Human Trafficking Has Become A Meaningless Term `` By Noah Berlatsky

Human trafficking has been identified as a profitable illicit business. Sexual exploiters have profited off the sexual exploitation of women and minors, while businesses have profited from nonconsensual labor from minors who cannot express their own interest. (Marcus, et.al, 2002, p.47). The regional director of “Not for Sale” makes a valid point about profitable gains of human trafficking. “You can sell a bag of drugs once, but you can sell a person multiple times,” (Marcus, et.al, 2002, p.47). That quote is basically the mindset of traffickers who look forward to making a profit and decide partake in this illicit business. In regards to sexual exploiters and minors, there are only a handful of

Often victims pay to be smuggled into the US and are told that they would have legitimate jobs. Once they arrive, however, they are forced into prostitution such as what occurred in April when people were arrested (30 of which were from Winston Salem) for sex trafficking (Hinton). Law enforcement officers discovered a brothel that formed part of an organized prostitution ring that moved women and girls

Human Trafficking is in America, it’s in backyard and most don’t even know it. Many Americans believe that this horrible action only takes place in countries such as China, Japan, India, and Ghana but no; it happens in the United States also. The definition of human trafficking is the “illegal practice of procuring or trading in human beings for the purpose of prostitution, forced labor, or other forms of exploitation” (dictionary.com). Slavery was abolished in 1865 in the 13th amendment in the constitution but it sad to say, it still exist. “60,000 people in America in November 2013 could safely be called modern day slaves” (Slavery isn’t a thing of the past). Today human trafficking is counted as immigrant workers who are smuggled into the country and forced to work under the threat of violence. And also men and women, forced to sell their bodies for sex and give all their money to their pimps (Slavery isn’t a thing of the past). Pimps are the ones who usually run the human trafficking business. Approximately75-80% of human trafficking is for sex (55 little known facts about human trafficking). Many believe that only adults are being worked but children and teens are too, matter of fact the average age is between12 and 14. The number of human trafficking in the United States will continue to increase because it is too difficult to find and prevent.

Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery in which traffickers use force, fraud, or coercion to control victims for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex acts or labor services against his/her will. (“Human Trafficking.”) Differing definitions of sex trafficking in state laws make it difficult to know if the studies on sex trafficking are including consensual, adult sex workers, who are not victims of trafficking under federal or international law in their numbers. Vulnerable Native American women and youth are targeted by traffickers more than any other ethnic group. The data collected for the “Shattered Hearts” report from 95 Native women and girls suggest that the trafficking of Native girls into prostitution is a significant, though rarely discussed as a problem. Still, the studies do suggest that sex trafficking of Native women and girls, specifically, is present in the United States. (“Shattered Hearts.”)

In 2009, the Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit of the United States Department of Justice reported charging 114 people with human trafficking offenses. Out of the 114 people, there were only 43 human trafficking prosecutions. Of those 43, only 22 were for sex trafficking. In 2008, more than 50 people were charged when Phoenix, Arizona police took down a prostitution organization (Arizona Republic). Obviously, the rate of prostitution and the rate of prostitution do not correlate with each other. There are more prostitutes operating in the United States versus the number of people being brought to the United States by way of human trafficking, strictly for the purposes of working in the sex industry.

When trying to define human trafficking it gets hard because is it slavery or is it some kind of other servitude? The United Nations defined trafficking as it “Involves the movement of people through violence, deception or coercion for the purpose of forced labor, servitude or slavery-like practices.”# This means that the traffickers use violence to coerce the victims to do anything they want. Including controlling all aspects of their lives from where they go, who they talk to, and essentially controlling their freedoms. This new breed of Human Trafficker is “global sophistication, complexity and control of how women and children are trafficked from/to/in all parts of the globe.”#

Imagine driving down the street at night seeing no one on the corner half dressed trying to get money, or scrolling through a website and have a pop up come up about buying someone. Sex trafficking has become apart of everyday life. Many people are taken everyday and forced into the ring of sex trafficking. One girl spent her whole childhood getting raped by her father and then forced to go out to bars every night and sleep with other men, then go to school the next day (Sher). Sex trafficking is a problem in the United States that can not be ignored no longer.

Many people have their own definitions of sex trafficking and human trafficking. A lot of people in the U.S believe that all prostitution is voluntary when that is not the case. As Lerum and Brents stated, “Human trafficking is defined by the U.S. State Department of State as labor induced by force, fraud, or coercion. The definition of trafficking in the sex industry (but not other industries) includes additional stipulations for individuals under 18: “When a child (under 18 years of age) is recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, obtained, or maintained to perform a commercial sex act, proving force, fraud, or coercion is not necessary for the offense to be characterized as human trafficking” (U.S. Dept. of State 2014, p. 29).” In addition, reliable data when it comes to human trafficking is hard to achieve when definitions of the word are always changing. Most of the criminal justice

Adults who sell sex with the help of someone, are not reviewed as trafficking victims. For someone to be punished, the offense must include a severe form of trafficking, including a person under the age of eighteen years old who has been induced to perform a commercial sex act or an adult who has been induced by using force, fraud, or coercion.

Have you ever walked into Wal-Mart and taken the time to look at the numerous pictures of missing youth that is plastered on the wall? When looking at how long they have been missing, it ranges anywhere from months to years. Looking at their age, both boys and girls, it’s hard not to wonder if they have been kidnapped and are being trafficked. Child sex trafficking also known as human trafficking is a major issue that is not only plaguing the United States, but also the world. Residing in a state where teen sex trafficking is very common, it is imperative that not only adults, but youth as well understand what child sex/human trafficking is, what is a sex-trafficker, and data that displays how serious child sex trafficking is.

Human trafficking of U.S. citizens and foreign nations persist and thrive for various reasons, one is the low risk involved. This is when the community is unaware of this issue, when the government/community institutions aren’t properly trained to respond, and the biggest reason yet is when law enforcement does not investigate and prosecute the crime, human traffickers perceive little risk or deterrence to affect their criminal operations. The next reason why human trafficking is so successful is because the high profits; when individuals are willing to buy commercial sex, they create a market and make it profitable for the traffickers to sexually exploit children and adults. (“Why”)

There are many definitions of trafficking in human beings. “The United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime included a Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (hereafter the Trafficking Protocol) in order to create an internationally agreed upon definition

Slavery is a modern, pervasive problem. Human trafficking has been found in every state in America (humantrafficking.org). It seems that most Americans likely live within a comfortable drive of someone who is being exploited through human trafficking. There is a growing trend in human trafficking toward sexual exploitation (Bennetts, 2011). The Information Age has helped to create new opportunities for sex trafficking to flourish.

Human trafficking is one of the most dangerous crimes touching humanity. Because it violates the basic human rights to life and liberty of a significant proportion of the world’s population, of whom are socially, economically and politically vulnerable. It makes the processes of recruiting, transporting, hiding and holding, and finally receiving a person through a use of force, coercion, false promise, and monies for the purpose of exploiting them. In the article human trafficking: preventing, protecting prosecuting by Susie Johnson on page 3 there is a fact that states “through out the world 27 million people are trafficked”. These victims are used for a number of different purposing including, but not limited to prostitution, pornography,

Sex Trafficking is a sub category of human trafficking. All people can be considered potential victims of human trafficking however, people from other countries, run away teens, low-income women, and children of both genders are placed at a higher risk for sex trafficking. According to Zhang,