Memo On Human Trafficking

How would you feel if you were bought, sold and used around the world? Child/ human trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes and violations in the world. It is estimated that thirty thousand victims of sex trafficking die each year from abuse, disease, torture, and neglect. Eighty percent of those sold into slavery are under twenty four, and some are as young as six years old. There have been twenty point nine million human trafficking victims worldwide as of twenty thirteen. Females and children have a greater risk for sexual exploitation. There are several physical and mental consequences for trafficking victims.

You may be asking yourself, what is the real problem before the solution is stated? Sex trafficking is the selling of children and adults for money with them performing prostitution, pornography and sexual performance in return for drugs, shelter, food, money, or clothes. According to Safe Ventures in 2016, every 3 minutes a minor is sexual abused, 10-15 minors sold as sex slaves a day, 5.4 million reports of child exploitation in the US alone. According to the ILO it estimates human trafficking generates $150.2 billion in illegal profits every single year. What most people fail to notice is that sex trafficking is business that is strictly just profit which makes it that much more dangerous of an issue because there is no supply to buy. Traffickers use several tactics to lure their victims with using fear, intimidation, violence, and threats to make their slaves follow their commands. Sex trafficking is pure evil and we need to do something about so it does not happen to those who are possible victims.

Contrary to popular belief, global slave trade was not demolished in the nineteenth century. Slavery, and the slavery industry is still prospering today; there may even be an increased number of people being affected by human trafficking today. Human trafficking usually involves women and children, who are affected in large part due to their vulnerability. Oftentimes, traffickers take advantage of their victim’s desperation, and trick them into crossing borders for a ‘job’, where they are then stripped of their identity and forced into slavery. Around 80% of the 35.8-million slaves are female, and up to 50% being under 181; the largest slave industry is the sex industry. Girls as young as 8 years old are kidnapped or sold off by their families

Each year about 17,500 individuals are brought into the United States and become victims of human trafficking. Every country has this problem and it has become the 3rd largest illegal industry worldwide.

Human trafficking is a very secretive act most of the time and most Americans are oblivious to the extent of trafficking situations because they are not informed. To help stop human trafficking, one needs to understand what it is. For starters, traffickers begin by forcing people to go somewhere with them and then manipulating them into forced labor or sex. Anybody can be a victim of human trafficking but children and women are victimized the most. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, fifty percent of trafficking victims are children, eighty percent are female, 70% of

What exactly is human trafficking? We have all heard of it, but what actually is it. It’s a modern form of slavery. It involves controlling a person through force, fraud, or coercion to exploit the victim for forced labor, sexual exploitation, or both. It strips victims of their freedom and violates our nation’s promise that every person in the U.S. is guaranteed basic human rights. This is a crime (Beccera). Sadly, the United States is widely regarded as a destination country for human trafficking. According to the federal reports, nearly 14,500 to 17,500 victims are trafficked in the United States annually. That doesn’t even include the number of victims that are trafficked WITHIN the United States. If you are looking for a defined definition of human trafficking, California legislatures states it as being “ALL acts involved in the recruitment, abduction, transport, harboring, transfer, sale or receipt of persons, within national or across international borders, through force, coercion, fraud or deception, to place persons in situations of slavery or slavery like conditions, forced labor or services, such as forced prostitution or sexual services, domestic servitude, bonded sweatshop labor, or other debt bondage.” (Beccera) This is a crime that needs to come to an end.

Ships coming into port are not the only mode of transportation of victims; ground and air vehicles are utilized as well. It is easy to understand that no amount of people working in law enforcement will completely stop human trafficking, but more employees could possibly rescue more victims. A way that this is currently being addressed is through the bill that President Obama signed which granted Customs and Border Protection the ability to recruit at least 2 thousand people within the next year. This is a great start and more policies like this need to be implemented in order to further increase the law enforcement presence in the U.S. Another government policy aimed towards the issue of human trafficking is the Blue Campaign. In 2010, the Department of Homeland Security implemented the Blue Campaign that combats human trafficking through public awareness, law enforcement training, victim assistance and law enforcement investigations (DHS Human Trafficking). The Blue Campaign is most commonly practiced through training at Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers across the nation. The only change to make to this policy is making sure that all federal law enforcement officers coming into any of the agencies the Blue Campaign affects are given the training.

Recently I learned about human trafficking and it is where organized criminals smuggle immigrants in and out of different countries for, sex, drugs, forced labor, and people even volunteer themselves to gain legal documentation. Human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry and criminals profit from the exploitation of others. The facts are vulnerable people are trafficked in the commercial sex trade and labor industry every day in America. In 2014, the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) hotline received multiple reports of human trafficking cases in each of the 50 states and D.C. Stopthetraffik.org say “Our economies are affected by increasing unemployment and the number of working poor.”

