What Is Sex Trafficking? Essay

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

According to the UNICEF, human trafficking is when people are being kidnapped and being sold to other people for business. It is defined as a new system of slavery. “This by means happens with the threat or use of force” or other forms of pressure, of abduction, “fraud, and deception”. Human trafficking is one of the biggest social issue happening around the world. It involves three most common types of human trafficking which are sex trafficking, forced labour, and debt slavery. This essay is going to focus on sex trafficking. Sex trafficking is very common and it happens all over the world. This essay will be aiming at the issue of sex trafficking in the united states. It will be describing who is most affected in this, why it is an issue and also how psychologists see this essay as a point of view. It will be also focusing on how this issue has been conceptualised and why people do sex trafficking.

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

Imagine driving down the street at night seeing no one on the corner half dressed trying to get money, or scrolling through a website and have a pop up come up about buying someone. Sex trafficking has become apart of everyday life. Many people are taken everyday and forced into the ring of sex trafficking. One girl spent her whole childhood getting raped by her father and then forced to go out to bars every night and sleep with other men, then go to school the next day (Sher). Sex trafficking is a problem in the United States that can not be ignored no longer.

Human trafficking brings in billions of dollars into the U.S and all around the world. “The prime motive for such outrageous abuse is simple: money. In this $12 billion global business just one woman trafficked into the industrialized world can net her captors an average $67,000 a year” (Baird 2007). The laws around human trafficking are not strict and vary depending on what country it is happening in. Human trafficking is not something that is strictly foreign, it is happening right in front of our faces, in our neighborhoods, and all around us.

Rijken, C. (2009). A human rights based approach to trafficking in human beings. Security &

Sex trafficking is a major problem in the world today and the only way to truly combat it is by raising awareness through the media. I say the media because it is the most effective tool to reach out to world’s largest audience. Although one person has the ability to change the world, it is not enough to change the process of sex trafficking. If everyone right now was able to view real, in depth information on sex trafficking, the problem would not go unnoticed. However, the thought would be out of people’s mind within a week because of some other news article, or video. I propose that we use the mass media to its full potential and rame through every aspect of social media and make the people uncomfortable. By doing this, I believe that it would be a more effective way to to keep the thought of sex trafficking linger in one’s brain enough for them to want to help change the problem.

Currently, 501 children mostly African American and Latino are missing out of Washington, D.C. since the beginning of the year. The police have good reason to believe that this is due to sex trafficking. These kids were taken from their lives and are threatened even with the thought of leaving their trafficker. Some children have been able to escape, but this is very risky. A young, 13-year-old girl who has a mental illness was brought into sex trafficking because she believes that her trafficker loved her. She was sold for sex to around 40 men per day. Because of these reasons sex trafficking needs to become a thing of the past. Sex trafficking in the United States can be reduced and possibly eliminated through education, government intervention,

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.

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).

In attempting to combat trafficking there are several things that must be remembered according to David Feingold. (1) increasing restrictions on borders will not stop trafficking. In fact, it has been found to increase trafficking. (2) Trafficking is not controlled by organized crime even though it is controlled by gangs and syndicates. This is because in many cases slaves are obtained through the promise of a better life, rather than being kidnapped. Once a person is removed from their family the “owner” reveals to them the truth of their situation. In situations where criminal organizations are involved, they often have no say in where the slaves end up. (3) Legalizing prostitution may help to end human trafficking if it is done correctly. While it the United States it is believed that the legalization of prostitution will bring about an increase in trafficking victims, especially those who are intended to be sold into sexual slavery. However, as Feingold contends this argument makes little sense as prostitution is legal in Las Vegas, at least in certain brothels. Therefore, if legalizing prostitution causes an increase in sex trafficking, then it should be evident in the number of foreign sex workers in Vega. Other countries in which prostitution is legal such as Australia, Germany and the Netherlands have very low numbers of people being trafficked to their countries. (4) it is unlikely that prosecuting traffickers is going to stop trafficking. (5) neither will sanctions

trafficking of minors. The study would reveal of those cases that there were 153 victims with 215 criminal offenders. Roughly 90% were female victims that ranged in age 5 to 17 years old. The time in which they had been kept ranged from just less than 6 months through 5 years. This research study identified that there is a need for more transitional services once freed, to include counseling and stricter laws for the traffickers and pimps. (Kotrla, Wommack)

Attention Getter: Imagine going on a trip to a foreign country and you do not know anyone and you know little to none of their language. When you arrive at the airport and you see a man standing there holding a sign with your name on it. You decide he seems friendly enough to go with him because you do not know anyone at this point and will be lucky to find your way out of the airport. You reach the parking lot and all of a sudden there is an intense pain in your head and you blackout.

knows no borders. It is fueled by a global market that dilutes cultural differences and

When we hear the word slavery our mind paints a picture of colonial America down in the South with big plantation houses harvesting wheat, with workers being unpaid and unfairly treated. At this time in our county we were struggling with the idea of equality for all. America has come a long way from those days but not with out a fight. Abraham Lincoln, the Civil Rights moment and free and public education has been addressed. Today, we face a new conflicts and a different type of slavery. Slavery and sex trafficking is occurring not just abroad but at home as well. In 2004, “800,000 to 9000,000 men women and children are trafficked across international borders every year, including 18,000 to 20,000 in the US. Worldwide slavery is in the