CSEC appears to be insidious and affects the daily lives of many children in the United States and worldwide. These children are in the employment of well-organized networks of traffickers in child and adult sex. Some of them also engage in the sale of illegal drugs, money laundering, and other criminal activities. CSEC appears to be fueled by the use of “survival sex” by runaway and thrown-away children to provide for their needs; the presence of pre-existing adult prostitution markets in communities where large numbers of street youth are concentrated; prior history of child sexual abuse and child sexual assault; and poverty. Other patterns are the presence of large numbers of unattached and transient males in local communities – including military personnel, truckers, and conventioneers among others; membership in gangs; the promotion of child prostitution by parents, older siblings, and boyfriends; and the recruitment of children as “sex workers” by organized crime units. Illegal trafficking of children for sexual purposes occurs both within the United States and to the United States from developing countries located in Asia, Africa, Central and South America, and Central and Eastern Europe. The process of recruiting children into CSEC is varied and complex. It nearly always involves adult accomplices, including parents and older siblings. Other young people are recruited into “sex work” through forced abduction, by pressure from their parents, and through deceptive agreements between parents and traffickers. Once recruited, these children typically are taken or travel to “work sites” located great distances from their place of origin. Isolation from their families and friends is the norm. Violence, forced drug use, and threats of death are part of the daily abuse to which these children are subjected. Few children are able to escape their molestation unharmed; virtually all suffer long term physical and emotional injuries. The relationship is known to be especially strong between child sexual victimization and teen pregnancy, adult prostitution, substance abuse, and other forms of adult criminal behavior. Bibliography