"Human trafficking, at its most basic level, is defined by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 as (a) the recruitment, harboring, transporting, supplying, or obtaining a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for involuntary servitude or slavery; or (b) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform sex acts is under 18 years of age" (Hunt, Logan & Walker, 2009). "There is speculation that human trafficking is the third-largest profitable trafficking activity after drug and gun trafficking" (Hyland, 2001). Why is this crime so profitable and why has it gone unnoticed for so long? "This price is too good to be true!" You may have wondered to yourself how some goods and services can afford to operate with such low prices. There may be more behind the curtains than you would care to know. Human trafficking has gotten mass media attention recently, especially involving children. Movies, documentaries, news shows, and print sources are exposing a quiet crime that has been operating within the United States and many other nations around the world for many years unnoticed. The question is...what is human trafficking and why are children a target? I intend to define the crime of human trafficking, discover its implications, and evaluate the laws and protections enacted at this time to create new ways of ending this horrible epidemic and protecting basic human rights.
             "Human trafficking, at its most basic level, is defined by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 as (a) the recruitment, harboring, transporting, supplying, or obtaining a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for involuntary servitude or slavery; or (b) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform sex acts is under 18 years...