Sex Trafficking In The United States

Over 27 million people are enslaved in the world today, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked internationally and 14,500 to 17,500 of those are trafficked into the U.S. each year (PBS). Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, and sale of persons by use of force, coercion, or abduction for purposes such as labor or sex (UNODC, 2006, p.50). Today 4.5 million people are sexually exploited each year, making about 99 billion dollars globally ("United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime"). In Atlanta alone, sex trafficking generates about 290 million dollars annually ("Estimating the Size and Structure of the Underground Commercial Sex Economy in Eight Major US Cities"). Very few people are aware of this subject, and the laws and policies

currently in place are not decreasing sex trafficking. The U.S. government should work towards reforming current policies and laws in order to protect younger people from becoming sex trafficking victims and to restore current victims freedom from slavery and harsh treatment.
Reforming and enforcing the current sex trafficking laws would decrease illegal activity.

However, there are many challenges to ending sex trafficking, one is being able “to target the criminals who exploit desperate people and to protect and assist victims of trafficking…” ("United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime"). In order to raise conviction rates the government needs stricter laws; the current laws are not deterring criminals from committing these crimes. As Haugen stated, next to “no one has been prosecuted for trafficking” (Melzer), this shows other traffickers that they can get away with sexual exploitation. Another issue with the current laws is that they all vary from state to state and different government agencies prosecute differently. For example, “Under federal law, a child under 18 years who is commercially sexually abused is a victim of trafficking. However under local law a child is charged with child prostitution,” ("Enslaved in America: Sex Trafficking in the United States"). To be able to protect the victims and prosecute the traffickers, the government should enforce the same laws nationwide. According to the text, “Better, well-defined laws are also necessary to assist law enforcement agencies in finding traffickers,” ("Prevention of Human Trafficking: A Review of the Literature"). Laws would help increase communication between local government agencies and federal agencies, making it more efficient to arrest and convict traffickers. New laws must

be enacted to increase arrests and convictions of traffickers and decrease the wrongful arrests of victims.
The creation and enforcement of stricter policies would decrease sex trafficking.

Not only do we need new laws, but we also need new policies to provide clear outlines of the government's plans to decrease trafficking. As stated by “Equality Now” “A holistic and comprehensive strategy is needed to combat sex trafficking effectively,” ("Global Sex Trafficking Fact Sheet"). Our current policies do not specifically lay out the government’s plans to fight sex trafficking, meaning they most likely do not have one. In order to set laws in motion, government officials need to form clear and concise policies that will lead to more successful laws. Policies that protect victims need to be put in place because “Victims of trafficking are often treated as criminals by authorities…”("Prevention of Human Trafficking: A Review of the Literature"). If policies, for government officials, are put into place for them to follow then there would be fewer occurrences of mistreatment. As stated before, “Another prevention strategy might be increasing the collaboration among law enforcement agencies on a regional, federal, and international level” ("Prevention of Human Trafficking: A Review of the Literature"). There need to be policies that increase collaboration between agencies so that there is a common way to handle sex trafficking situations. Policies would provide a structured outline for government agencies and the way they handle situations; overall leading to a decline in sex

trafficking.
Raising awareness about sex trafficking would encourage people to inform others and help combat it. Right now not many government agencies are informed on how to handle sex trafficking and that is due to little awareness of the topic. For instance, “This lack of training means that many trafficking cases go unrecognized and unreported,” ("3 Key Challenges in Combating the Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States"). The majority of government authorities are not trained to handle sex trafficking situations and victims because of a lack of knowledge on the subject. They are unable to handle the situation correctly because they have not been taught how to. In order to increase the number of reported cases, there needs to be an increase in awareness. In addition “Several researchers contend the creation of anti-trafficking laws...would only be successful if victims...could be accurately identified and treated no differently than they would treat any other victim of a crime…”( "Prevention of Human Trafficking: A Review of the Literature"). Due to law enforcement agencies not being trained in certain situations involving sex trafficking, they often do not know how to treat them or how to identify them, often leading to wrongful arrests. Not only do agencies need to be aware of the topic but citizens do too. The typical victim is not a young adult, it is a child, typically anywhere from age 11 to 14. Today traffickers biggest tool is the media ("Enslaved in America: Sex Trafficking in the United States"), making it easier for young teens to be targeted. Awareness applies to everyone, the more people are informed the more the likelihood of sex trafficking will decrease, slowly disintegrating the industry.
Some people may argue that U.S. laws and policies promote sex trafficking but in actuality, it decreases it. Melzer believes "U.S. interventions...are contributing to the trafficking and exploitation of women,” (Melzer). The U.S. policies are not strict and do not discourage sex trafficking. Due to little attention and money being put towards sex trafficking in the U.S, they believe it increases the sexual exploitation of women. However, new laws and policies would substantially decrease sex trafficking. As previously stated before “better, well-defined laws” ("Prevention of Human Trafficking: A Review of the Literature") are needed to protect people and combat trafficking. Laws and policies are what keep people in check, without them we would have chaos; we need them to prevent the increase of sex trafficking. With reformations and formations of laws and policies, sexual exploitation of women and children would substantially decrease not increase.
The need for law and policy reformation is vital to protect people from sex trafficking and will help reinstate their freedom from slavery and harsh treatment. Stricter laws and policies will lower sex trafficking and make the criminal act less appealing. Raising awareness and informing communities would get people involved in an issue that gets increasingly bigger each year. President Obama once states that “Our fight against human trafficking is one of the great human rights causes of our time” ("3 Key Challenges in Combating the Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States"). It is not just the government's job to stop sex trafficking it is up to everyone to spread the word and raise awareness.