Social Responsibility Of Human Trafficking In The United States

“Human trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, and the transport of people within countries for sexual exploitation, forced labor, and/or organ donating.” (Gale) “Slavery is the condition in which one or more persons is owned as property by another and is under the owner’s control.” (American Heritage Dictionary) Trafficked people who are often regarded as disposable, are often used for these various reasons. Although, many believe slavery ended with the Thirteenth Amendment, slavery still exists in 2017. In order to understand that human trafficking is a form of slavery, one needs to examine what it is, the effects, and the solutions.

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 defined as a recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, of receipt of persons, by means of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, or abuse of power of a position of vulnerability for the purpose of exploitation (Human Trafficking Information). Today human trafficking, also known as modern-day slavery, has been one of the controversial issues in the United States and nationwide. In fact, it is now considered as the fastest growing multi-billion-dollar business form of organized crime. Also, Human trafficking is affecting the lives of millions around the globe and robbing the victims of their pride. As a matter of fact, Traffickers deceive men, women, and young children from around the world to force them into unspeakable

Human Trafficking and Slavery universally happens in the world when individuals are placed or maintained in and exploitive situation for economic gain. Women, men and children are trafficked for a range of different purposes; forced and exploitative labour in factories, farms and private households, sexual exploitation, and forced marriage. Trafficking can happen to all people if the circumstances are right.

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.

Although human trafficking is the fastest growing process by which a person is enslaved, it is also the fastest growing international crime and one of the largest growing incomes for organised crime. It is estimated that at least 12.3 million people are victims of forced labour worldwide. Of these 2.4 million are as a result of human trafficking. Consequently it 1.2 million children are trafficked every year.(STOP THE TRAFFIK 2014) Six hundred thousand to eight hundred thousand men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year. Approximately eighty percent are women and children and up to half of them are minors. Predominantly the vast majority of trafficked people come from the poorest countries and the poorest strata of the national people. Human trafficking is the second largest source of illegal income, being surpassed by drugs trafficking. Some trafficking groups have been reported to be switching their cargo from drugs to human beings, in a search of high profits at a lower risk. (STOP THE TRAFFIK 2014)

“According to UNICEF, every two minutes a child is being prepped for sexual exploitation.” Studies have shown that 1.2 million children are being trafficked each year. “This number excluded the millions already being held hostage by trafficking.” (1).

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.

Approximately 80% of trafficking involves sexual activity, and 19% involves labor exploitation.“ According to the U.S State Department, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year, 80% are females and half are children.¨ Most of the victims are runaways who were sexually abused during their childhood. 14,500-17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S each year.

In 2007, the U.S. state Department reported, “600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year,” “1 million is the number of children exploited by the global commercial sex trade every year,” and “161 countries identified as affected by human trafficking” (Polaris Project, DoSomething.org).

So, what exactly is human trafficking? Well, I provided the textbook definition but there are many ways in which trafficking can be carried out. Despite common misconceptions, trafficking does not require transportation or border crossing, and physical abuse or restraint does not always occur. The individual’s consent is also considered irrelevant (Project, 2012)!There is labor trafficking in which individuals are acquired through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the use of labor services (Resettlement, 2012). There are numerous forms of abusive practices that are linked to labor trafficking. The first is bonded labor or debt bondage. It is the most widely used method of subjecting individuals to slavery (Resettlement, 2012). It is usually well hidden and is the least known form of labor trafficking in today’s society. Victims of this form of labor trafficking become indebted to their “master”. Their labor is demanded as a means of repayment for a loan or service (Resettlement, 2012). Most never “pay off their debt”. Another form of labor that occurs is forced labor. Victims are forced to work against their will, and are threatened by violence or some other form of

The Department of Home Land Security defines human trafficking as modern-day form of slavery involving the illegal trade of people for exploitation or commercial gain. This definition applies to the three different forms of human trafficking, but the purpose behind each one are quite different. Sex trafficking consists of

A growing number of research explores human trafficking and related aspects. This criminal act is one of the most dangerous amongst all acts of crimes. Being that human trafficking has no specific aim, there are no restrictions or demographics as it relates to trafficking. This makes any innocent individual susceptible to being enslaved. While there is no specific target in sex trafficking, 98% of all victims are women and children (Cecchet, S.J., & Thoburn, 2014). The average age of these minors is thirteen years of age (Smith, Healy, Vardaman & Snow, 2009). Research reveals that between one and two million young people, between the ages of five and fifteen, are sold into domestic sexual slavery

Human Trafficking is a modern-day slavery (slave trade) and that involves force, fraud, type of labor or sex act, and marriage. “Human trafficking is an hidden crime”, people rarely come out for help because they scared something would happen to them. They mostly take women and children because that’s are the most expensive and people want them more than guys, “Human trafficking is an open wound on the body”.They can’t do anything, when someone is now ruling over them and that they have no control to their own bodies anymore. They move from

The sex trafficking of boys is often hidden, reflecting cultural taboos in many parts of the world. In Afghanistan and coastal Sri Lanka, boys are more likely than girls to be subjected to prostitution; in Mexico and Central America, boy migrants are vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation en route to the United States; boys in Southeast Asia are exploited in prostitution; to a lesser extent, men are victims of sex trafficking; in recent years, Brazilian men were identified in forced prostitution in Spain and men were identified as sex trafficking victims in the United States. (Male Trafficking Victims).