Sex trafficking is a global issue that involves a form of coerced sexual exploitation, which is not limited to prostitution. Victims of sex trafficking are stripped of their basic human rights and forced to live a life of modern slavery. The U.S. State Department (Stop Child Trafficking Now, 2012) has stated that human trafficking is “one of the fastest growing crimes in the world.” It it hard to put a number on how on many people are living inside the sex trafficking industry for many reasons, one being that not all victims come forward. It is estimated by the U.S. State Department (Stop Child Trafficking Now, 2012) that every year “600,00-800,000 people will be trafficked across international borders, 80% being women and children.” This …show more content…
Many of these health related problems they will have to suffer with for many years, or perhaps the rest of their lives. Victims of sex trafficking are physically abused, tortured, and are at risk for numerous, diseases, illnesses, and injuries. They experience grueling injuries of broken bones, burns, scars, and even head trauma. Women are likely to encounter unwanted pregnancies, “sterility, miscarriage, menstrual problems, mutilations, and forced abortions” (Deshpande & Nour, 2013). They are susceptible to a number of sexually transmitted diseases, as well as HIV. Housing conditions are often unsanitary and very poor. This makes the victim more vulnerable to illness like tuberculosis, malaria, and pneumonia. Children especially are likely to experience malnutrition, and stunted growth. Due to the illegal nature of sex trafficking, traffickers do not usually allow their victims to seek medical attention for their injuries, and medical concerns. While victims of sex trafficking suffer horrendous physical injuries, they also suffer from pain that can 't be seen from outside. There is a large number of psychological effects that a victim may face, what each victim experiences differs greatly depending on the victim and their experience. Victims can face a myriad of effects such as shame, grief, fear, distrust, self-hatred. Suicidal thoughts, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and self-loathing. Much of the psychological trauma they experience stems from the torture, and physical abuse they have experienced during their life inside the sex
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,
Kotrla, K., & Wommack, B. A. (2011). Sex Trafficking of Minors in the U.S.: Implications for Policy, Prevention and Research. Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk: Vol. 2 (Iss. 1), article 5.
Many people are victims of sex trafficking and this horror must be stopped for the sake of the innocent girls and women who are being taken advantage of. Trafficking is a form of modern slavery because people’s bodies are sold for the gain of others against their wills. The steps that must be taken to prevent sex trafficking involve raising political and social awareness, people working together and the prosecution of traffickers.
An estimated 20.9 million people are currently being trafficked worldwide (The Polaris Project, 2014). According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA, reauthorized in 2013), sex trafficking is defined as, “A commercial sex act induced by force, fraud, or coercion, and/or in which the person induced to...
Awareness of child sexual trafficking can be viewed as a balanced scale, with one side representing the country’s population that is fully informed of the issue, while the other side is either unaware or unattached to the issue. The public needs to have more involvement with this affair based on multiple concerns; first, the act of child sex trafficking itself is a serious crime that violates human rights (Fong & Cardoso, 2010). Second, various negative health repercussion including transmittable sexual diseases, physical damages, mental disturbance, post traumatic stress disorders, and other illnesses plague many victims (Fong & Cardoso, 2010). Third, sexual trafficking is responsible for generating poverty as a result of obstructing economic, and social development (Reid, 2012). Child sex trafficking proves to be a global dilemma affecting numerous countries
Sex trafficking is when women, young girls, and young boys are held in slavery and forced into prostitution for the financial gain of others in brothels in the United States, Europe, and other developing countries such as Thailand and the Philippines (Sexual Slavery). It’s happened to many women and children throughout many years in many of these countries for money and more power. Often purchased or kidnapped off the street, women, girls, and boys are trafficked across international
Because of the lack of care most victims have, physical consequences can not only cause long term effects but can easily also lead to death. Physical developments are more dangerous, harder to over come, can cause further long term concerns, and can negatively influence the victim’s situation while still with traffickers. The common physical effects that sex trafficking victims suffer stated in Fact Sheet: Sex Trafficking (English) are “drug and alcohol addiction; physical injuries (broken bones, concussions, burns, vaginal/anal tearings); traumatic brain injury (TBI) resulting in memory loss, dizziness, headaches, numbness; sexually transmitted diseases (e.g., HIV/AIDS, gonorrhea, syphilis, UTIs, pubic lice); sterility, miscarriages, menstrual problems; other diseases (e.g., TB, hepatitis, malaria, pneumonia); and forced or coerced abortions.” Same as mental effects, if these physical effects go untreated they can go bad very quick. Without proper care the possibility of death is very high and extremely probable. When physical damage has occurred and it has not been tended too victims could have trouble with the traffickers because they are not performing and complying with the orders that are given to them. Some of the physical illness that are attained by victims are ones that are incurable and because of them they will permanently alter the
