Women and children are trafficked into situations of forced labor and commercial sex work.  The commercial sex industry takes many forms, and the relationship between prostitution and trafficking for sex purposes is complicated. Some women are deceived, coerced, drugged or kidnapped before being trafficked for commercial sex purposes. These women have never worked as prostitutes and generally do not know what is happening until they find themselves being forced to take clients. Such women may be trafficked into work at strip clubs as waitresses or as dancers, which then leads to situations of forced prostitution. Some women are trafficked directly to brothels, where they are held against their will, coerced and threatened.

Regardless of how women become involved in trafficking and prostitution, the terrible conditions under which they are generally forced to work violate their fundamental human rights. Many women and girls are at the mercy of brothel owners and pimps because they cannot speak the language or are unfamiliar with local customs. Women are often trapped because they do not have the legal documents necessary to travel beyond the border. Traffickers also use threats of harm to the victim  or to her family, physical and sexual assault and imprisonment to control women. Few women successfully escape from trafficking. If they do escape, they may be caught by the traffickers, and the resulting punishment can include severe injury or even death.

Women and girls may be trafficked into internet pornography. Even some seemingly legitimate enterprises, such as matchmaking organizations may, in fact, sell women into a form of sexual servitude though the mail-order bride industry. Women will travel to another country, believing that they will be married and are then forced into prostitution when they arrive. According to Vanessa von Struensee, "[t]he Internet has become a vast resource for promoting the global trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and children. The information superhighway is used to actively engage in the buying and selling of women and children. Catalogs of mail order brides, commercial sex tours, video-conferencing bringing live strip shows to the Internet: it is all there, and worse. Because there is still scant regulation of the Internet, the traffickers and promoters of sexual exploitation have virtual carte blanche." From Globalized, Wired, Sex Trafficking In Women And Children.

Demand factors, in particular, promote the growth of trafficking of women into commercial sex work. Male demand for the services of sex workers, combined with male perceptions about woman's societal role, can lead to exploitation of women and girls.