Tracking the Rise of US Slave Traffic
Trafficking is the second most lucrative criminal industry, bringing in an annual $32 billion worldwide. But trafficking isn’t just a faraway issue. Significant trafficking of persons happens every year domestically, from the streets of the cities to the backyards of suburbia. Some facts about US slave traffic:
- Approximately 300,000 U.S children are considered at-risk to be a trafficking victim.
- Within the first 48 hours of being on the street, one in three children are lured into prostitution.
- Research shows minors are sold an average of 10-15 times a day, six days a week, totaling between 9,360 and 14,040 sex acts a year.
- The average age of entry into U.S. sex trafficking for girls and boys ranges from 11-14.
- Pimps commonly sell minor girls for $400 an hour on America’s streets.
- As many as 100,000 U.S. children are forcefully engaged in prostitution or pornography each year.
- The sale of child pornography has become a $3 billion industry.
- Fifty-five percent of Internet child pornography comes from the U.S.
- The U.S. State Department estimates that approximately 14,500- 17,500 men, women and children are trafficked into the United States annually.
