Human Trafficking: Modern Day Slavery Essay

Human trafficking was once called slavery. “Slavery began in Ancient Greece when they captured prisoners of war. They traded these slaves with other people to be used as laborers, including domestic work to build the pyramids. Slavery continued to grow all throughout Asian civilizations and into the birth of America.” (Gale) The slave trading began when the Europeans began establishing colonies with the Americans. Experts say that three hundred thousand slaves were sold to plantation owners in the 1400s and the 1500s. American colonies traded molasses and weapons for these slaves. Our textbooks tell us that slavery existed but it doesn’t always go into depth of what really happens. Everybody knows that slavery is bad. The word slavery itself, seems very unnatural and provokes mixed feelings depending on a person’s heart. Nobody really

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 today’s day and age human trafficking is a serious problem that is only getting worse as we become more technologically advanced. It is easy to transport human beings across the border, on ships, and into foreign countries. Women, children, and even men are the victims of these individuals. These poor souls stolen for the sex trade or for physical labor as a slave in modern world. As our enemies become more sophisticated in their evil craft, so must our law enforcement and investigation agencies. In order to stay up to par with the enemy these organizations make sure they stay up to date with the most advanced programs, tools, and systems in order to not only catch those responsible for mayhem, but to give a sense of justice to those who were wronged in the first place. We begin with a history of what human trafficking is, some current cases that were followed by the world, and way we fight the enemy and counteract their form of terrorism.

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

Many believe that the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, but on the other hand, human trafficking is now the modern day slavery and is a serious problem in the world. Human trafficking is the third largest international crime industry behind illegal drugs and arms trafficking, generating a profit of $32 billion every year in countries from The United States to Thailand (“11 facts”). In today's world, there are many types of human trafficking. Victims may be held against their will as hard labor workers, working for free with no pay, and with no other way to find other employment because of the status of their citizenship. Other victims may be forced into prostitution and are isolated from people who could provide a means of escape.

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.

Human trafficking is viewed as modern day slave exchange. It is a genuine crime under both global and national legal systems. It opens casualties to economic exploitation with a significant number of them being women and children less than 18 years old years. It is essential to know the way that human trafficking has raised critical human rights issues, particularly concerning women and children as stakeholders are beginning to reexamine their way to deal with this societal issue. Human trafficking has emerged as the third greatest criminal industry by drug trafficking and illicit arms. The human trafficking industry has helped in the expansion of different crimes, such as child abuse, prostitution and violence against women. With the assistance of existing research, this paper seeks to explain the different measurements of human trafficking and how it has influenced the general public at the individual, national and global level. The paper offers a few proposals with regards to the most ideal route concerning managing the issue of the current slave trade.

It differs from sex trafficking in that the actual work the victim is being forced into is not sexual (See Appendix B). A popular way traffickers lure their victims is the promise of a job in housekeeping or something of the sort with online ads or ads around the community, so when the victims contact them in search of a job, they’re sucked into something they never even imagined. There were 1,057 cases of labor trafficking in 2016, Florida again being the third largest state with 92 victims. 54.3%

“Slavery occurs when one person controls another person, using violence or the threat of violence to maintain that control, exploits them economically, pays them nothing and they cannot walk away.” In 1865, slavery was abolished here in the United States. It states in the thirteenth amendment that, “neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Even though it states that slavery is illegal in the thirteenth amendment, human trafficking is equivalent to modern slavery and it still exist today in the United States. Human trafficking happens when someone owes money, is kidnapped,

Human trafficking can take many forms, as well as many victims. One form of trafficking is slavery. Slavery is having a worker who is unpaid and who works by force using coercion, fraud or threat of bodily harm. “According to the United Nations, there are between 27 and 30 million modern-day slaves in the world (Jesionka, “Human Trafficking: The Myths and the Realities”).” “By 1860, the nation’s black population had jumped from 400,000 to 4.4 million, of which 3.9 million were slaves.(Henry Louis Gates).” That means there are nearly ten times more slaves today than there were in the late 1800’s.

In 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States, but even after that the amendment was signed many individuals did not stop and abolish the idea of slavery as a whole. The action of slavery still existed after 1865 because individuals were still selling and degrading other human beings. It can be argued that trafficking human beings is one of the most profitable crimes today. Sex trafficking has been extremely profitable because some say that humans can be used for many different purposes, for more than one time. Unlike slavery in the 1800’s, there has now been a Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, which states that sex trafficking and labor trafficking is illegal, which helps prevent violence

Human Trafficking is a horrendous crime that takes advantage of people through the illegal trading of human beings for purposes of forced labor, and commercial sexual/child exploitation. Traffickers tend to prey on the vulnerable, those who want a better life, have little or no employment opportunities, very unstable, and have a history of sexual abuse. With this being popular in society, anyone can easily become a victim. By being an undocumented immigrant, runaway and homeless youth, and a victim of trauma and abuse, you have already put a target on your back. The most popular victims are the undocumented immigrants due to the lack of legal status, language barriers, limited employment options, and social isolation. ("The Victims.")

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.

More specifically then human trafficking, there is child trafficking. Child trafficking is today’s version of slavery that involves transferring a child for the purpose of abuse or illegal activities. According to the U.S. Department of State, “Child/Human Trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world and is the world’s second largest criminal enterprise, after drugs. Child trafficking happens in every single country, including the United States. When people think of trafficking of people, most think of women, but children are also being sold as slaves all across the world. Children who are most likely to become victims are those who come from low income homes, have limited access to education and are

Human Trafficking is one of the many horrors that occur across the world that is not spoken about enough in society. Human trafficking can include organ trafficking, prostitution, child pornography, forced labor, debt bondage, child labor and child soldiers. In all cases of human trafficking, human beings are controlled and exposed for profit the most common type of profit being money. People who are victims of human trafficking can be found working in a myriad of places such as massage parlors, sweatshops, brothels, fields, online escort services, and even in private homes. This horrific crime occurs all over the world. Many people never know that this is highly prevalent in the United States as well. Traffickers often have a separate language that they use when discussing their “business”. For example, some words can include bottom, cathouse, daddy, circuit, branding, pimp, trap queen, seasoning, john, madam, queen pin, stroll and trick.