WHAT IS SEX TRAFFICKING?
Sex trafficking occurs when an individual under the age of 18 provides any sex act in exchange for anything of value. For a victim over the age of 18 the use of force, fraud, or coercion constitutes sex trafficking.
The Federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) defines the crime of human trafficking, in part, as “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act where such an act is induced by force, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age.”
WHAT IS THE EXTENT OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING?
According to the US State Department, child/human trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world. In fact, after drug trafficking, human trafficking is the world’s second largest criminal enterprise, netting over $12 billion per year in profits with over 1.2 million child victims alone (UNICEF)
The US State Department has indicated that approximately eighty percent of human trafficking victims are women and girls and up to fifty percent are minors.
DID YOU KNOW?
As many as 2.8 million children run away from home each year in the United States. Within 48 hours of hitting the streets, one-third of these children are lured or recruited into the underground world of prostitution and pornography, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The average age of entry into prostitution is estimated to be 12-14 years of age. Later escaping this lifestyle and environment as an adult becomes virtually impossible without the help of people like you and without organizations like Life 107 Ministries.