The word “traffick” conjures images of bumper-to-bumper taxi cabs, women applying lipstick in smudgy lines, and men screaming obscenities at whatever unfortunate creatures that happen to be deadlocked in front of them. After the award-winning fillm Traffick hit theaters, the public may have become more aware of what the word can really mean. But human trafficking, the most heinous form of the word, is the third largest industry on earth, just behind the arms and drug trades. (Hopefully Liam Neeson's latest hit movie Taken will alert the public as Traffic previously did.)

“Sex tourism, mail order brides, prostitution in brothels, pornography, and militarized sexual services are examples of this market," says Joan Spade, coauthor of The Kaleidoscope of Gender: Prisms, Patterns, and Possibilities. Most people may think that slavery may be dead and gone with the civil war, but the fact of the matter is that it is a very real and very hideous crime that involves capturing and enslaving young children and women all over the world—including the United States.

According to the US Office for Victims of Crime, 600,000 to 800,000 humans are trafficked each year—with 14,500 to 17,500 trafficked into the US. The same site states that 70 percent of these are female, 50 percent are children—and 200,000 American children are at risk of being trafficked each year. However, the Migration Information Source has stated that the number could be up to the staggering figure of two million people each year.

In addition to being tricked into leaving their own countries with the prospect of being a waitress, factory worker, or domestic servant within another country, victims are “coerced, enslaved, kidnapped, tortured, or raped in order to sexually service men for the profit of others," says Spade.

Amnesty International reports, “Trafficking is a crime under international law that requires international cooperation to address.” But if this is so, why has it been allowed to escalate so far and so long? Why are American men able to obtain “mail-order brides” at all? The very fact that human trafficking is a part of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime should shed some light: it’s fairly well-known how well the “War on Drugs” and the “War on Crime” are both going—or, rather, how unwell. There is a reason why there is an entire police division devoted to such things (“Vice”), and that reason is because humans can be sick, diabolical creatures with—what else?—vices. But these vices run into the dark, the inhuman, the sadistic. It also boils down to the almighty language that all cultures seem to be able to speak: money. According to SAVE the Children India, human trafficking is worth about $10 billion annually.

One of the main causes of trafficking is attributed to the low status of females worldwide. SAVE the Children Inida reports:

"Low social status of the girl child, general lack of education and awareness make easier victims of trafficking, particularly in South Asian and South East Asian countries. Religious and cultural traditions in the form of devadasi system of dedication of young girls to gods and goddesses in some parts of India or the devaki system in Nepal sanctifies and institutionalises this crime. Beliefs that sex with virgins and young children is safer and can heal sexual disorders only add to the problem."

Until these systems are combated outright, and laws are challenged and changed, this atrocity is sure to continue.

So what can be done about this worldwide? For starters, people have to become aware. Most people aren’t aware that human trafficking even occurs. By spreading the word, people can start taking a stand against the crime and demand an end to it. The United Nations claim that they are combating the issue by:

"Smuggling routes and forms of exploitation of trafficked people; cooperation among law enforcement, prosecution and judiciary; and government efforts to respond, including recent legislative reforms; promote awareness-raising (such as public awareness campaigns) of trafficking in human beings and especially strengthen institutional capacity; train law enforcement officers, prosecutors and judges; advise on drafting and revising relevant legislation; provide advice and assistance on establishing and strengthening anti-trafficking elements; strengthen victim and witness support; provide assistance to agencies, institutions and governments as part of an interdisciplinary effort to design effective measures against trafficking in human beings."

Still, other groups are making headway, such as Amnesty International and the Polaris Project. AI is famous for putting the pressure on countries to end the suffering of all peoples. The Polaris Project was awarded the BRICK Award for their work against trafficking by former President Clinton. 

Even if hope is on the horizon, setbacks still are many. SAVE the Children India says,

"One of the biggest hurdle in child trafficking remains lack of public awareness and acceptance of this growing crime. Inadequate legislation in the countries concerned and weak law enforcement make it easier for the traffickers to operate. Internationally most UN members may have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child but nationally in many countries the laws are yet to confirm to the CRC and other international standards. The UN Convention on Transnational Organised Crime and its two Protocols on human trafficking and smuggling of migrants respectively are the only international legal instruments that recognise and punish cross-border human trafficking as an organised crime and therefore need to be ratified by a majority of UN member States. More international co-operation is required today to combat this menace."

One thing is for certain: the problem will not go away on its own. The task of eliminating its horror from the planet rests upon the world’s citizens as a whole, but particularly that of women. This is an act that terrorizes silences, polarizes, and murders women; so why hasn’t the United States declared a war upon it as it has on everything else as such? This is a question that the women of the world need to demand an answer to—and should stick to their Congress members’ coattails until it is not only answered, and not only addressed, but wholly solved.