The New Slavery

Human trafficking exists everywhere. It affects every nation and every city (Hepburn 2) and is considered “the largest slave trade in history” (Holman 100). Although most people ignore this unknown slavery, the US is one of the top ten destinations for human trafficking. This crime is even the fastest growing area of criminal activity (G 14). In the United States, human trafficking, but specifically sex trafficking, is a national issue that is difficult to fight, but increasing awareness will help. It cannot be ignored any longer. Human trafficking is such a covert crime; it is difficult to comprehend exactly what happens and to what extent. Even the statistics are difficult to obtain. Because of the unawareness, clarification of trafficking is necessary. Trafficking in persons is defined in the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons (2000): the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. (PR 139) It contains aspects of transporting people by force for exploitation. Human trafficking includes labor trafficking, sex trafficking, or even organ trafficking. The largest subset of human trafficking is sexual trafficking (Hodge 143). Human trafficking is considered the new slavery. Most people are familiar with the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, but are unaware that more people are trafficked and enslaved now than there were during the eighteenth a... ... middle of paper ... ...dren for sex. Militarization of countries has an increased demand for sexual services, so those countries are often a destination for traffickers (M 127). Part of this demand is due to the tolerance. Of the four major national sex markets (Jamaica, the Netherlands, the United States, and Japan) all have a culture of tolerance that “supports flourishing sex trafficking markets” (K 182). For example, tolerance is visible anywhere: clothing, songs, television, video games, and other entertainment (K 183). The United States has a “culture that glamorizes pimping and prostitution” (K 183). Society accepts the tolerance like propaganda and immunizes the population to prostitution and buying sexual services or a women’s body. The public will not see a problem with prostitution, so there should not be a problem with trafficking humans and treating people as objects.