When the words “human trafficking” are heard, most people have mental images of young girls and women being beaten and abused (Walker-Rodriguez and Hill, 2011). Often times people’s mental images automatically assume that these victims of human trafficking are from Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa (Walker-Rodriguez and Hill, 2011). Unfortunately, human trafficking is a global issue (Jac-Kucharski) and happens everyday in the cities and towns surrounding us. Unfortunately, human trafficking isn’t as easy to recognize as other crimes and requires law enforcement officials and the public to understand what types of signals to look for in a victim.
It is estimated that each year from 14,500-17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked (Force 4 Compassion, Polaris Project). The Polaris Project and Force 4 Compassion found that 161 countries are affected by trafficking. Globally, approximately 50% of those being trafficked are minors, and 80% of the total being trafficked are female (Force 4 Compassion, Polaris Project). 70% of the female victims are forced into sex laboring, leaving only 30% of those females to do labor (Polaris Project). The average age range for a child entering sex laboring is 12-14 (WEDU). One of the biggest reasons for trafficking is that it is hard to identify and traffickers can make a good amount of money per victim. According to the Polaris Project $13,000 is the average amount of money made by each laborer (victim) annually. Although, $13,000 is the average, each laborer can make around $60,000 annually (Polaris Project). Sadly, victims who are recruited into trafficking often don’t live much more than seven years due to the inhumane ways they are treated (WEDU).
Human trafficking has two categories, sex and lab...
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Human trafficking is a modern form of slavery, in which individuals are being exploited for profit. When most of us hear human trafficking, we instantly conclude that a person is being held against their will to perform sexual acts and someone is profiting. In reality, there is also labor trafficking, where an individual is forced and threatened by employers to work against their will. There is an immense amount of victims of human trafficking not only in the United States, but also globally. Bringing awareness to communities is vital to help individuals who are victims of human trafficking to seek help, but also allow those to help rescue victims. By doing so, it is key to provide information on the rates of human trafficking, recruitment,
According to Van Wormer & Bartollas (2014), sex trafficking, “encompasses the organized movement of people, usually women, between countries and within countries for sex work” (p. 289). Sex trafficking is also a very lucrative business, it is estimated to make $31. 6 billion annually. This amount is estimated from the 2.5 million people who a trafficked each year. The exact number of people who are victims of the sex industry cannot be predicted accurately for all over the world. In the United States alone there is about 14,500-17,500 people trafficked each year. Human trafficking it the third biggest organized crime after drug and arms trafficking (Hodge, 2014). Young men make up about 44% of people being trafficked, while women and girls
According to Rijken (2009) any activity that involves the recruitment, transportation, or receipt of a person using coercive or deceptive means with the intent of exploitation is defined as Human Trafficking. If the victim is under 18 the coercive or deceptive means in unnecessary to call such conduct trafficking (p. 212). There are 12.3 million victims of human trafficking worldwide at any given moment (Hepburn & Simon, 2010; Nack, 2009). Statistics show that 43% are forced into the sex trade, 32% are used in forced labor, and the remaining 25% are trafficked for mixed or undetermined reasons (Hepburn & Simon, 2010). In the United States alone, 15-18,000 women, children, and men are trafficked annually. People of all genders, races, and ages are at risk of becoming victims of human trafficking. We can’t simply prosecute our way to social justice. Of course people who exploit people should be punished. But definitions of trafficking often cast a wide net, encompassing all sex workers. While law enforcement has the biggest role to play, the quest to end modern slavery must have other champions. Forced labor and sex trafficking is the second most profitable criminal enterprise, and the fastest growing. Yet the level of awareness within the United States is not commensurate. To truly confront this most egregious of crimes, civil society must be a lead proponent. Organizations already exist that help in a variety of ways, such as providing training to those who could identify victims. (Ergas, Y.; "Online Journal - JIA SIPA.")
