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Recommended: Prostitution to minors
The Convention on the Rights of the Child’s Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography defines child prostitution as “the act of obtaining, procuring or offering the services of a child or inducing a child to perform sexual acts for any form of compensation or reward.” The prostitution of a child manifests itself in a form of human/sex trafficking. The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons (2000) defines child trafficking as the “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring and/or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation.” Many people refuse to recognize child trafficking as a real threat. But the reality of the situation is that every year, a total of millions of children are forced or duped into participating in these acts (I.L.O. 2005). The dangers the victims of this crime face are far beyond anything a normal citizen could imagine. But thankfully, there are people and organizations that are willing to demolish this business. There has been a range of proposed solutions that are currently being implemented. These are classified into four different types of action: protection, law enforcement, prevention, and victim assistance.
Mechanisms
In general, child trafficking takes place in three stages: “recruitment, movement, and exploitation” (UNICEF). Recruitment occurs when a recruiter approaches a child, or the child approaches a recruiter on his or her own accord. It is easy for an adult to prey on a child’s youth and vulnerability. They are promised things – like money, food, and shelter. In exchange for these basic essentials, they are forced to engage in sexual activities, hard labor, armed forces etc. On other occasions, “the childr...
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...Protection from Violence, Exploitation and Abuse." UNICEF. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. .
"Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict." United Nations, 2000. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. .
"Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography." United Nations, 2000. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. .
"Training Manual to Fight Child Trafficking in Children for Labour, Sexual and Other Forms of Exploitation - Textbook 1: Understanding Child Trafficking." N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. .
"Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention." International Labour Organization, 1999. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. .
Kotrla, K., & Wommack, B. A. (2011). Sex Trafficking of Minors in the U.S.: Implications for Policy, Prevention and Research. Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk: Vol. 2 (Iss. 1), article 5.
An estimated 20.9 million people are currently being trafficked worldwide (The Polaris Project, 2014). According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA, reauthorized in 2013), sex trafficking is defined as, “A commercial sex act induced by force, fraud, or coercion, and/or in which the person induced to...
Awareness of child sexual trafficking can be viewed as a balanced scale, with one side representing the country’s population that is fully informed of the issue, while the other side is either unaware or unattached to the issue. The public needs to have more involvement with this affair based on multiple concerns; first, the act of child sex trafficking itself is a serious crime that violates human rights (Fong & Cardoso, 2010). Second, various negative health repercussion including transmittable sexual diseases, physical damages, mental disturbance, post traumatic stress disorders, and other illnesses plague many victims (Fong & Cardoso, 2010). Third, sexual trafficking is responsible for generating poverty as a result of obstructing economic, and social development (Reid, 2012). Child sex trafficking proves to be a global dilemma affecting numerous countries
Hobbs, Sandy. "Child Prostitution." Issues: Understanding Controversy and Society. ABC-CLIO, 2006. Web. 23 Oct. 2015.
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.
Stephanie Hepburn states that, "The US is one of the top 10 destinations for human trafficking—with tens of thousands of people trafficked into the country each year." Many people believe that since the United States is the land of opportunities, events like human trafficking do not exist; little do they know it happens everywhere. Human trafficking is a worldwide problem that plagues the United States; many people are oblivious to the issue and action needs to be taken to protect the innocent people who are involved.
Human trafficking is prevalent throughout the world, especially in Asia and more specifically in China but the government and non-governmental organizations (NGO) are taking measures to put an end to it. Human trafficking involves exploitation of human beings; either sexually or by coercing them to work in unfavourable conditions for little pay or nothing at all. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) defines human trafficking as “the acquisition of people by improper means such as force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them.” Women and children, especially girls between the ages of fourteen and twenty constitute the majority of victims of human trafficking. “China is a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking; the majority of which is internal trafficking” (www.humantrafficking.org).
