In 1865, the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution ended the institution of slavery (McGough). Even though slavery has been abolished, modern slavery still exists and has evolved in a different aspect and is known as “human trafficking” in today's society. Every year, thousands of people are trafficked across borders or internally and exploited for cheap labor or sexual services. According to U.S. federal law, human trafficking includes children engaged in the sex trade, adults forced or tricked into engaging in commercial sex, anyone forced into various forms of labor or services ( Polaris Project). Human trafficking is a violation of human rights; it is a crime against the dignity and integrity of an individual. It is the exchange of human beings as commodities. It is “modern slavery” with more slaves at work today than there have ever been at any time in history. Human trafficking is the third most profitable and fastest growing criminal activity in the world, after weapons, ammunition and drugs. Every year approximately 2.5 million people are trafficked, recruited through some form of coercion or deception and exploited, primarily for forced labor or sexual exploitation. The market value of human trafficking is approximately $32 billion per year. (Polaris Project.) “This is a global problem, no country is spared.” (Slavery today). Approximately three in 1,000 people worldwide are victims of trafficking at any given time. Women and children are the main targets, but men are also victims of trafficking. Forced labor claims 20.9 million victims, 90% of whom are exploited in the private economy (Slavery Today). Victims of human trafficking are subjected to force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of sex trafficking, d...... middle of paper ......laws and increased funding at the federal level; More than $50 million in federal funding has been authorized for victim assistance, investigations, prosecutions, and critical prevention efforts. Their outreach efforts were instrumental in supporting passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection and Reauthorization Acts of 2008 and 2013. The Polaris Project also launched “Vision 2020” in 2012, to help expand its impact on a global scale by mapping, connecting and supporting human trafficking hotlines globally (Project Polaris). This year alone, thirty-nine state legislatures have passed anti-trafficking laws, and for the first time, a majority of states have sizable laws to combat trafficking. Over the past hundred years, the end of human trafficking has successfully become closer and more attainable than years before. (Polaris Project).