It sounds like the plot of a crime drama or the scourge of a developing country, but human trafficking is a serious problem in the U.S. and America's children are frequent pawns, experts say.
The case of Antoinette Nicole Davis, a North Carolina mother accused of selling her 5-year-old daughter, Shaniya, into prostitution, highlights one of the most heinous -- albeit rare -- forms of trafficking within the U.S.
Davis faces numerous charges, including human trafficking, felony child abuse and prostitution. Mario Andrette McNeill has been charged with kidnapping in the case after police said a surveillance camera captured images of him and Shaniya at a hotel in Sanford.
Polaris Project, a nonprofit organization that studies human trafficking, has more frequently seen cases in which children were sold by family members "out of desperation in developing countries" such as Cambodia or sub-Saharan African nations, said executive director and CEO Mark Lagon.
"But it happens sometimes here," he said.
More common in the United States are traffickers who exploit abused runaways or so-called "throwaways" -- children abandoned by their parents and living on the streets, Lagon said.
"The trafficker plays the role of a father or loverboy who is offering care to the child, who is vulnerable," he said, explaining that what begins as flattery and attention often turns to suggestions of prostitution.
The child, typically homeless and in need of food and shelter, can be manipulated into "survival sex," Lagon said. In other instances, the trafficker or pimp will get the child hooked on drugs and use their addiction as leverage.
Named for the North Star that guided slaves along the Underground Railroad, Polaris Project works to stamp out the global trade in humans.
Lagon, formerly the State Department's director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, said it's a tough fight because there is a dearth of "good statistics" on human trafficking and it's not a crime in which victims readily come forward.
But the news is replete with reports on major rings being busted. The FBI did not return messages to discuss human trafficking, but news releases from the agency's Innocence Lost initiative show that in the past 18 months, four stings -- dubbed Operations Cross Country I, II, III and IV -- have yielded about 2,300 arrests and the recovery of about 170 children.
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