The Facts:
Most US trafficking victims are located in New York, Texas, Arizona, California, or Illinois.1
Long Island is home to the second largest human trafficking ring prosecuted in the US.2
Because of their innocence, boys and girls are under 18 are easily exploited and trafficked. Many are restrained physically and/or psychologically, forced to work as prostitutes, strippers, domestic workers, sweatshop workers and/or farm laborers.
Most children never see any money garnered from their prostitution.3
Adoption can be used to hide the commodization of children and selling of children on both domestic and international scales.4
Traffickers are relying more heavily on the internet to conduct their business.
Teenage girls have been bought and sold on websites such as e-bay and Craigslist.5
Most trafficking victims in the metropolitan area are from the Soviet Union, Asia, Central America, South America, and Africa.3
Sources:
- Barbara Kralis of Renew America
- Long Island Newsday, 09/23/05
- End Child Prostitution and Trafficking (ECPAT)
- The Journal of Gender, Race, and Justice, Fall 2008
- "Child Prostitutes Sell Themselves On Craigslist," CNN.com, 6/28/08