Human Trafficking In San Francisco

California is rated one of the top three highest human trafficking areas in the United States. Children are among the most vulnerable victims. Most girls involved in the foster care system are at a higher risk for being trafficked. According to a blog post by Sarah Symons, entitled, “About Human Slavery”, about 22 percent of the children being enslaved do not even make it to their adulthood. More than 200,000 children are at a high risk for being lured into sex trafficking in the United States every year.

The United States has always been known for sticking their nose in places where it does not belong. America has been part of wars that could have been avoided, scandals that had nothing to do with the United States. Millions of lives over the years could have been spared if America would have just simply stayed where they belong. What if though, America feels like they have to get involved in forging affairs if they think it can cause or is causing a problem on American soil or with the Americans themselves? Human trafficking is issues that most people do not necessarily knows about or even really think about. There are several different types of human trafficking and smuggling crimes that are in today's society. The number one kind of human trafficking is sex trafficking. The handlers usually kidnap someone, ninety percent of the time, a girl under the age of eighteen, and sell them to different people all over the world for sexual reasons. The girls they kidnap and sell can be from the area or just passing through and get in the wrong place at the wrong time. Forced labor is the second most common type of human trafficking in the world. This is where a person takes advantage of a worker and changes labor laws to make them work longer hours or harder, more tiring jobs with very little pay. Victims of forced labor most of the time do not even know what is happening to them. Most of the people that get sucked into the forced labor trade are very vulnerable;

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.

Human sex trafficking and its sister category, Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking also referred to as DMST, (Kotrla,K. 2010) is the most common form of modern day slavery. In the United States there are an estimated 293,000 youth who fall under high risk factor or DMST (Walker-Rodriguez, A. & Hill, R. 2011). Many men prey on the at risk youth to make a fortune for themselves. DMST exposes the youth to a life filled with violence, abuse that is both mental and physical as well as a isolation. The Victims of the Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 defines sex trafficking, “in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion or in which the person induced to

Every day innocent girls are manipulated into the human trafficking industry. Human trafficking is the illegal movement of people, typically for the purposes of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. Typically, human trafficking involves bringing girls living outside of America, into the United States, telling them there is a better life for them. However, this could be further from the truth. In the United States, the top two states with the highest rates of human trafficking are California and Texas. One of the top cities for human trafficking in Texas is Dallas. Even though human trafficking may not be in the public eye as much as it has been in the past, it is still a prevalent issue within the city of Dallas.

Calling it the “Reduce the Demand Campaign,” the non-profit believes it is the primary solution in ending human trafficking. “To make an impact on domestic sex trafficking you have to go after the buyers,” said a representative from Free the Captives, whose identity is protected due to recent threats made by traffickers. “It does not matter how many pimps and landlords there are if the buyers are still willing to pay and there is money to be made,” said the anonymous source, “other pimps and landlords will pop up. You can’t stem the tide without going after the source.” For their part, the Mayor’s Office and the Houston Police Department believe that human trafficking is a major problem and are sincere in enforcing existing laws.

However, many prostitutes have been found to be victims of human trafficking and are unable to leave the prostitution work force due to obligations. Similar to immigrants, domestic workers are trafficked for the purpose of cheap labor. “The National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline received the highest number of reports on cases or victims of human trafficking from California (“California Human Trafficking Fact Sheet,” 2013).” California is highly known for forced labor due to high number of immigrants and limited oversight from U.S. Department

Sex trafficking in Houston is a big issue because the Super Bowl was just held in the city. Houston Chronicle author Emily Foxhall reports, “Houston is considered a hub for human trafficking because of its location along major highways by which victims can be transported, its international port and two major airports, and a diverse population and economy” (Foxhall A003). Foxhall also shares the importance of using the Super Bowl as a way to inform Houstonians of the major issue in their city. According to the U.S. Trafficking in Person Report 2016, the United States is categorized as a Tier 1 country, “The United States is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, transgender individuals, and children—

Houston. A beautiful city with high diversity, a thriving economy, many opportunities, and a sprawling landscape. These are all things that make for a desirable place to live, but it also makes it a desirable place for something really terrible: Human trafficking. Houston is one of the major hubs in the U.S. for human trafficking and it’s not very well known around town that this city has a major problem. When I bring it up to friends and family, they are usually very surprised and/or confused because they don’t see it. Because of this prevalent issue, many nonprofit groups have popped up around town to inform people of the issue and to stop human trafficking. By educating Houstonians and creating joint efforts with law enforcement, Houston

