The documentary Very Young Girls followed the story of several sex trafficking victims in New York. It put a particular focus on the psychological aspects of trafficking: how the pimps made the girls feel loved and acted as a father figure for them. The victims were manipulated into blaming themselves for the abuse they experienced. They felt powerless and isolated, as if they had no other option than to continue to live under control of the trafficker. Some girls like Ebony struggled with staying away from the life, almost like an addiction. Ebony believed the only way this way of life would end for her was with death. Many of the victims were trafficked at an extremely young age. Sometimes, instability in their home life causes them to leave. Dominique’s mother shamed her and …show more content…
This makes the recovery process all the more difficult because even when the victims are physically removed from their traffickers, some still feel like they need to return. One of the girls said she still loved her trafficker, even though she knew it was wrong. The traffickers are experts at manipulating these girls into staying in their exploitative situations. The two main vulnerabilities they utilize are their age and the instability of their home life. These girls are young, with low levels of education and lack of wisdom about the world, which makes it easier for the traffickers to delude them. They also use emotional manipulation to create an environment that at first seems more welcoming and loving than their home life. For the traffickers, it is extremely easy to victimize these girls and then sit back and collect the money, and their job is hardly hindered at all by the authorities. The lack of help from law enforcement shows another aspect of the problem: there is no risk for the traffickers, because punishment is almost
Over 2 million children are sold into sex trafficking each year (Global). Sold gives the eye-opening narrative of just one of them. I followed Lakshmi through her journey as she learned about life outside her small hometown in Nepal. She loved her mother and baby brother and worked hard to keep up with her repulsive step-father’s gambling habit. When given the opportunity to take a job that could provide for her family, Lakshmi accepted the offer. Unknowingly, she walked into the hands of horrible people who led her blindly on the path of prostitution. Discovering her fate, Lakshmi latched onto hope when all seemed bleak. After months of endless abuse, some Americans gave her the opportunity to escape her situation, and, thankfully, she took
The book Renting Lacy: A Story of America’s Prostituted Children by Linda Smith addresses the topic of the underground world of child sex trafficking. Unfortunately, it is a topic that has been purposefully neglected in our society for many years. The author presents every chapter with a real story of a sexually exploited child. The stories are intense, powerful but especially touching which makes the reader feel frustrated, desperate, and vexed. After every chapter, Smith tries to include commentaries that presents a deeper understating about human trafficking. It seems that the purpose of her commentaries is to make the reader think deeper about the problem of sex trafficking and accumulate desires to act towards this issue as they continue
It is not the girls fault and if these traffickers are punished and made an example of, it could discourage others from following this dark path and this will mitigate and eventually end sex trafficking. Some countries don’t persecute the traffickers, or they do very little to punish them, and this needs to change to eliminate sexual trafficking. When some countries are “lagging behind with no counter-trafficking laws at all”(Jesionka), this prevents people who are held captive from getting the justice they deserve in some parts of the world. If the world worked together to eliminate this, the countries that are exploited for this trade would keep their people safer. The countries need to take on these traffickers if there is going to be any difference in this modern slavery.
Human trafficking is the act of coercing someone into working against his or her will. Anyone can be a victim, especially young girls who are vulnerable to the captor’s lies. Victims have been found anywhere from driving ice cream trucks to touring boys’ choir. In her talk, Noy Thrupkaew shares several examples about how people are deceived and coerced into coming to the United States and being forced to work for someone else. She focuses on how close to home human trafficking really is and how the victims don’t necessarily need saving but solidarity. In Noy Thrupkaew’s speech about human trafficking, she not only shares her own story but also the different situations regarding how the crime functions. Because the speaker
The documentary “Tricked” was very difficult to watch but it was obligatory that we do because we need to see the reality of human trafficking. It really exposed what the victims of human trafficking go through everyday. The fact that they also interviewed different pimps and showed us how they operate is very important since it gave us a deeper understanding on how they choose their victims and get them to stay. In this paper, not only will I talk about what I learned about human trafficking throughout the semester in, and from reading The Slave Across the Street, The Slave Next door, Half the Sky and listening to Heidi’s presentation; I will also talk about what I believe is the best way to fight human trafficking and why. I will focus
