One of the most controversial social and health issues in our current time is human trafficking. It is an issue facing mostly women and girls around the world. Due to the fact that human trafficking is part of the black market, it is difficult to obtain accurate statistics. Nevertheless, current statistics show that there are approximately 800,000 people trafficked around the globe and 50,000 people in the United States in one year (Dovydaitis, 2010). Many people, especially in the U.S., think that human trafficking exists only outside our borders. However, this is completely incorrect since the United States is the second largest market in the world for human trafficking behind Germany (Miller, 2007)
According to the United nations, the definition
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The more human trafficking cases that appear, the higher the need for healthcare professionals trained on the issue are needed. It is important for a healthcare provider to be able to identify when a patient at a high risk of abuse is a victim of trafficking. When a physician identifies a human trafficking victim, that physician must develop a plan of care for the patient. The physician must understand that they cannot force the victim to state the crime due to the fact that the victim or the family could be at a great risk of harm (Powell, 2017). Healthcare providers need to be trained in how to deal with situations like this where the patient might be at risk of harm. The healthcare provider should make the victim feel comfortable and that that they are out of the zone of danger. If the victim feels threatened and powerless, then they will immediately refuse any treatment. However, the provider can aid the victim by pushing them to reach out to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. This center helps victims find local resources and ways that they can obtain help (Powell, …show more content…
No one country is exempt from the dangers of human trafficking, but there are measures being taken by certain nations to mitigate these issues. Healthcare providers have a duty to all patients in need and should try their best to help the victims of trafficking as much as they can. The first step providers and managers should take to help should be in training physicians and staff to deal and help those patients who are victims of human trafficking. Physicians can help identify the victims and can even help the victims find the courage to get help. There are no mandatory laws for physicians to report cases of human trafficking, but there are other ways physicians can help the patient such as giving them support and reassuring them that there are methods of help like the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. The mandatory laws that exist only apply to the human trafficking child abuse cases. This leaves all other cases to be unreported and in turn creates a huge ethical dilemma for healthcare organizations. Also the fact that the child welfare system can handle a big onset of patients poses a big risk for healthcare organizations. As time goes on, however, new laws and regulations keep mitigating the issues of human trafficking so that more and more victims peak out and get the help they
Country to country, person-to-person, human trafficking is becoming a bigger and bigger issue all across the globe, including right here in the United States. Human trafficking is said to be a form of modern-day slavery, subjecting its victims to commercial sex, debt bondage, and forced labor through force, fraud, or coercion. There are often no easily identifiable victims as they come in all ages, genders, and races. There are said to be at least 2.4 million victims of human trafficking across the globe at any given time, leading to profits of $32 billion for the criminal masterminds behind such trafficking operations, making it the second most lucrative criminal industry behind narcotics. Despite the abundance of victims, it is estimated that fewer than 30% of all countries report at least 10 trafficking convictions a year, and 20% of countries do not even have an offense for trafficking. An additional 20% of countries have an offense for trafficking but still report no convictions of the offense. Without an organized coalition to help prevent such atrocities, it is left up to national governments to come up with solutions for their respective nations, and many governments do not possess the know-how or effort needed to combat these crimes.
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,
According to the Office for Victims of Crime, crimes committed against human trafficking victims can lead to the destruction of basic life assumptions; that one is safe from harm, one is a good and decent person, and the world is meaningful and just (Office for Victims of Crime, 1998). Working through the psychological trauma experienced by trafficking victims can require long-term, comprehensive mental health therapy (Briere & Scott, 2014). The health care response to trafficking victims in the United States differs greatly from efforts made by governments and health care entities. The health care response to trafficking victims in the United States differs greatly from efforts made by governments and health care entities in developing countries. In many developing countries, governments have allocated no financial support for programs to combat human trafficking, or for programs to provide medical care to victims. Lack of funding, trained medical staff and the stigmatization placed on many victims once back in their home countries can make access to appropriate health care virtually
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
In today’s society, where there is political and civil instability in the nations of the world, many citizens become subject to human trafficking. Human trafficking has rapidly grown into a transnational issue. Transnational crimes are often a result of an organized criminal group. These criminal groups quickly exploit the citizens of an unstable country and will send them to other countries while using upgraded technology and the rise of global trade to their advantage. Aside from human trafficking, it also can involve the movement of firearms, vehicles, drugs, or human body parts. Many believe that human trafficking is slavery of the modern-day. Many nations have come together to work on ways to prevent and protect those subject to trafficking.
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...
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
“Human trafficking coerces and persuades their victims to cross national borders in search of new jobs and better opportunities and after that they are forced into some sort of labor bondage” (At Issue: Human Trafficking 1). Even though trafficking is a problem in almost every country; poorer countries have a bigger problem with it because they are more desperate for work. Just in 2000, the U.S. enacted their first federal anti-trafficking law, called the Victims of Trafficking Protection Act (At Issue: Human Trafficking 1). Trafficking has just begun to receive notice on how big of a problem it actually is. “Proponents of strict anti-trafficking initiatives say that laws and prevention against trafficking are necessary in order to stem the growing tide of large scale organized crime that profits off of smuggling and trafficking” (At Issue: Human Trafficking 1).
What is human trafficking? Human trafficking, according the dictionary.com’s definition, is the illegal movement of people, typically for the purposes of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. However there are many different forms of human trafficking and one that has caught my eye is the form called sex trafficking. This is very important because many young teenage girls around my age are affected by it the most and they grow up being a sex slave. Although majority of the victims are young girls, human trafficking affects everyone: male, female, young, and old. There are very few people out here hearing their cry. We are very blind to this topic in the United States because its not very well-known and also because it’s such a big
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
The United States has one of the largest percentages of trafficked humans worldwide, however so many individual are unaware of this issue. As many as 17,500 individuals are thought to be trafficked into the United Stated annually, and some have estimated that 100,000 U.S. citizen children are victims of trafficking within the U.S. (Siskin & Wyler, 2010). Since many cases go unreported, these estimates may be fewer than the actual number of victims in the US. There is substantial evidence that supports the ideology that woman and children from low socio-economic status are most likely targeted (Okech, Morreau, & Benson, 2011), of all the people trafficked each year about 70 percent of women and 50 percent are children that are mainly forced into the sex trade (Human Trafficking Statistics). Among socio-economic problems, the trafficking business feeds on conditions of vulnerability, such as family conflicts, natural disasters, youth, ignorance, gender, social exclusion, political instabil...
The “Land of the free” is not so free after all. Human trafficking is the third largest international crime industry after illegal drugs and arms trafficking . Human trafficking is like modern day slavery; it is defined as the loss of freedom to another 's control by force, fraud or coercion. The United States turns out to be the #1 destination for child sex trafficking. I chose this topic because it interested me the most out of all other topics. When finding a topic to do research on, none of the topics left me asking myself so many questions. The fact that i barely knew anything about human trafficking, made me realize that there might be many people out there that are like me. People who probably think that human trafficking rarely happens,
Trafficking in humans is a massive underground industry throughout the United States as well as close to home, mainly Chicago and it’s suburbs. “Human Trafficking is the recruiting, harboring,moving or obtaining a person by force, fraud or coercion, for the purposes of involuntary servitude, debt bondage or sexual exploitation( Human Trafficking in Illinois ).” Human Trafficking is one of the largest and is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world. Annually, 9.5 billion dollars of profits are generated from trafficking humans worldwide. “Persons do not have to have been transported internationally to be considered victims of trafficking” (Facts about Human Trafficking).
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...
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.