Sex Trafficking: Modern Slavery

Sex trafficking; a subject hardly talked about or brought up. Sex trafficking is a form of modern slavery; it’s been going on for thousands of years. Sex trafficking is not hidden from the public’s eye but instead all around you, from the street corners to your own neighborhood. It is spreading rapidly and is getting bigger and bigger everyday. It is important to be safe and take precautions.

Just because you don’t see it happening doesn’t mean it isn’t going on. Sex trafficking is the third largest criminal activity in the world; it’s a form a human slavery (U.s Deportment Of Justice). Sex traffickers use violence, threats, lies, debt bondage, and other forms of coercion to compel adults and children to engage in commercial sex acts against

their will. Under U.S. federal law, any minor under the age of 18 years induced into commercial sex is a victim of sex trafficking (Polaris). It includes forced labor, domestic servitude and commercial sex trafficking (FBI). It reportedly generates a profit of $32 billion every year. Of that number, $15.5 billion is made in industrialized countries. The majority of human sex trafficking victims are U.S citizens.
Sex trafficking is one of the worlds fastest growing criminal enterprises according to Thomas Stackpole.

It is a $50 billion dollar industry affecting 20.9 million people worldwide (Foreign Policy). According to the U.S. State Department, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year, between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. each year. Globally, the average cost of a victim is $90. “Pimps and networks of traffickers usually target people who are poor, isolated or weak”(issue No. 213) because the find it an easier approach. Efforts to eliminate sex trafficking have been a tough challenge considering that it is going on everyday and everywhere and is growing day by day. It is less risky and more profitable to sell a girl than crack cocaine or meth. The U.S. government spends 300 times more money each year to fight drug trafficking than it does to fight human trafficking. And the criminal penalties for drug trafficking are generally greater than the ones usually levied against those who traffic in girls. Traffickers, and especially the politely termed “Johns,” are rarely arrested and prosecuted (Think

Progress).
It is important to be aware of sex trafficking or any others sex related industries because it can easily happen to you someone close to you.

Many victims become romantically involved with someone who then forces or manipulate him or her into prostitution. ). Girls are abducted or lured by traffickers and then routinely raped, beaten into submission, and sometimes even branded. When the girls try to run away, their trafficker’s torture and or gang rape them (Think Progress). They are the lost girls, standing around bus stops, hanging out by runaway youth shelters, or advertised online. At the Motel 8, at McDonalds or the clubs (Think Process). Others are lured in with false promises of a job, such as modeling or dancing. Some are forced to sell sex by their parents or other family members. They may be involved in a trafficking situation for a few days or weeks, or may remain in the same trafficking situation for years. Victims of sex trafficking are randomly picked. It’s a lot of human sex trafficking cases that are undetected or unreported (The Atlantic monthly group). In 2012 the number of estimated sex trafficking victims was over 20 million people, only 4,000 people were reported. Many women get pulled into commercial sex by gangs, pimps, delivery services, prostitution and neiborhoods (Priscilla

Alvarez).
50 percent more kids were rescued this year more than last year. The FBI rescued over 160 kids and put almost 200 pimps in jail (Fox4Kc). Kansas is cracking down on human trafficking. They plan on doing another flush in the next few years to come (A Tribune Broadcasting System Station). In Canada the migration of women into sex work increasingly scrutinized by the state. The majority of women who migrate do not enter into sex work (Briarpatch). Sex workers organizations are very clear on the steps needed to ensure safe, dignified, decent working conditions of women in the sex industry (Student resources). According to the FBI, there are currently an estimated 293,000 American children at risk of being exploited and trafficked for sex. Forty percent of all human trafficking cases opened for investigation between January 2008 and June 2010 were for the sexual trafficking of a child (Think Progress). And while the term trafficking may conjure images of desperate illegal immigrants being forced into prostitution by human smugglers, 83 percent of victims in confirmed sex trafficking cases in this country were American citizens (Think Progress).
Who is involved in sex trafficking? It is mostly made up of children, teen girls and adult women (Talk Of The Nation). The International Labor Organization estimates that women and girls represent the largest share of forced labor victims with 11.4 million trafficked victims (55%) compared to 9.5 million (45%) men. The common age is 14-16. Many victims are runaway girls who were sexually abused as children. Society calls it prostitution but the pubertal law calls it sex trafficking. Trafficking involves exploitation to slavery or involuntary servitude and compelling victims to commit sex acts. Sex trafficked children are treated for drug abuse, alcohol abuse, domestic violence, delinquency, teenage pregnancy, STDS and abortion (Shared Hope). Sex trafficking victims sometimes find it hard to speak about their experience. Sex traffickers find their victims on social network, home neighborhood, clubs/bars and schools. People who run sex trafficking businesses are transnational criminals, terriost, drug dealers, traffickers and pimps looking for control and money (Africa News). They take advantage of the open borders, free market and technological advances (Student Resources). They believe that they are bigger then the government. Law enforcement and state legislators are working on preventing this problem.