Sex Trafficking Essay

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

Human trafficking is one of the many faces of organized crime. Human trafficking is a broad term which contains trafficking for the purpose of sex along with the exploitation of labor. Currently, there are 20.9 million victims of sex slavery (Stacy.j.cecchet 2014 482) whom have or are suffering suffer inhumane circumstances and consequences. Sex trafficking is one of the largest criminal activities in the world (Stacy 249). Vulnerable women and children are taken advantage of and thrown into sex slavery, yet there is no explanation available as to how women and children are taken and thrown into the industry within countries such as Canada and the United States of America (482 Stacy j Cecchet 2014), which have human rights protection. Sex slavery leaves everlasting mental and physical effects on the abused women and children being trafficked. Even though sex trafficking is a crime it is also, for a lack of better words, an industry which would cease to exist if it was not for the supply and demand for women and children.

Sex trafficking is essentially systemic rape for profit. Force, fraud and coercion are used to control the victim’s behavior which may secure the appearance of consent to please the buyer (or john). Behind every transaction is violence or the threat of violence (Axtell par. 4). Just a decade ago, only a third of the countries studied by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime had legislation against human trafficking. (Darker Side, par.1) Women, children, and even men are taken from their homes, and off of the streets and are brought into a life that is almost impossible to get out of. This life is not one of choice, it is in most times by force. UNODC estimates that the total international human trafficking is a

“43% of victims are used for forced commercial sexual exploitation, of whom 98% are women and girls” (UNGIFT). Women and girls are ensnared in sex trafficking in a variety of ways. Some are lured in with offers of real and legal work in restaurants, massage parlors, or anything else. Others are promised marriage, education and a better life. Still others are sold into trafficking by boyfriends, friends, neighbors or even parents (SOROPTMIST). Many of the girls and women are also forced into pornography. With all of the types of sexual exploitation comes abuse. Sexual, physical, and emotional are all types of abuse put onto females in human trafficking. Many people traffic others in hopes of getting money, work done, or just pure pleasure.

This essay also focuses on the issues of child – sex trafficking. The study claimed that trafficking women especially children for sexual slavery is one the fastest growing common criminal and a social issue in the world. The study states that in the united states, almost 6 in 10 identified trafficking survivors were trafficked for sexual abuse. Out of that figure, 98% of the victims are female and 70% of it are children. This because the number of victims of sex trafficking is children, this may go as young as the age of eight. This is because children are easy targets when

As we discussed, traffickers lure victims with many methods, but why? Why are there around

Sex trafficking is a problem that is happening and occurring all over the world. Many families and individuals suffer due to sex trafficking. Many people are not even aware of what it really is. Sex trafficking is when young girls, as young as five or six, get kidnapped and are used for the sexual pleasure of others with a profit, or are sold as sex slaves to other people. The official definition is, “Human sex trafficking is a form of slavery and involuntary servitude resulting in grave human rights violations. Sex trafficking involves individuals profiting from the sexual exploitation of others and has severe physical and psychological consequences for its victims.” (The

Most people throughout the world would think of slavery as an issue of the past, but sex trafficking is today’s form of “modern day slavery” (Countryman-Roswurm, 2014). Sex trafficking has become the fastest growing and most profitable criminal enterprise in the world due to the fact that people can be sold over and over again. Corrupt governments have tried to cover this issue up and have worked alongside traffickers to help them obtain illegal documents to continue operating (Deshpande et al., 2013). The effects of this crime causes victims of trafficking to have many emotional, physical, and mental traumas (Deshpande et al., 2013).

This article provided an overview of relevant issues surrounding contemporary sex trafficking, including risk factors. The article estimates that 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and child are sex trafficked every year. It also explains three main factors that play into sex trafficking: human rights, migration, and security. This article exemplifies women’s lack of agency in relation to their bodies. Although there are male sex workers, there are many more female workers, further exploiting women’s sexuality. This aids in the fear women grow up and live with; the fear of being sold.

Human sex trafficking is one of the fastest growing and most insidious man made epidemics, coming only after the criminal industry of black market drug-trade. Perpetrators of human trafficking prey upon and agonize our most vulnerable members of society. These unprotected people are our men, women, children, who experiencing an institutional lack of resources. These individuals

Biljana Meshkovska, one of the authors of the article Female Sex Trafficking: Conceptual Issues, Current Debates, and Future Directions, reports, “According to this United Nations protocol, human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation” (381). She records that 600,000 to about 800,000 females, males, and minors can become victims yearly (384).

There is a “process” followed by traffickers when recruiting victims. For the convenience of this paper, it will be called the 5 steps of Grooming. Step 1. Targeting a victim: Traffickers are really good at identifying victims with histories of substance abuse, economic stress, low self-esteem, and emotional neediness. These types of people are usually the easiest to manipulate and control. Step 2. Gaining trust and Information: Traffickers obtain information about the victim, through casual conversations, allowing for “deep personal connections”. According to Mariah Long, the author of the article “Basic Stages of Grooming for Sexual Exploitation”, these conversations could be with the victim or the victim’s parents, as traffickers tend to “mix well” with adults. Step 3. Filling a Need: The information gathered in Step 2, is used to allow the trafficker to fill a void in the victim’s life. That void could consist of relationship problems, drug abuse, and/or needing a friend, and by filling it, traffickers shower the victims with money, friendships, relationships, and sometimes even drugs. Filling this void leads to Step 4. Which is Isolation. This step happens when the trafficker spends large amounts of time with the victim, effectively isolating them and making them feel “special”. When the victim is

Traffickers manipulate adolescents and youth into the sex trafficking through targeting their emotional vulnerabilities. To begin, traffickers use threats, intimidation and violence to enforce or entice adolescents into trafficking. One adolescent, a runaway from Baltimore County, Maryland, is gang raped by a group of men associated with the trafficker, who thereafter executes a “rescue” (Walker-Rodriguez & Hill, 2011) Following the “rescue”, the trafficker imposes she recompense him by working for him as one of his prostitutes (Walker-Rodriguez & Hill, 2011). Unfortunately, in many cases youth are generally beaten up until they yield to the trafficker’s orders (Walker-Rodriguez & Hill, 2011).

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.

It is the organized criminal activity in which human beings are treated as possessions to be controlled and exploited. [2] The victims of trafficking are usually women and children. The purpose of human trafficking is mainly sexual exploitation. It is true that almost 79% of the victims are sexually exploited. The countries with most noted human trafficking are China, Russia, Uzbekistan, India, etc. from this it can be seen that the traffickers are more active in countries with a higher population rate. Europe is the destination for victims from the widest range of destinations, while victims from Asia are trafficked to the widest range of destinations. The Americas are prominent both as the origin and destination of victims of