In order to maintain the safe and secure social reality that is desired, it is important to understand the dangers that harm that desire. Sex trafficking victims want nothing more than to be rescued and it takes outsiders, in this case medical professionals, to recognize the issues in their reality and take action. At risk victims should not go unseen due to lack of knowledge in the medical field. “A strategic, coordinated health care response to identified ST victims will help reduce the health consequences these victims face, ensure patients’ quality of care and safety, and improve efforts to address this important public health issue.” (Medical Providers
Sex trafficking is a world wide epidemic. It targets unknowing victims such as women and children enslaving them and exploiting their innocence. Human trafficking is becoming one of the biggest money making organized crimes in the world. The sex trade is one of the most profitable of all current slave trades. Through the age, gender, class, and race many are trapped in a never-ending cycle of coercion and abuse in order to survive in the corrupt society around them. In order to stop this monstrosity in the world, we need to start at the root of the problem. We must bridge the barriers between gender, class, and race in order to respect one another and live in harmony
The effect that trafficking has on their victims is the same effect that people have when they were raped, sexually harassed, etc. People who were trafficked tend to suffer from serious health problems including physical health, reproductive health and mental health problems. Mostly women but men too tend to go into physical exhaustion and become victims of unwanted touching, grabbing, oral sex, anal sex, etc. Mental wise the victim might have many emotional effects, severe stress and depression.
The objective was to investigate physical and mental health and experiences of violence among male and female trafficking survivors in a high-income country. In other to do this, data were derived from a cross-sectional survey of 150 men and women in England who were in contact with post trafficking support services. Interviews took place over 18 months, from June 2013 to December 2014. Participants had been trafficked for sexual exploitation (29%), domestic servitude (29.3%), and labor exploitation (40.4%). Sixty-six percent of women reported forced sex during trafficking, including 95% of those trafficked for sexual exploitation and 54% of those trafficked for domestic servitude. Twenty-one percent of men and 24% of women reported ongoing injuries, and 8% of men and 23% of women reported diagnosed sexually transmitted infections. Finally, 78% of women and 40% of men reported elevated levels of depression, anxiety, or posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Psychological interventions to support the recovery of this highly vulnerable population are urgently
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...
Victims of sex trafficking often face a different type of psychological and psychosocial trauma in comparison to general gender-based violence. Neither crimes outweigh the other in such circumstances because any type of abuse is traumatizing to victims, however,
This can result in untreated sexually transmitted diseases. According to the text, “The work of a victim of sex trafficking is endless, brutal, and sometimes deadly. It is suggested that the trafficking of victims for the purpose of sexual exploitation is more dangerous to the victim than trafficking for labor. Victims of sex trafficking are exposed to physical violence, sexual violence, sexually transmitted diseases and confinement” (Burke 2013) The fact that victims of sexual exploitation face immeasurable abuse leads me to wonder what protocol is if a victim were to become pregnant as a result of sexual violence. It is possible that this will lead to involuntary abortion, violence toward the pregnant victim, or a child being born into the violent lifestyle of human trafficking, never knowing the criminality of their lifestyle. This possibility explores the sinister idea of a child being raised as a sex slave, not knowing it is not normal for any person, let alone a person their
Despite the United States’ active role in supporting international laws banning sex trafficking, the domestic industry continues to thrive for several reasons. For some, the economic benefits are too hard to resist when the federal law is weak at best, and many state laws victimize young girls. Moreover, there is a lack of knowledge about the problem and training on how to best respond. In order to make progress, one needs to identify the reasons behind sex trafficking, propose policies and actions that treat this as a crime, and create conditions where there is more societal awareness to this