In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, (1831) Victor Frankenstein created a horrible monster, who was so ugly that he hid from the public eye and ended up killing many innocent lives. We have an even more horrific monster in our modern world that also thrives in secret, stealing innocent lives. This monster is slavery. It is a common misconception that slavery no longer exists today, that we got rid of it in the 1800s, or that it still exists in some countries, but it is not as bad as it was in the days of the transatlantic slave trade. . Unfortunately, according to Ethan B. Kapstein, Arizona Centennial Professor of International Affairs, (2006) slavery has become more prevalent in our modern world than ever before in history (Kapstein, 2006). This claim was affirmed, years later, by the International Labor Organization report, The Cost of Coercion (2009). These claims were made five to eight years ago and estimates of victims of modern slavery are rising, but awareness of this social epidemic is still incredibly low. The two main types of slavery today are labor exploitation and sexual exploitation. Most would agree that both of these forms of slavery are important problems, but it is difficult to pinpoint which is the bigger problem today. According to the International Labor Organization, 78% of slavery victims are victims of labor exploitation and 22% are victims of sexual exploitation (International Labor Organization [ILO], 2012). Observing another United Nations report, as reported by Edith M. Lederer (2013) of the Washington Times, “trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation accounts for 58% of all trafficking cases detected globally” (para. 3) . Although the statistics of the issue remain quite questionable, it is… half of the paper… for the youth sex trade in the United States (2010) + Miami, Portland, Oregon and Las Vegas ended Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with a tragic death of almost all influential people. If Americans intelligently and intentionally spread awareness of these real-life monsters, perhaps a similar ending could be avoided for many of these innocent victims, these real-life Williams, Justine, and Elizabeth. (2009) Kapstein, E.B. (2006), The new global slave trade. Foreign Affairs Vol.85, n.6, , 103-115. Retrieved from http://sks.sirs.comLederer, E.M. (2013, February 13). The UN says human trafficking has been found in 118 countries. Washington Times. Retrieved from http://sks.sirs.com US Department of Labor. (2011) Office of Refugee Resettlement. (2012) Neubauer, C. (2011). Sex trafficking in US called 'epidemic'. Washington Times.