Human trafficking generates $32,000,000,000 in profits annually, making it the second largest form of organized crime
1.2 Million children are trafficked every year throughout the world (UNICEF.)
According to ECPAT USA, about 25% of sex tourists abusing children outside the United States are American and Canadian. (Independent Review of Newspaper Articles and Interviews in Asia and Latin America.)
According to a 1999 Human Rights Watch study, ½ of all Russian girls leaving orphan care are sexually exploited within three months of leaving.
A trafficker/pimp in the United States can make upwards of $200,000 off the sale of one child victim of sex trafficking in a year. (National Human Trafficking Resource Center)
An estimated 1.6 million children run away from home every year in the United States. According to the National Runaway Switchboard, the average time it takes before a runaway is approached by a trafficker or solicitor is 48 hours, thus making runaway youth an extremely vulnerable group.
Youth who have experienced prior sexual abuse are at very high risk of being sexually exploited. 70% to 90% of all commercially sexually exploited minors who participated in a 1993 (Murphy) study had experienced prior sexual abuse.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) estimates the average age of entry into commercial sexual exploitation in the United States is 13 to 14 years old.
According to the national trafficking hotline, managed by the Polaris Project, the District of Columbia receives the fifth highest call volume in the nation, with 55% of the 1143 calls from January 2009 to November 2011 being related to sex trafficking.