By Stacy Brown | PA Independent

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania may lack actual statistics on the human trafficking of children, but the national figures uncover a seedy underworld of pervasive exploitation.

Between 100,000 and 300,000 children are victims of human trafficking in the U.S., according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nonprofit that addresses issues of missing and sexually exploited children.

Within the first 48 hours of being on the street, one in three children are l ured into commercial sex exploitation, said the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Throw-away Children, a project of the national Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquencies.

About 2.8 million children live on the streets, and the pimps get up to $632,000 annually selling women and children, according to Shared Hope International, a nonprofit that helps victims of sexual exploitation. 

Trafficking offenses are investigated by federal law enforcement agencies and prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The federal government tracks its activities by fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

In fiscal 2010, federal law enforcement charged 181 individuals, and obtained 141 convictions in 103 human trafficking prosecutions, according to the U.S. State Department.

This represents the largest number of federal human trafficking prosecutions initiated in a single year, officials said.