The selling of women as wives or prostitutes has its historical roots in traditional attitudes and practices. Selling daughters to support a family or purchasing a woman to carry on a family line are done even today, particularly in underdeveloped rural areas. Women are also being kidnapped and sold into slavery, frequently with the knowledge of law enforcement officials, who consider the men who buy women to be the legitimate owners. In addition to abducting women, slave traders lure women away from their homes with promises of jobs, college admissions, or promising marriages in big cities. Some women are sold voluntarily, hoping to escape poverty or an abusive husband for a better life elsewhere. All too often, the women become victims of rape, sexual slavery, psychological humiliation, physical torture, mutilation and murder. An official crackdown on human slavery trade resulted in the arrest, by 1994, of 115,236 people for involvement in the sale of women and children. Authorities report that the 27,000 people rescued represent just the tip of the iceberg concerning the problem of women trafficking. Notes