June 19, 1865 was the day that slavery ended in the south. However, slavery is not over for the 300,000 children under the age of 18 who may become victims of sex trafficking each year. Reports state that sex trafficking generates a profit of $32 billion every year. This is problem is an ever present struggle in today 's society. Many of these people, young and old, who are in the business of human trafficking today, are trapped in it against their will. However, legislative policies, and current courses of actions are working to eradicate the industry of selling humans. Consequently, the most efficient way of dissolving sex trafficking is by education and prevention. Therefore, the informative properties of this paper will help the reader
Not only is human sex trafficking slavery but it is big business. It is the fastest-growing business of organized crime and the third-largest criminal enterprise in the world (fbi.gov). While the U.S. Department of State estimates that 800,000 – 900,000 people are trafficked across borders annually, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and many other organizations taking the lead to eradicate trafficking put the number above 2 million (feminist.org). On average one in five victims of human trafficking are children. In third world countries the number is even higher. Children are more wanted especially in the work force because of their small hands for working on machinery and untangling lines and nets.
The United States has one of the largest percentages of trafficked humans worldwide, however so many individual are unaware of this issue. As many as 17,500 individuals are thought to be trafficked into the United Stated annually, and some have estimated that 100,000 U.S. citizen children are victims of trafficking within the U.S. (Siskin & Wyler, 2010). Since many cases go unreported, these estimates may be fewer than the actual number of victims in the US. There is substantial evidence that supports the ideology that woman and children from low socio-economic status are most likely targeted (Okech, Morreau, & Benson, 2011), of all the people trafficked each year about 70 percent of women and 50 percent are children that are mainly forced into the sex trade (Human Trafficking Statistics). Among socio-economic problems, the trafficking business feeds on conditions of vulnerability, such as family conflicts, natural disasters, youth, ignorance, gender, social exclusion, political instabil...
Sex trafficking is essentially systemic rape for profit. Force, fraud and coercion are used to control the victim’s behavior which may secure the appearance of consent to please the buyer (or john). Behind every transaction is violence or the threat of violence (Axtell par. 4). Just a decade ago, only a third of the countries studied by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime had legislation against human trafficking. (Darker Side, par.1) Women, children, and even men are taken from their homes, and off of the streets and are brought into a life that is almost impossible to get out of. This life is not one of choice, it is in most times by force. UNODC estimates that the total international human trafficking is a $32-billion-per-year business, and that 79% of this activity comprises sexual exploitation. As many as 2 million children a year are victims of commercial sexual exploitation, according the the U.S. State Department.-- Cynthia G. Wagner. (Darker Side, par. 4) The words prostitute, pimp, escort, and stripper tend to be way too common in the American everyday vocabulary. People use these words in a joking manner, but sex trafficking is far from a joke. Everyday, from all different countries, people are bought and sold either by force or false promises. Some are kidnapped and others come to America with dreams of a dream life and job. The buyers involved in the trade will do anything to purchase an innocent life just to sell for their own selfish profit. Many people wouldn’t think of a human body to be something you can buy in the back room of a business or even online. But those plus the streets are where people are sold most often. There are many reasons and causes for sex trafficking. The factors behind sex traffic...
"An ounce of cocaine, wholesale: $1 ,200. You can sell it only once. A woman or child is
“Stolen people, stolen dream” is the brutality faced by numerous, vulnerable, gullible children in the black market around the world even in the admirable United States. Trafficking of children is the modern day slavery, the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud, or coercion. More than ever, it has become a lucrative method that is trending in the underground economy. A pimp can profit up to $150,000 per children from age 4-12 every year, as reported by the UNICEF. Also, according to the International Labor Organization statistics, “There are 20.9 million victim of human trafficking globally, with hundreds of thousands in the United
One reason why human trafficking is a serious crime that many people are unaware of is because it secretly takes place in the United States. Between 2007 and 2012, there were reports of 9,298 different cases of human trafficking (Polaris Project). An example of how unknown this topic is is that 41% of sex trafficking cases and 20% of labor trafficking cases were proven to have United States citizens as victims (Polaris Project). And this is only what we know so far. There are thousands of cases that we don’t know about. Many people also don’t know that men, women, and even children are also taken hostage by human traffickers. An example of this would be that out of those 9,298 cases that were reported, women were victims of sex trafficking in 85% of those cases. Men were victims of labor trafficking in 40% of those cases (Polaris Project). Approximately 300,000 children are at risk of being prostituted in the United States (U.S. Department of Justice). Children are even more under the radar than we know about. On average, one in three teenagers on the street will be lured toward prostitution within 48 hours of leaving their home (National Runaway Hotline). For example, two female friends who were minors ran away from home and were prom...
"UNODC Report on Human Trafficking Exposes Modern Form of Slavery." Global Report on Trafficking in Persons. UNODC, n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2014. .