Unveiling Human Trafficking in the United States

‘Human Trafficking’

Alejandra Cabrera

Michael Beshears CJ205 DLS1A2016

2/9/16

Introduction

The United States is home to a number of social issues that plague the country, these range from institutionalized racism, sexism, homelessness, poverty and violence. However, there is one topic that tends to fly under the radar of the media and of the focus of American politicians, human trafficking (Kotrla, 2010). Human trafficking is often thought of as a problem that plagues other, poorer countries, not First World and Western countries. Many people, if not most, are unaware of the pervasiveness and the dangerous nature of human trafficking within the United States, often thinking it is a social issue that only arises in other, poorer, countries

One of the most comprehensive descriptions of human trafficking has been put forth by the United Nations, which defines the act of human trafficking as the “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of individuals through the use of threat, force, violence, fraud, coercion, deception, abuse of power or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person who is controlled by another person, for the sole purpose of exploitation” (Parreñas, Hwang & Lee, 2012, p.1015). As such, this definition focuses first on the concept of transportation and movement of the person, then on the concept of coercion, deception and fraud, finally the way this is established discusses exploitation as the last component. This definition differs from the definition of human migration and smuggling due to the fact that the consent of the individual involved is irrelevant (Parreñas, Hwang & Lee, 2012, p.1015). Human smuggling instead focuses on the illicit movement of individuals across national boundaries, in a manner that involves explicit consent from the individual involved (Parreñas, Hwang & Lee, 2012, p.1016). Regardless of these outlined

Children who are targeted and exploited by human traffickers often gain audience with their victims via the internet, through the use of social networking websites, via after school programs, the telephone and other places where children are unattended, such as the mall, a club, a playground or another social center (Zimmerman, 2010). The first step toward preventing the exploitation of these children and teens is to educate parents about the importance of supervision or their children as a means of preventing them from any individual who might seek to exploit them (Logan, Walker & Hunt,