Criminal trafficking and slavery are growing national, regional, and global problems.These illicit activities damage and destroy millions of lives.Most victims are vulnerable women and children.Efforts to eradicate this blight appear to be losing ground to criminal elements.The latter profit from, and propagate the expansion of, what amounts to a globally dispersed system of exploitation with differential impacts — all pernicious and heinous — across nations and regions.These complex, webbed systems of global crime violate fundamental human rights; threaten the security and welfare of national and international civil societies; and undermine the authority and capacity of national governments to protect their populations.