What is human trafficking exactly? It is defined as, "The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor services.” Most commonly talked about is sex trafficking, when people are forced into being sex slaves for their "leader" to make profit, also known as a pimp. Another form of trafficking is labor trafficking, which is when an individual is forced to do work similar to slavery and his/her basic rights are taken away.

The "leaders" of the sex trafficking rings are called pimps, and American Express, Visa and MasterCard are making things more difficult for the criminals by not permitting prostitution ads, where before there was a loophole in the rule. Backpage.com, a huge advertising website for prostitutes and those being trafficked, couldn't be sued because of the Communications Decency Act. How can we as a nation be aware of this and criticize other countries for being doing a poor job about prostitution laws?

There are certain requirements that the United States has for each state in the area of handling sex trafficking. In 2011, more than half the states had a failing grade, which then presents another question of how and why did the government allow the states to end up at this point? Shouldn't action have been taken sooner? As of 2014, none of them are failing and more than half the states have A’s and B’s, Naturally there is a long ways to go, but progress is being made, which is better than no action at all.

United States Department of Justice created a cohesive model based on Trafficking Victim's Protection Act for all fifty states to work with the federal government, and yet states have not adopted these suggestions. Corporations are yet again dodging potential financial destruction just because of the brief wording. April Reiger, a Harvard Law student wrote an extensive report about this specific act and its' flaws. http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlg/vol301/rieger.pdf

"Distribution of Modern Slavery By Country 2014."

Nicholas Kristof- "Making Life Harder for Pimps."

Sarah Pierce- "Turning a blind eye: U.S. corporate involvement in modern day slavery."

"States Do Better Cracking Down On Child Sex Trafficking, Report Says."