On December 31, 2012, President Barack Obama proclaimed January 2013 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime defines human trafficking as "an act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring or receiving a person through a use of force, coercion or other means, for the purpose of exploiting them."

Almost 80 percent of human trafficking cases involve sexual exploitation,
and most of the victims are women and children.