Sex trafficking

Sex trafficking is composed of two aspects: sexual slavery and human trafficking. Theses two aspects represent the supply and demand side of the sex trafficking industry, respectively. This exploitation is based on the interaction between the trafficker selling a victim (the individual being trafficked and sexually exploited) to customers to perform sexual services. These sex trafficking crimes are defined by three steps: acquisition, movement, and exploitation. The various types of sex trafficking are child sex tourism (CST), domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) or commercial sexual exploitation of children, and prostitution.

According to a UN report from 2012, there are 2.4 million people throughout the world who are victims of human trafficking at any given moment. In this annual US$32 billion industry, 80 percent of victims are being exploited as sexual slaves.

For the International Labour Organization, there are 20.9 million people subjected to forced labour, and 22 percent (4.5 million) are victims of forced sexual exploitation. However, due to the covertness of the sex trafficking industry, obtaining accurate, reliable statistics proves difficult for researchers.

Most victims find themselves in coercive or abusive situations from which escape is both difficult and dangerous. Locations where this practice occurs span the globe and reflect an intricate web between nations, making it very difficult to construct viable solutions to this human rights problem.

In 2000, countries adopted a definition set forth by the United Nations. The United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, , is also referred to as the Palermo Protocol. The Palermo Protocol created this definition. 147 of the 192 member states of the UN ratified the Palermo Protocol when it was published in 2000. Article 3 of the Palermo Protocol states the definition as:

(a) "Trafficking in persons" shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.

Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;

(b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been used;

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