Fast Facts From PolarisProject.org:

the second largest criminal industry in the world today, after arms and drug dealing, and is the fastest growing.

Under international law, all children who are commercially sexually exploited are considered trafficking victims, even if no force or coercion is used.

Sex trafficking is one of the most lucrative sectors of the trade in people, and involves sexual exploitation in prostitution or pornography, bride trafficking, and commercial sexual abuse of children.

Labor trafficking is widespread not only in situations of domestic servitude and small-scale labor operations, but also in sweatshops and farms that are subcontracted to major multinational corporations.

An estimated 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked annually in the United States alone.

The number of US citizens trafficked within the country are even higher, with an estimated more than 200,000 American children at high risk for trafficking into the sex industry each year.

Annually, about 600,000 to 800,000 people -- mostly women and children -- are trafficked across national borders which does not count millions trafficked within their own countries.

 

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