Feminist Theory Of Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking and The Feminist Theory

By:

Taylor Wiggins

Central Connecticut State University

CRM 260

Human Trafficking has been a huge problem in society that has been going on for many years. It is the second fastest increasing criminal industry coming in after illegal-drug trade. “The International Labor Organization estimates that there are 20.9 million victims of human trafficking globally, including 5.5 million children. 55% are women and girls.” (Polaris.org) Human trafficking began in the 1400’s when forms of slavery existed. It is a problem because it is a huge violation of people’s rights and affects men, women, and children. Even though human trafficking is illegal, it still happening because there are many

Trafficking comes in two categories: sexual and labor exploitation. “The Trafficking Victims Protection Act Of 2000 classified human trafficking as: a) Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or b) The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.” (U.S Dept. Of Health and Human Services). Sex trafficking consists of prostitution, sex tourism, stripping, pornography, and military prostitution. Even though stripping and pornography is illegal to an extent, it is still a form of sex trafficking because people are paying to see people exploit

“Forced labor is any work or services which people are forced to do against their will under the threat of some form punishment.” (Belser, pg. 2) There are three types of forced labor: bonded labor, child labor, and domestic servitude. Bonded labor is when a person is working to pay off a debt. Traffickers are able to keep the victim as a worker by paying them very low wages. Child labor is when children are forced to work long hours of the day to make money to support him or herself or family since they may lack education and have low socioeconomic statuses. Child labor is also very similar to domestic servitude because the workers consist of children of the age of 15 and women. Many domestic workers are immigrants that migrated to another country to find work. Since they are undocumented, traffickers threaten the families to work for them or be deported back to their country. “Forced labor is practiced in a wide range of industrial sectors, including domestic service, the food industry, factory production and agriculture.” (Berkeley J. Int'l Law) The clothes, food, and other things that people buy for expensive prices are made by victims of human trafficking and forced labor workers that are paid less than $5 a