Forrest BoundsMrs. KarhlikerWorld LiteratureMarch 13, 2014TitleLies, deception and kidnapping; Victims of human trafficking face one or both of these methods to steal these men and women away from the lives they have built. Human trafficking is a scourge that affects most modern societies; men, women and children are trafficked for sexual slavery and cheap labor against their will. Often, children are taken or lured from their homes and men are blackmailed and forced to work as slaves for little or nothing. Women and children are victims of sex trafficking, primarily prostitution. Human trafficking is a massive underground industry in the United States and near Chicago and its suburbs. “Human Trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, movement or obtaining of a person by force, fraud or coercion, for the purpose of involuntary servitude, debt bondage or sexual exploitation (¨Human Trafficking in Illinois¨). » Human trafficking is one of the largest and fastest growing criminal industries in the world. Every year, $9.5 billion in profits are generated from human trafficking worldwide. “It is not necessary for a person to have been transported abroad to be considered a victim of trafficking (Facts about Human Trafficking). Men and women are often reduced to servitude by “clients,” a term used to refer to traffickers and pimps. The “Johns” use fraud, deception, coercion and threats against the victim and/or their loved ones, to transport, harbor and/or obtain people for the purposes of sexual exploitation, or labor and of slavery (¨Human Trafficking¨). The most common and most profitable form of trafficking is sex trafficking (Human Trafficking in Illinois). Sex trafficking can range from prostitution, stripping, sex...... middle of paper...... to royal operations. Most of the women involved in these places of business often harbor children and adolescents who are sold or "rented" for sexual exploitation. Hundreds of girls and young adolescents are held captive as sex slaves until it is time for them to be used in the sex trade. About a third of young women began engaging in sex work by age 15, and more than half by age 18. In the metropolitan area surrounding Chicago, an estimated 16,000 to 25,000 women and girls are involved in sex trafficking or the sex trade each year. On February 23, 2009, FBI agents and law enforcement arrested 414 Chicago adults involved in human trafficking. February 7 was declared “National John Arrests Day.” On 'National John Arrests Day,' Illinois Law Enforcement Busts Suspected Human Trafficking Locations..