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What is sexual trafficking?
The Salvation Army’s Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking defines sexual trafficking as the “recruitment, transportation (within national or across international borders),transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. Sexual trafficking is accomplished by means of fraud, deception, threat of or use of force, abuse of a position of vulnerability, and other forms of coercion.”
Global trafficking numbers
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In January 2006, Interpol announced that human trafficking generates $32 billion annually.1
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The United Nations claims that the trafficking of human beings has surpassed the drug trade to become the second largest source of money for organized crime after the illegal arms trade.2
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The U.S. State Department estimates at least 600,000 to 800,000 human beings are trafficked across international borders each year. Numbers within national borders are much higher.3
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Among all trafficking victims, 80 percent are female and 50 percent are children.4
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Seventy percent of trafficking victims are forced into sexual servitude.5
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UNICEF reports that more than 1 million children around the world enter the sex trade every year.6
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Approximately 30 million children have lost their childhood to sexual exploitation over the past 30 years.7
United States trafficking numbers
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An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 women and children are trafficked into the United States annually from other countries.8
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Congress, in the Trafficking Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005, found that between 100,000 to 300,000 American teens are at risk for sex trafficking annually.9
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Despite an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 sex slaves in the U.S., fewer than 1,000 victims have been assisted through the efforts of federal, state and local law enforcement since 2001, when services for trafficking victims were first made available.10
Endnotes
1 ″INTERPOL calls for private sector to help fight human trafficking.” 24 Jan 2006. INTERPOL. [http://www.interpol.int/Public/News/2006/news20060124.asp]
2 Gozdziak, Elzbieta M. and Mica N. Bump. Data and Research on Human Trafficking: Bibliography of Research Based Literature. Institute for the Study of International Migration. Georgetown University; Washington, DC. Sept. 2008. Pg. 13. [http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/224392.pdf]
3 U.S. Department of State. Trafficking in Persons Report. June 2008. Pg. 7 [http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/105501.pdf]
4 Trafficking in Persons Report, Pg. 7.
5 Prepared statement of President George W. Bush to the National Training Conference on Human Trafficking. 16 July 2004. [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/07/20040716-11.html]
6 ″Commercial sexual exploitation position statement.” UNICEF UK. (2004, January 28). [http://www.unicef.org.uk/unicefuk/policies/policy_detail.asp?policy=8]
7 Ibid.
8 U.S. Department of State. Trafficking in Persons Report. June 2004. pg. 23. [http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/34158.pdf]
9 U.S. Cong. Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005. PUBLIC LAW 109-164 – January 4, 2005. Pg. 2. [http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/61106.htm]
10 U.S. Department of Justice. Report on Activities to Combat Human Trafficking Fiscal Years 2001 – 2005. 2006. Pg. 9. [http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/crim/trafficking_report_2006.pdf]
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