Prosecution And Prevention Of Human Trafficking In The United States

Human trafficking is a public health problem within the United States and Internationally. The victims subjected to the lifestyle of human trafficking can have sexually transmitted disease, HIV virus, and AIDS. It is an estimated 30,000 victims of human sex trafficking dying each year from abuse, disease, torture, and neglect. According, to U.S. government an estimates, of 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders annually, and up to 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States each year (Hodge, 2008). “According to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), over the past 30 years, over 30 million children have been sexually exploited through human trafficking” (Random Facts, 2015, para. 24).

Human trafficking is a prominent problem within the United States that is often overlooked. The definition of human trafficking is, “Human trafficking - the illegal practice of procuring or trading in human beings for the purpose of prostitution, forced labor, or other forms of exploitation” (“Human trafficking”). People in the United States believe that human trafficking is a problem that occurs in other less developed countries compared to the United States. What these individuals do not realize is that human trafficking occurs on American soil contrary to popular belief. The United States is one of the top three destination countries of human trafficking and human trafficking is a top criminal enterprise across the world (“WEAVE, Inc.”).

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.

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;

One of the major issues today in criminal justice is human trafficking. As a definition, human trafficking is the illegal transporting of people, by use of force, to be sold or sent to modern-day slavery (Homeland Security, 2017). There are countless methods of human trafficking throughout the world. Unfortunately, each one is more horrendous than the preceding. To elaborate, some types of human trafficking are Forced Labor, Debt Bondage, Domestic Servitude, Commercial Sex Trade, Child Soldiers, and Child Commercial Sex Trade (The United States Department of Homeland Security, 2017). That being said, the most widely discussed forms of human trafficking are sexual subjugation (Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, 2017).

This past year in the United States, there were an estimated 21,431 calls made to authorities concerning potential human trafficking situations and yet, the average American does not know that forced labor and prostitution is even a problem. (Melissa) Second to drug dealing, human trafficking is the largest criminal industry in the world today, and is growing fast. (Human Trafficking – Exploitation…) This modern day form of slavery takes victims captive against their will by using violence, threats, deception and other manipulative tricks. Even though each trafficking target has a different story, they all have similar experiences because they lose their freedom. In the United States, the First amendment protects all people citizens or aliens with basic freedoms. Therefore, human trafficking goes against ones American civil rights; human trafficking is major issue in the USA that needs to be stopped.

Goals: In order to achieve a more effective way of reducing human trafficking, congress needs to implement new domestic and foreign policies aimed towards combating human

I analyzed human trafficking in two different locations of the United States, one being California, and another being Florida. My main reason for choosing the two was because both states have been actively participating in working on helping the police, and prosecutors identify and prosecute trafficking. In California local police have been able to “identify 1,277 victims, initiated 2,552 investigations, and arrested 1,798 individuals” in regards to human trafficking cases (California Justice Department). In California we have our own legal definition to help us identify trafficking through the passing of AB 22 in 2005. California defines human trafficking as “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 prostitution or sexual services,

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.

Furthermore, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 was best known for providing the framework to respond to human trafficking (Feldman, 2011). Likewise, it also helped for the redesigning of the laws in the United States by making sex trafficking an individual crime and allowing the government to focus on the victims. Even though this law has been reauthorized in 3 years the latest time, 2008, is the one that actually strengthens protections for the victims as well as, improves the protections for the victims. While this law already helped to develop people to prohibit the crime, the reauthorization of it, created a new set of criminal tools to reach unscrupulous labor recruiters (Feldman, 2011). Although the revisions of this law

Human trafficking is considered one of the major challenges Azerbaijan faces. To rank the worst offenders, countries are divide into three groups. Group one consists of states which are utilizing the imposed standards to fight the challenge of human trafficking. Group two is where Azerbaijan is located along with seventy-eight other countries and forty-seven countries on a watch list. Those countries, situated in this group, do not meet the standards which are in place however, these countries including Azerbaijan,have been determined to be a country which is making strides to meet the standards. There was a significant number of victims and a noted failure to show increased effort to combat trafficking. However, a commitment to this problems been addressed by the country to

Over the past several years, human trafficking has become a sizable world-wide problem. Human Trafficking has had a considerable affect on the World and United States. To combat this, several laws and initiatives have been enacted. While this allows for some headway in combating this problem, there are still several things that we can do to help. This review of literature on Human Trafficking focuses on these areas and provides the information on the steps that can help combat this epidemic.

According to the Bureau of Justice, human trafficking is becoming the nations second largest problem, following the war on drugs (“Anti Human Trafficking Initiative” 1.) Statistics on human trafficking in the United States are very scarce and there have not been many studies conducted on the issue. Of the studies done, many of the studies focus only on minors. 100,000-300,000 children are prostituted each year in the United States. In the Ohio, 1,078 people will be trafficked into the sex trade each year. Between January 2003 and June 2006, 15 human trafficking cases were identified in the Columbus and Toledo area. Human trafficking is not something that only takes place in foreign areas, which is why the Polaris project is working to fight human trafficking not only in foreign areas but also in the United States.

Many Americans remain ignorant of human trafficking within the United States, believing that this inhumane act only occurs in third-world countries. No one likes to believe that it can be happening in our own country let alone in some of our own states and cities. Society rarely takes the time to understand these women and what lead them into trafficking and what factors contributed to them staying in trafficking. This study seeks to voice the ability to raise awareness, enhance penalties for the traffickers/violator’s, and offer rehabilitation for 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.