commercial sexual exploitation. U.S. Department of Justice

600,000 – 800,000 people are bought and sold across international borders each year; 50% are children, most are female. The majority of these victims are forced into the commercial sex trade.  U.S. Department of State, 2004, Trafficking in Persons Report, Washington, D.C.

An average serial child molester may have as many as 400 victims in his lifetime. Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Study

Child pornography is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States right now.  Nationally, there has been a 2500% increase in arrests in 10 years. FBI

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which helps to identify and locate children in pornography photos and videos, says it’s staff reviewed more than 10.5 million images in 2009 alone.

Reports of exploited children grow every year, in 2009, the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children received more than 120,000 reports on its cyber tip line. In 2010, the number grew to over 160,000 with the vast majority being from child pornography.

Not all trafficking victims in the United States are from foreign countries.  An estimated 100,000 children in the U.S. today are domestic victims of sex trafficking—primarily adolescent girls between the ages of 12 and 16.  Polaris Project, http://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/overview

Human trafficking is now the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world.  The buying and selling of human beings worldwide generates approximately $31.6 billion dollars a year; a revenue second only to drug trafficking. The rate of growth in human trafficking, however, is outpacing all other forms of illegal enterprise. UN G.I.F.T, unglobalcompact.org

Human Trafficking is a monumental abuse of power perpetrated by the powerful and wealthy against the most vulnerable in society.Only 10% of all slaves worldwide come from industrialized nations yet 50% of worldwide profits from slavery are made by industrialized nations. (UN G.I.F.T, unglobalcompact.org)

Slavery still exists in the United States.  According to the CIA, more than one million people are currently being trafficked within the United States and that number is growing. Estimates by the U.S. State Department suggest that up to an additional 17,500 trafficking victims are brought into the US every year. California Department of Social Services, http://www.cdss.ca.gov/refugeeprogram/PG1268.htm

Analyzed as a market, human trafficking includes both supply and demand forces. On the supply side, poverty, corruption, lack of education, and the eternal human yearning for improving one’s life make people vulnerable to the lures of trafficking. We are, and must continue, making significant efforts to address these “push” factors.

At the same time, we cannot ignore the demand side of the equation. Market demand — especially from male sex buyers — creates a strong profit incentive for traffickers to entrap more victims, fueling the growth of trafficking in persons. It is critical that governments take action to fight commercial sexual exploitation. For example, where prostitution flourishes, so does an environment that fuels trafficking in persons.

Furthermore, field research from nine countries shows the great harm suffered by people used in prostitution: 89 percent of people being used in prostitution want to escape. Sixty to 75 percent of women in prostitution have been raped, 70 to 95 percent have been physically assaulted, and 68 percent met the clinical criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder. This year, the UN Commission on the Status of Women highlighted the need for more action in demand education by adopting a U.S. resolution on eliminating demand for trafficked women and girls. This was the first UN resolution focused on eliminating demand, and, importantly, it acknowledged the link between commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking.

International organizations and governments have an important role to play in drying up the demand for trafficking in persons, and this role cannot be ignored if we are to be serious about ending modern-day slavery.