Georgia Cares, the statewide agency for children who are victims of sex trafficking and exploitation, is run by the Executive Director, Heather Stockdale. The overall development and fulfillment of the organization is run by her. She found a passion for youth development, government policy, and child advocacy while working for the office of the Child Advocate. The dedication and work she put into these programs led to her finding a career at the Governor’s Office for Children and Families (GOCF). There, after being named the Director of the Statewide Task Force on Commercial Sexual Exploitation, she served as the Division Administrator of the Youth Development Division and led the State’s Trafficking initiatives. While working for the state
The book Renting Lacy: A Story of America’s Prostituted Children by Linda Smith addresses the topic of the underground world of child sex trafficking. Unfortunately, it is a topic that has been purposefully neglected in our society for many years. The author presents every chapter with a real story of a sexually exploited child. The stories are intense, powerful but especially touching which makes the reader feel frustrated, desperate, and vexed. After every chapter, Smith tries to include commentaries that presents a deeper understating about human trafficking. It seems that the purpose of her commentaries is to make the reader think deeper about the problem of sex trafficking and accumulate desires to act towards this issue as they continue
The documentary, Very Young Girls, was heart-wrenching, informative, and very hard to relate to these young girls. These girls are daughters, sisters, friends, family, and some are already mothers. However, these young women are treated and seen as criminals, not as victims. Prostitution and human-trafficking happens everywhere and every day, including in the United States. People have this perspective that human trafficking only happens in foreign countries. There’s a negative stigma on prostitution because we, as a society, only pay attention to the sexual acts and services that these women provide. Young women’s dignity, adolescences, and respect is taken away from them. Yet, this was not their choice, but they do not have positive influences
The Georgia Department of Human Services is a nonprofit organization that promotes the security, independence and the overall well-being of the citizens of Georgia. Their mission is to “provide Georgia with customer-focused human services that promote child and adult protection, child welfare, stronger families and self-sufficiency” (Department of Human Services). In order to grow stronger families in the community, the members of the organization believe in the fundamentals of strong core values. These core values embrace: providing practical resources, proficiently handling all Georgians with high regard, endorsing the best quality of service possible and for all employees to grow and learn extensively, and continuously pertaining to their field (Department of Human Services). This nonprofit organization is a perfect example of why nonprofit organizations exist because of their high standards. Furthermore, they offer a wide range of services that incorporate
In the article “Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking in the United States,” Kimberly Kotrla discussed the disheartening facts of what’s going on in the United States under our noses. Today more and more people are finding out about this sad industry. In Alaska my brother goes out in the streets to help save these girls in sex trafficking. Knowing my brother is doing something to end this made me feel proud while reading this informative essay.
The value of a woman as a mother, wife, sister, daughter or aunt has been replaced for sexual please. Greed and perversion disguised as men chose to debase America’s women and children for their own selfish gain. Child sexual exploitation is the most hidden form of child abuse in the U.S. and North America today. It is the nation’s least recognized epidemic. The overwhelming majority of children forced to sell their bodies on the street are girls. Young boys face hardship and abuse as well, but they often fend for themselves to survive. The girls, on the other hand, inevitably fall victim to pimps and organized trafficking networks. (Sher, pg. V)
Hughes PhD, Donna M., Fact Sheets and Research Roports on Trafficking, Slavery and Sexual Exploitation, http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/pubtrfrep.htm Women’s Studies Program, University of Rhode Island, March 21, 2014
Sexual exploitation exploits women and provides a vehicle for racism in a “first world” country like America, where victimization rates are disproportionately higher with “third world” women (O'Connor & Healy, 2007). Goodson is an anti-trafficking activist, is director of international programs for Shared Hope International which is an organization who works with victims of sex trafficking. From her experience, many victims are poor and are sexually abused children and young adults who are swayed by the promises of a better life. Once they reach the United States, the victims are psychologically and physically abused. In the United States, victims of international sex trafficking come primarily from South and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Africa through states such as Florida, California and New York (Goodson, 2006). The U.S. Department of State estimates that about 600,000 to 800,000 people, mostly women and children, are trafficked across national borders annually. Furthermore, it is estimated that 17,500 to 20,000 victims are trafficked into the U.S. annually, with Florida receiving a high percentage of those victims. Although the people who enter the United States are often not legally permitted to enter the United States, Lagon asserts that it is important to note the difference between human
Health Care workers are constantly faced with legal and ethical issues every day during the course of their work. It is important that the health care workers have a clear understanding of these legal and ethical issues that they will face (1). In the case study analysed key legal and ethical issues arise during the initial decision-making of the incident, when the second ambulance crew arrived, throughout the treatment and during the transfer of patient to the hospital. The ethical issues in this case can be described as what the paramedic believes is the right thing to do for the patient and the legal issues control what the law describes that the paramedic should do in this situation (2, 3). It is therefore important that paramedics also
Since the case of Mary Ellen Wilson in 1874, child abuse has seen it’s share of light in published news. It is disheartening to read countless stories of future generations being harmed to the extent of psychological damage or even death. Child abuse as a whole has been addressed multiple times in various news blogs, however, nothing has been done to work towards abolishing it at a larger level. The future of America is in jeopardy based on the level of abuse that children endure. Childhelp states that approximately 5 children die every day at the hands of child abuse. America struggles to find equality, and by bystanding the stripping of its youth, continual prolonging is inevitable. Raising this nation’s children in means of nurturing and care is the first step to uplifting America as a whole. In 2012 alone, 1593 of America’s children died at the hands of child abuse, 70.3% of which were younger than the age of three (Safe Horizon). In order to prevent further child abuse, the American government should address stricter child protection laws, psychological stability, and an increase the recognition of those that have released their stories.
