Essay On Child Sex Trafficking

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The selected topic for the capstone project is child sex trafficking, which is defined as the recruitment, concealing, transportation, delivery, procurement, or marketing of a minor child to engage them in profitable sex acts (National Human Trafficking Hotline, n.d.). Child sex traffickers target children based on their defenselessness and use mental/emotional pressures along with intimidation to control the child for financial gain. Child sex trafficking results in disturbing consequences for child victims which include psychical and psychological trauma as well as contracting of diseases and death (Federal Bureau of Investigation, n.d.). A major problem/issue with child sex trafficking is the prosecution of minor victims when captured for crimes committed during sex trafficking. Minor victims are often treated as criminals instead of victims by law enforcement …show more content…

A minor victim of child sex trafficking that resulted in the minor child committing a crime and being treated as a criminal rather than a victim. Cyntoia Brown was being trafficked for sex at the young age of 14-years-old by a man who was 23-years-old (Raphelson, 2017). During one of her sex trafficking encounters Cyntoia Brown shot and killed John Mitchell Allen, a man who purchased her to engage in sexual acts with her (Raphelson, 2017). Though Cyntoia Brown admitted to shooting John Mitchell Allen, she was a victim of child sex trafficking and the court system did not take her history of abuse from being trafficked into consideration. Cyntoia Brown was treated solely as a criminal instead of being seen as the victim she was. This resulted in her being charged as an adult, convicted, and sentenced in 2006 at age 16-years-old to life in prison for this murder (Raphelson, 2017). If Cyntoia were arrested for the same crime now, she would be recognized as a victim and would not be charged as an adult due to safe harbor

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