In order to understand how sex trafficking affects its victims, one must first know the severity of sex trafficking and what it is. The issue of sex trafficking affects 2.5 million people at any given time (Abas et al., 2013). The form of sex slavery affects many women and children across the world. Even though both males and females are sexually trafficked and exploited, there is a deep emphasis on the sexual exploitation of women and children. This is due to gender discrimination (Miller, 2006). This is because women and children are more vulnerable and appeal to the larger populations of brothels and the so-called “clients” since the majority are men. Ecclestone (2013) stated that children as young as age three are trafficked. Sex trafficking has changed over time; “Today, the business of human sex trafficking is much more organized and violent. These women and young girls are sold to traffickers, locked up in rooms or brothels for weeks or months, drugged, terrorized, and raped repeatedly” (Walker-Rodriguez & Hill, 2011). It is found that many of the victims of sex trafficking are abducted, recruited, transported and forced into involuntary “sex work”. These sexual acts include prostitution, exotic dancing, pornography, and sexual escort services (McClain & Garrity, 2011). What happens to these sex trafficking victims is extremely traumatizing.
As victim count continues to rise, its difficult to see how such great numbers of men, women and children are bought and sold every year. Trafficking can be found in many forms, including: prostitution, slavery, or forced labor (Harf and Lombardi, 2014). It wasn’t until the 1980’s that international human trafficking became globally noticed. With the lack of government intervention and control in several nations, and the free trade market, slavery once again became a profitable industry (Harf and Lombardi, 2014). As previously mentioned, easier movement across nations borders is one of the outcomes of globalization. It is also what makes human trafficking so easy today. It is estimated that about 20.9 million people are victims across the entire globe (United Nations Publications, 2012); trafficking accounts for 32 billion dollars in generated profit globally (Brewer, n.d). 58 percent of all human trafficking was for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and of this 55-60 percent are women (United Nations Publications,
When it comes to human trafficking gender, race and ethnicity do not matter, anyone could be taken at any moment of the day. It is the third largest criminal organized enterprise in the world (Walker-Rodriguez & Hill, 2011) just below drug smuggling and illegal arms trade. It is the fastest growing crime in the world (Widbin, 2014). Though, slavery has been banned everywhere in the world millions of people are still slaves. Pimps will go after people that vulnerabilities such as immigration status and economic hardships. In 2007 human trafficking made thirty-two billion dollars, that was more than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined (Widbin, 2014). In the 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report, human trafficking is a multi-dimensional threat; it deprives people of their human rights and freedoms, it increases global health risks, and it fuels the growth of organized crime. The United States is one of the top three places for trafficking. There has been a case of human trafficking in every state in the United States (Widbin, 2014). California, New York and Nevada are the three most common states for trafficking. The most common cities are Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit...
“I’ve been held down like a piece of meat while monsters disguised as men violated me again & again.” (Gladys Lawson, Blood Borne Connections.) Human trafficking is the modern day slavery, it involves taking control over a person through force, fraud or coercion to exploit the victim for forced labor, sexual exploitation. or both (“What” par.1). This is become the sad reality for many, approximately three out of every 1,000 people worldwide are being forced into this such slavery. Victims of human trafficking are people of all backgrounds and ages, no one is safe from the dirty hands of human traffickers. Every year thousands of men, women, and children are forced into human trafficking the public needs to be informed, enhance penalties for violators, and raise awareness to finally put a stop to these horrible crimes that are happening right end our noses.
Thousands of women are currently held captive in America today. In 2006, it is estimated that over 300 thousand children are held in the sex trafficking business. Particularly, girls under the age of eighteen are forced into the sex trafficking trade. Sex trafficking is known as modern- day slavery. An estimate of 30 to 46 percent of juveniles in the trade attempt suicide. “Potterat et al., 2004 reports that women involved in prostitution have mortality rates 200 times higher than the national average) and are 18 times more likely to be murdered than their non-trafficked counterparts”, Cecchet (2014). Many girls will become abducted from their homes, schools, neighborhoods, and local shopping centers. Some of these young
Many people are astounded to hear that human trafficking is not just a complication outside of America’s borders and that it is flattering more of an American drawback as intervals go on. Human trafficking has converted into creation's second leading criminal industry, transforming the individual, their dignity and rights as a human being, and humankind. The United States of America is mainly a transfer for trafficking in persons. It is assessed in The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, “that 14,500 to 17,500 people, primarily women and children, are trafficked to the U.S. annually.” This act augments pre-existing illegal disadvantages, offers new defenses and makes accessible certain welfares and aids to victims of trafficking. The Department’s Annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices estimated that from at least 127 countries have found to be harnessed in 137 states. In the United States, for instance, more than 15,000 individuals are enforced into the present day counterpart of slavery every year. An estimated one hundred thousand to three hundred thousand Americans are forced into this each year, as predicted by the national police department. But the collision of human trafficking goes beyond individual victims; it undermines the safety and security of all nations it touches. The U.S. has aided states to enact anti-trafficking regulation, educated law enforcement officials, DAs, border guards and judicial officers, and impeaching traffickers, and protecting targets.
