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

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

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