Like I stated earlier my brother goes out into the dangerous streets in Alaska to help women who are trapped in sex trafficking. Finding out what really happens and that my brother could get killed trying to help these women makes sex trafficking very personal for me. The text talks about how girls start to trust a pimp and then he takes advantage of them. Once they’re in the pimp’s care they are hard to help and get out. I wake up every day wondering if my brother is safe. It hit me hard when the article talked about troubled girls who go in search of love and find the pimp’s. I’ve been in a situation where I was searching for love and was very vulnerable to anyone who came along. I can understand how easily it is to trust someone who is telling you what you want to
(Reid & Piquero, 2014). There are some common terminologies regarding the determinants that led many young victims into this path; the first one is “love bombing”, this term is coined by many gang members, which infers promises made to young victims for love or better lives, then requiring them to earn money through sex trafficking (Reid, 2014). The second term is “entrapment”, this general term regards to schemes that a pimp or exploiter can use to influence the victims’ emotions in order to force them into perform sexual trafficking (Reid, 2014). A few familiar examples can be: normalizing sex, isolation, flatter or romance, preying on intellectually disabled youths (Reid, 2014), false agencies advertise for modeling opportunity, but often turns out to be abduction traps leading to sex trafficking (Hodge, 2008). The entrapment examples above vary in repetition, some are used often, while others are special cases (Reid, 2014). Another term is “enmeshment”, this term offers an alternative conception for emotional factors being reasons why a child victim would be linked to sex trafficking situations; for examples, loyalty, a sense of obligation, pimps provide hope to return to family, intimidations, or fear of harming loved ones (Reid, 2014). It is also highly conventional to threaten pregnant female victims, ranging from
Sex traffickers normally use several approaches to condition the victims. Physical abuse is used majority of the time, in addition to rapes, and gang rape. Electrocution is also something they use on the victims to carry out these repulsive sexual actions. The traffickers also force drugs on the victims in many cases. This causes the victim to get addicted and be willing to do anything to get their high. There are other conditioning methods besides physical, s...
Also the traffickers use everything because the victims are vulnerable, to control the victims often the victims are being belittled by their traffickers, many people that suffered sometimes tell their experience and say that the cartels bring them down so much that sooner or later they started to believe that they were just like the cartels had told them how they were; that it was all their fault for being a victim; and also that no one would want to be near them or would care for them because of what they had to do in their daily forced lives. Victims that are trafficked in Mexico often suffer from a lot of illnesses, disorders, diseases, and women often get pregnant and have unsafe abortions, and are more open to catching them, too.” Victims of human trafficking have often “experienced, witnessed, or [been] confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others” and their response to these events frequently involves “intense fear, helplessness, or horror” said in a document by Williamson, Erin; “Evidence-Based Mental Health Treatment for Victims of Human Trafficking”.... ... middle of paper ...
Identifying the victims and rescuing them is the main key to preventing human trafficking, which in turn reduces costs to the healthcare system. Human trafficking is a form of organized crime. It involves a hierarchical system, which is similar to that of other criminal organizations. The traffickers represent every social, racial and ethnic group. Some traffickers are involved with local gangs, while others are members are part of nationally recognized gangs and organizations. Some traffickers are independent and do not have any affiliation with other gangs or organizations. Traffickers exist irrespective of gender. There are several women in human trafficking activities along with men. Several young girls living on the streets, engage in prostitution. Some of them are involved in nationwide organized criminal activities where the organizers of crime force these young girls into human trafficking. It is problematic to enforce anti-trafficking laws because in most of these cases, the victims do not tell the identity of the traffickers with the fear of being
This seemed to follow a pattern. Rain, who was recruited into sex trafficking at age 11, claimed her pimp only had minors in his “stable”. To keep control of his victims he threatened them by threatening their families. Finally yet importantly is Cindy who, along with other women, were intimidated and trapped within a home to insure their obedience. Their stories depict a world dominated by shame, regret, and fear.
Domestic sex trafficking is the vile new innovative business model used in the sex industry to promote prostitution. The myth about sex trafficking is that it is a foreign not a domestic problem. Sex trafficking is a very lucrative business. The “John’s” create a demand and the “pimps” provide the supply. Child abuse, child neglect, pornography, pedophilia and prostitution are all links in the chains that enslaves America’s children for the pleasure of adults.
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).
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...
These young women suffer with huge mental health issues while being trafficked and also afterwards. These can be lifelong mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). They can also have trust issues which can affect them in later life when they are trying to build new relationships and many women also feel suicidal or attempt to commit suicide in worse cases (Themedicaldaily.com, 2015). As we can see from above trafficking has a major effect on the health and wellbeing of these young women and girls. It affects them socially emotionally and mentally.