The United States is a major port for human trafficking and, “Due to the covert nature of human trafficking, it is difficult to ascertain which countries are the primary source nations for trafficking into the US” (Hepburn). People of all ages and genders are at risk to human trafficking (Hepburn). Women and girls make up about fifty-six percent of the people trafficked for forced labor, while men and boys make up the other forty-four percent; children make up forty to fifty percent of those numbers (Hepburn). Ninety-eight percent of the people trafficked for sexual explorations are women and girls (Hepburn). Children tend to be targeted more than adults because they are much more vulnerable. Human trafficking has different forms, and “While trafficking for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation is more publicized in the media, it is not the only form of trafficking that takes place in the US” (Hepburn). Trafficking for the purposes of forced labor is just as likely to occur as trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation (Hepburn). Many citizens have never heard of human trafficking for something other than sexual exploitation. Hepburn shows that, “Forty-three percent are trafficked for purposes of...
Human Trafficking is a global problem that affects the lives of millions of people in almost every country in the world, and which deprives them of their human dignity. As one of the most infamous crimes in the world, human trafficking is misleading and makes victims in women, men and children from all corners of the world every day and causes them to be exploited. Although the best-known form of human trafficking is sexual exploitation, hundreds of thousands of victims are also trafficked for the purposes of forced labor, forced labor as domestic servants, child begging and organ removal (Shelley, 2010). On the other side, “human trafficking is both a global problem and a domestic problem” (Jones, Engstrom, Hilliard, & Diaz, 2007, p.108-109)
Summary: We see that there are many different aspects and types of human trafficking that everyone should be made aware of. As a whole human trafficking is a lucrative industry raking in $150 BILLION globally. The impact that this industry has on its victims is
It is the world’s fastest growing global crime. It is also the world’s second largest source of illegal income after drug trafficking. According to the United Nations Office on drugs and crime (2012),”Women account for 55-60 per cent of all trafficking victims detected globally; women and girls together account for about 75% and as many as 161 countries are affected by human trafficking.” It is also believed that the victims arguably come from the poorest countries in the world. One of the main causes of human trafficking is vulnerability. For example, children are more vulnerable to trafficking because of their lack of understanding and experience. Additionally, in certain societies, women are less empowered than men thus resulting in gender inequality both at home and in the workplace. Gender inequality then leads to easy exploitation through the use of force or
Human trafficking, or the selling and buying of people, is a well-hidden yet prominent issue within today’s society. It is both an immoral and horrific topic that needs brought to attention and dealt with. When human beings are manipulated into work, sexual servitude, or economic hardship, human trafficking is occurring. In the year of 2006, only one individual is convicted of human trafficking per 800 victims (UNGIFT). By looking at straight statistics, reasons human trafficking happens, and the toll it has on people, it is very clear that this is a major issue that is happening in our world.
One reason why human trafficking is a serious crime that many people are unaware of is because it secretly takes place in the United States. Between 2007 and 2012, there were reports of 9,298 different cases of human trafficking (Polaris Project). An example of how unknown this topic is is that 41% of sex trafficking cases and 20% of labor trafficking cases were proven to have United States citizens as victims (Polaris Project). And this is only what we know so far. There are thousands of cases that we don’t know about. Many people also don’t know that men, women, and even children are also taken hostage by human traffickers. An example of this would be that out of those 9,298 cases that were reported, women were victims of sex trafficking in 85% of those cases. Men were victims of labor trafficking in 40% of those cases (Polaris Project). Approximately 300,000 children are at risk of being prostituted in the United States (U.S. Department of Justice). Children are even more under the radar than we know about. On average, one in three teenagers on the street will be lured toward prostitution within 48 hours of leaving their home (National Runaway Hotline). For example, two female friends who were minors ran away from home and were prom...