Child Laundering

Child laundering is the illegal acquisition of children through monetary transactions, deceit, and/or force. Child laundering rings are often expansive with multiple hierarchies of people whose primary motivations are large profits from the black markets of overseas adoption. With Westerners willing to spend thousands of dollars to adopt one child, enough monetary incentives are created to extend the laundering ring from the middle classes to societies' more affluent groups. These "baby broker" families subsequently forge a new identity for the laundered child, "validating" the child's legal status as an orphan and ensuring the scheme will not be uncovered.

The issue of child laundering is highly controversial; while many argue that these children are being treated as a commodity and stripped of family contact, others argue that, ultimately, the children will live in a more affluent environment and have more opportunities as a result of this adoption.