// Sex Trafficking

Sexual exploitation and forced labor are the most common forms of human trafficking in the world. Sex trafficking is the third largest underground economy in the world. More than two million women and children are sold, tricked, or forced by poverty into sexual slavery or indentured servitude every year. Of these, more than 50,000 are brought into the United States. Women and young girls in poor counties are basically a commodity to used, abused, and discarded when no longer profitable.

Sex Trafficking is sex slavery. Women and children are coerced, deceived and/or forced by criminals across borders to be sexually exploited. The United Nations estimates that some 80% of persons trafficked are trafficked for sexual exploitation.

No one agrees to be trafficked. Victims are tricked or forced into a dangerous situation where they have no control.

The global sex industry merchandises women and children in a variety of ways--through prostitution, sex trafficking, sex tourism, the mail-order bride trade, and pornography. These practices of sexual exploitation are interconnected and most sexually exploited women and children are subjected to multiple forms of sexual exploitation. For example, women and children are often recruited or sold into domestic prostitution and then trafficked into brothels overseas. While being prostituted, women and children are often pressured or coerced into posing for pornography, which increasingly is trafficked internationally. Exploitation in "sexual entertainment" (strip clubs, topless bars, etc.) often precedes or accompanies exploitation in sex trafficking or prostitution. Customers of sexually exploited women and children often buy access to them in a variety of sexually exploitative contexts, while pimps, procurers, and traffickers profit from the different practices of sexual exploitation interchangeably.

Not For Sale is about informing and a call to action.