Issue Overview

Trafficking in persons, especially women and children for the purposes of sexual exploitation, is quickly becoming the world’s fastest growing industry and most profitable criminal activity.

 Virtually every nation in the world is engaged to some extent in this tragic trade, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims. UNICEF estimates that one million children alone are forced, sold, abducted, or coerced into the commercial sex trade annually. Their average age worldwide is 13.

Estimates of women and children trafficked across international borders each year range from 800,000 to four million. In the United States alone, the U.S. State Department estimates that as many as 18,500 men, women, and children are trafficked into the U.S. each year, many for sexual exploitation (2004).

MINISTIES WORKING WITH TRAFFICKING OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH

• Project Rescue – A ministry to women and children or the Assemblies of God. Beth and David Grant are the directors, they help coordinate and oversee work in India, Nepal, and Moldova. Beth Grant has written extensively on intervention and response to women trapped in sexual exploitation. See their website www.projectrescue.com for information and especially http://www.projectrescue.com/resources.html for resources.

 LINKS

• Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre
• International Center to Combat Exploitation of Children
• European Center for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children
• Ranbows of Hope:  From Children in Crisis to Children in Christ
• Human Trafficking: A Web Resource#
• Stop the Trafffik

DOCUMENTS

• List of Resources on Trafficking of Women and Girls in Eastern Europe
   
• Helping the Girl Child
  Gender discrimination is manifested in many ways, such as conferring more affection on a son or, in extreme cases, abandonment, and female infanticide. As girls grow up, many of them will be subjected to early marriages leading to early pregnancies. This has negative effects on their physical, mental, and emotional well-being, as well as on the well-being of their infants.

BOOKS

Sex Trafficking: The Global Market in Women and Children  by Kathrine Farr

 Amazon Review: One million people are trafficked into the sex industry each year.  In this timely and provocative study, Kathryn Farr documents the macro and micro impact of trafficking women and children into this industry on a global scale.  Farr looks not only at the victims themselves, but also at the sex trade’s main players, organized crime structure, economic conditions, and role in which various militaries perpetuate its demand. Sex Trafficking can be incorporated into a variety of courses in sociology, social problems, culture and sexuality, history, and women’s studies.

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