Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world—but you wouldn't know it based on the laws in most U.S. states.

By CIA estimates, there are 45,000-50,000 victims of sex slavery and trafficking each year in the U.S. alone.

City and state involvement are seen as critical in stopping the crime, around half of which is organized by local pimps, according to a study several years ago by the Justice Department.

Yet despite a call to action by the Department of Defense, and President Obama naming January "National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month," most states remain woefully behind in their response to the problem.

A study conducted by Shared Hope International rated each state's sex trafficking laws, including how each law addresses the crime, the criminal provisions for traffickers, the protective provisions for victims, and the tools utilized for investigation and prosecution.

Only three states (Illinois, Missouri and Texas) received grades higher than a C. Twenty-seven states received an F grade. No state got an A.

Some local governments are taking the matter seriously, like Westchester (New York) County's unveiling of a new trafficking task force.

Others are waiting for the problem to come to them, such as Indiana, which received a D on the Shared Hope analysis but recently tightened its laws in time for the Super Bowl, perhaps one of the biggest sex trafficking events of the year. Indeed an estimated 10,000 prostitutes were brought to the 2010 Super Bowl in Miami, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.