Society has begun to look past the term “human trafficking.” Yuka Doherty’s article, “The Social Construction of Trafficked Persons: An Analysis of the UN Protocol and the TVPA Definitions,” states “the U.S. federal government constructs human trafficking as ‘illegal immigration’ and ‘prostitution.’” Therefore, human trafficking is less likely to be considered victimizing as much as it is people who are willing. With this, the government wants to prioritize who they punish for breaking the law. This is just one ways of how trafficking has been conformed to society over the

Although, smuggling and trafficking involve both humans, human trafficking differs from human smuggling because it is “compared to a modern day form of slavery”, involving “the exploitation of unwilling people through force” (Schmalleger, 2012, pg.605). Capturing, arresting and prosecuting human trafficking kingpins wouldn’t eliminate the problem, but rather encourage aspiring cartels to continue a “legacy”. However, fighting human trafficking is perhaps the most dangerous and difficult problem because of drugs and weapons, but nevertheless a rewarding accomplishment because “women and children compromise the largest group of victims” who are “often physically and emotionally abused” (Schmalleger, 2012, pg.607). A solution to this problem would probably be awareness, where the Federal government communicates to states, cities and communities to report suspicious activity. Therefore, proper help can be admitted to the victims by allowing new identities to be assigned; in addition, this would lower fraud and provide

The whole foundation that AwareKC and Stop Trafficking is built off of raising public awareness over this issue. The only way to combat this problem, is to educate all ages about the gravity of this issue. The education of young people is vital to shape the future posterity of the United States. Research has proven that people who receive a greater punishment are less likely to to repeat their actions. In 2012, sex traffickers “received sentences that ranged from four to eleven years in prison, and that was all” (KCTV5). The fact of the matter is that on average, people in the trafficking business, if caught, are only sentenced roughly 7 years. Knowing these women/men sold into the business are doing these things against their will, and the puppet masters are only put in jail for a few couple years for ruining someone's life, is incredibly problematic. Another known issue seen in society today is the objectification of the female body. If female bodies were not objectified by society, exploitation of vulnerability would be harder, since the women insecurity rate would decrease. If males were taught from a young age to respect the female body, it will help decrease the amount of trafficking through the United

First and foremost, the current system the Unites States has fighting human trafficking is not succeeding. According to Patrick Belser’s Forced Labor Statistics, at any given time there are 12.3 million victims of forced labor or sexual exploitation worldwide (4). If this system is not revised modern day slavery will continue to blossom nationally. Human traffickers capture victims with the intent of selling them into forced labor, sexual exploitation or a mixture of both. Although not all slaves are in bondage for the same reasons, they all live under similar conditions. When tricking victims into capture, human traffickers promise them a better life with vast opportunity (U.S. Department of State 11). This is never the case. On the contrary of the victims’ beliefs, the victims proceed to live in terrible conditions being forced to do things against their will. They are often isolated and live with very restricted access to food, clothes, medical care, and sleep. These people are dehumanized. Slaves used for labor often get ill, injured, and sometimes even die from the intense circumstances they are living. Furthermore, slaves being sexually exploited often get sexually transmitted diseases. The victims also have very slim chances of escaping due to being locked into places and being guarded by multiple people with weapons (U.S. Department of State 17). By creating more laws against human

Although slavery was abolished in 1865, the practice of it is still very alive today. Human trafficking, a form of modern slavery, is the buying and selling of people, whether it 's for forced labor or commercial sex. Every year, thousands of adults and children, especially girls, are forced into the endless trafficking ring. “The International Labour Organization estimates that there are 20.9 million victims of human trafficking globally” (“The Facts”). The human trafficking industry is a worldwide network that is worth an estimated 150 billion dollars (“The Facts”). Millions of stories about victims experiences can be found and read. Many of these victims are sucked into the world of human trafficking because they are immigrants trying to escape to the U.S. and have debts to pay off once they get there. Trafficking happens everywhere, from big city shopping centers, to small town massage parlors. People are being captured, sold and transported across the world via various forms of transportation at all times. With updated technology, it becomes easier and easier to buy and sell these “slaves” and with this, the chances of being caught and punished is almost nothing. Many people think slavery is dead; however, human trafficking is still alive and it needs to be stopped because many people are being forced into involuntary sex and labor.

In this eye-opening look at the contemporary American scourge of labor abuse and outright slavery, journalist and author Bowe visits locations in Florida, Oklahoma and the U.S.-owned Pacific island of Saipan, where slavery cases have been brought to light as recently as 2006. There, he talks to affected workers, providing many moving and appalling first-hand accounts. This book deserves the attention of anyone living, working and consuming in America.

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”)