For many years, Sacramento’s human trafficking chains continuously functioned without going noticed. This is because human trafficking is a sensitive and serious issue, especially because human trafficking involves real life victims, so a majority of people feel uncomfortable discussing or just talking about the tragedies of human trafficking. This is why I believe educating the public about human trafficking will benefit society as a whole. It will encourage people to talk to each other about human trafficking, not feel ashamed or uncomfortable for just discussing human trafficking in general. For example, if people are educated about human trafficking, then they will be less likely in confusing prostitution for human trafficking. This problematic confusion happens because legislation and advocacy work often times blurs or denies differences between trafficking and sex work (Rewire.News). Many don’t know sex workers are men, women, or transgendered people who offer sexual services in exchange for money, but they do it voluntarily (Rewire.News). However, human trafficking is a practice of illegally transporting

Prostitution is considered one of the eldest and most nefarious professions throughout history. In fact Mary Magdalene, a figure of the bible who walked with Jesus, was considered a repentant prostitute. Whore, tramp, wench, jezzebel, ho, thot, are some of the nouns used to describe women who sleep with numerous men. But has anyone ever thought to describe them as victims? This paper will take a look at modern day slavery in California, as it pertains to human trafficking. I will attempt to explore who is being trafficked, how they are “groomed, and why prostitutes are victims of sex trafficking.

When looking for topics to research I wanted to do something that was a prominent problem in my hometown, which was Sex Trafficking (ST). Coming from Houston, Texas, Sex Trafficking has the 2nd largest home in Houston. The main highway I - 10 is the main road used to travel these victims to state lines to get them out of the country. A better definition of sex trafficking is when someone uses force, fraud or coercion to cause a commercial sex act with an adult or cause a minor to commit a commercial sex act. A commercial sex act is a list of things known as prostitution, pornography, and sexual performance done in exchange for any item of value, such as money, drugs, shelter, food, or clothes. In the United States alone 14,500 - 17,500 people are trafficked alone in the United States and 46% of it is from Texas. Most cases found on sex trafficking come from Women and Child, but there are a percentage of males that are trafficked, but because the act makes most feel degraded they refuse to report it. Also the effects it has on these victims is indescribable and many programs created and people there to help still can sometimes not get close to giving these victims the closure they need. This topic is important because it is a worldwide social issue that destroys not on the people physically taken and put into the trafficking but everyone that is involved in saving that person. When choosing these two articles,“Sex Trafficking: Policies, Programs,

California seems like such a nice state, but human trafficking is a huge problem there. Human trafficking is the act of moving humans illegally from one country or area to another for forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. California is one of the top four destination in the US for human trafficking to happen due to the large amount of airports, harbors, a strong economy, international borders, and a big group of native and immigrant populations. In 2002, the Department of Justice said that in California, 14% of all victims of human trafficking received help which is only a small percentage. Statistics show that victims are too scared to admit they have been trafficked or don’t want to cooperate with the laws which is why only a small

Human trafficking has been an issue all around the world and the number one country rated for sex trafficking is Bangladesh….but aside from other countries it is also an issue within the United States. When it comes to rating the states of North America… Colorado is rated the fourth state for Sex Trafficking. In an article called “Colorado officers, FBI rescued 20 kids, arrested 7 pimps in sex trafficking operation,” explains that there were children between the ages of twelve to seven-teen years old that were involved in human trafficking… the author also states that there could be about two-thousand children just within Colorado and Wyoming that are enslaved to pimps who force them to have non-consensual sex with strangers for money. The estimate for how much each child could make for their pimps is about $100,000 dollars. “...there could be up to 2,000 child sex trafficking victims in Colorado and Wyoming, each of whom can make as much as $100,000 for a pimp” (Paul, Jesse). There was an nation wide operation that was implemented to save people from sex trafficking, this mission/operation was called Operation Cross Country IX. There were local, state and federal agencies from Pueblo to Casper that were involved within this operation. The result of this

Thus, the profit margin for this market provides a large incentive for those operating this illegal underground industry. Based on the impact report from the Charity Sub organization, “sex trafficking has an estimated revenue of $87 million every day” (Sex Trafficking in the U.S 2). This strikingly high number is generated by “cash quotas imposed on victims, ranging from $100- $1000 night” (Sex Trafficking in the U.S 2). The profitability of the sex trafficking industry is comparable to the yearly income of McDonalds, also counting “$32 billion in revenue from franchise stores” as suggested by Business Insider’s annual report (Lubin 2). This financial aspect of sex trafficking is unfortunately a catalyst to its growth and enables it to circumvent many of the efforts to investigate and counteract the crimes.