With girls out there like Susannah getting tricked into the evil trafficking business everyday, it brings much discomfort because these girls are forced to perform sexual activities and are kept in dingy holes and drugged to keep them from retaliating. All this inhumane torture goes on in the trafficking business, and yet the laws are not helping with eliminating these injustices. With each year, those 50,000 women increase; more and more victims are brought into the United States, forced against their will, or promised false futures of working good jobs to bring money back home to their families.
Mcclain, N. M., & Garrity, S. E. (2011). Sex Trafficking and the Exploitation of Adolescents. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing, 40(2), 243-252.
Victimizers frequently target individuals who are have underprivileged socioeconomic backgrounds, making them that much more vulnerable to seek safe and stable housing or a better quality of life (Mulivihill 2014). Victims are frequently deceived by false promises of love, a good job or stable life, and they are lured into situations where they are forced to work under deplorable conditions with little to no pay (Mulvihill, 2014). In addition, key components of at risk youth becoming victims include having prior occurrences of substance abuse, sexual or physical abuse, are runaways or homeless youth, and those who have learning or physical abilities (Mulvihill, 2014). As stated by the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runway, and Throwaway Children, the greatest at risk group within the youth population are runaways and throwaways (FCASV, 2009). Sex trafficking can comprise exotic dancing, escort services, massage services, pornography of any kind, and phone sex services (FCASV, 2009). Furthermore, trafficking comes within a bundle of other crimes, including kidnapping, document fraud, assault, torture, rape, and sometimes homicide. According to (FCASV, 2009) the majority of individuals who are sex trafficking
In order to understand how sex trafficking affects its victims, one must first know the severity of sex trafficking and what it is. The issue of sex trafficking affects 2.5 million people at any given time (Abas et al., 2013). The form of sex slavery affects many women and children across the world. Even though both males and females are sexually trafficked and exploited, there is a deep emphasis on the sexual exploitation of women and children. This is due to gender discrimination (Miller, 2006). This is because women and children are more vulnerable and appeal to the larger populations of brothels and the so-called “clients” since the majority are men. Ecclestone (2013) stated that children as young as age three are trafficked. Sex trafficking has changed over time; “Today, the business of human sex trafficking is much more organized and violent. These women and young girls are sold to traffickers, locked up in rooms or brothels for weeks or months, drugged, terrorized, and raped repeatedly” (Walker-Rodriguez & Hill, 2011). It is found that many of the victims of sex trafficking are abducted, recruited, transported and forced into involuntary “sex work”. These sexual acts include prostitution, exotic dancing, pornography, and sexual escort services (McClain & Garrity, 2011). What happens to these sex trafficking victims is extremely traumatizing.
However, many agencies across the nation are not aware of the amount of human trafficking occurring around them. In a world of tolerance, many individuals are unaware of their surroundings. Kevin Bales of the nonprofit organization Free the Slaves estimates that 10,000 women a year are trafficked to America for the sex industry alone (Young n. pg). Those 10,000 women all past through security check points somewhere, and had many individuals they also interacted with on their journey. Security and Law Enforcement need to be aware of the signs of human trafficking, and be able to serve justice to those that are oppressing the rights of these women and children. Gary Haugen, worked as counsel in the civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department, said “Sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation can be drastically reduced wherever a country has the political will and the operational capacity to send the perpetrators to jail and to treat the victims with compassion and dignity. This is a fight that can actually be won.” (McKelvey n.
A child protective service worker is a person described as an investigator that explores claims of child abuse or neglect. They have the challenging assignment of guessing what happened and foretelling what will occur in the future. (Oncu, Kurt, Esenay, & Ozer, 2013) Child Protective Service receives and investigates allegation of abuse or neglect 24 hours per day, all day of the year. The profession of the child protective service has been labeled as difficult, demanding, and tremendously challenging, earlier studies have only measured the job in the setting of a community child welfare agency. The child protective services can and will remove a child from the home if the child has shown sign of abuse of any kind especially sexual. In the United States in 2011, 6.2 million children remained mentioned to child protective services for abuse or neglect. Once the demographic outline of stated children is related to that of the common people, it develops strong children appearance several families, commu...