When slavery did happen in the 19 th century, the United States was on the highest receivership of people being trafficked across the Atlantic, all the way from Africa, against their will. These people were subjected to forced labor in American homes and in overseas farms in the Caribbean. After a worldwide deliberation, a consensus was reached to abolish this kind of human trafficking and slavery. It is ironical that being in the 21 st century, human trafficking is still part and parcel of the contemporary American society (Monitor, 2016). This time in the form of sex trafficking. It is modern day slavery that involves the illegal trade of people for sexual exploitation or commercial gain. It is important that, as will be highlighted in this paper, that we find out what is it that leads to this kind of human trafficking, its scope in the United States and what measures have been put in place to curb this menace and if there are better ways to improve on it.
Sex trafficking can be said to be a situation when someone uses several manipulative agents like force, fraud or even coercion to lure both girls and women into commercial sex acts. These acts may include pornography, prostitution, and sexual performance done in exchange for money, drugs, clothes and even food. Sex trafficking is a booming business that is thriving because of the money fueled into the market by buyers (Coorlim & Ford, 2015). The traffickers who are also called pimps, find their victims through the internet or rather social media networking forums like Facebook, at school where they disguise themselves in unsuspecting manners, or even in the neighborhoods of the victims’ home (Palmiotto, n.d.). The victims are mostly between the ages of 14-24 since at this point, they are usually too young and naïve to figure out what is happening. They are lured with promises of love, protection and great adventure. Things that a child at this age is craving to have.
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The society, in its ignorance, calls this prostitution but the federal law knowing what it is, has referred to it as sex trafficking. Because of this social misinformation, the victims suffer from stigma that either renders them unidentified or misidentified. They are unidentified because they are scared and forced into silence by fear of what people will think and the control exerted on them by the pimp (Palmiotto, n.d.). On the other hand, they are misidentified since those that come out are attached to treatment that only addresses the surface issue and not the whole damage suffered.
Estimates of the prevalence of sex trafficking in the United States vary as the sources of this data are many. A lot of the estimates regarding the magnitude of this problem are provided by federal units. However, it is believed that in the United States, 14,500-17,500 are trafficked within the US every year. A huge percentage of close to 38 percent are sex trafficking victims. Though the numbers are not credited as actual figures since there is a high number of hidden victims who are unfamiliar with agencies of justice system or don’t see themselves as sex trafficking victims. New trends have been adopted in ensuring that business goes on as usual and this is in the form of illegal massage parlors, hotels, escort agencies, residential brothels and an increase in online sex advertising has also been reported at 82.8 percent (National Research Council. & Institute of Medicine, 2014).
Several risk factors have been identified as possible causal factors to sex trafficking. At the individual level, the biggest risk factor is where teenage girls can be recruited by virtue of their normal maturation system. At this point, they feel like their parents don’t understand them and the urge to want to take risks clouds their mind. It should also be noted that this teenage age increases a girl’s desire to have romantic relationships. With this basic reason, they fall easily to the false promise of love. A victim may also have been a victim of sexual abuse that could have been perpetrated by a close family member or close friend. The feeling of neglect where a child lives through isolation as a result of being ignored or despised by family. Some of the victims also have the probability of having experienced maltreatment, a reason that disrupts their normal development. This type of violence can be cause for one to seek solace somewhere else hence falling for the simple traps laid by the traffickers. Some victims have experienced homelessness or been runaways in one way or another. These children fall prey to promises of family and care of those close to them. Such victims can also have been to foster care centers where they lose the feeling of being important and loved (Alvarez, 2016).
It should also be said that other than individual risk factors other social malfunctions can easily lead to an increase in sex trafficking. For instance, family conflict, disruption or possible dysfunction can be a lead up cause for this. Being in their teens, these girls require close attention and supervision from parents and without a functional family unit, they are left to make their own decisions which in most cases are usually misplaced. It leaves a high chance of such girls falling victim to sex trafficking. Children who live in communities where social norms like prostitution and poverty are part of daily life also stand the risk of being targeted. Consequently, social isolation and involvement in gangs can play a big part in influencing these teenagers who at this time would want to do something so as to fit in the immediate society. The society at large a major role in increasing the risk of sex trafficking. Take for instance the lack of awareness on this issue which is a key social problem (National Research Council. & Institute of Medicine, 2014).
It is true that in contemporary society, sex trafficking is associated with commercial sex working or rather prostitution. To explain this, several theories that contain an insight have been developed. First of all is the General Strain Theory which was developed by Ronald Agnew. It states that people find themselves engaging in activities because of stressors they experience. Such can be desperate need for money, mistreatment, victimization or even social neglect. As a result, they develop feelings of anger and frustration towards the society and how they cope with it determines the situation they find themselves in. it is then easy to say that victims of sex trafficking suffer from constant depression or substance abuse for they experience a range of negative emotions. So, taking part in this trade, though unknowingly, may be a way of reducing or escaping from this stress.
Another theory is the labelling theory which states that in the case of sex trafficking and its role, once a victim starts practicing acts of commercial sex as a result of a tough childhood, often coerced by pimps or relatives, it would be an uphill task to try and exit this kind of life. This is where the labeling kicks in and as they are called promiscuous or sex workers by friends or the police, the road back to normalcy for these women is often a grey one. They would find it very impossible to integrate back into the society even if they managed to get back and so decide to stay on. This theory in an insight shows how sex trafficking through the negative ideas associated with it is tricky to curb (Palmiotto, n.d.).
In the US, the legal system that is concerned with addressing the victims, survivors, and the offenders of sex trafficking of minors has two systems of justice that operate parallelly but in different dominions. Both systems work hand-in-hand with the federal, state, county and local enforcement agencies, police personnel and investigators, prosecutors, victim advocates and judges (National Research Council. & Institute of Medicine, 2014). In as much as the two systems work towards addressing different functions albeit similar, the juvenile system was established with the idea of focusing specifically on treatment as the means of rehabilitation rather than just enforcement and punishment.
The current law enforcement with victims has ensured that their personnel are the first to respond to sex trafficking cases and commercial sex exploitation. It’s true that their prowess to identify victims, launch investigation into cases and making suitable referrals is crucial to such cases. Federal law enforcement practices by entities such as the FBI have devised ways of approaching sex trafficking. For example, they have three different units; Innocent Images National Unit, Crimes Against Children Unit and Innocence Lost National Unit which work in correlation to determine how to handle and care for victims. For the offenders, it should be said that there has been a steady increase in the number of federal prosecutions since the Trafficking Victims Protection Act was passed in 2000. In support of this, a federal initiative that is explicitly aimed at supporting the state and local governments in investigating and prosecuting perpetrators is the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program. Since its initiative, an increase of 381 percent of arrests of individuals posing as minors online has been recorded. Also, arrests have been made of people pursuing minors online (National Research Council. & Institute of Medicine, 2014).
In the US, the society to a larger extend has casted a blind eye in the direction of this problem. People have resolved to relating any sexual act to prostitution and condemning the victims without for one moment taking it in their interest to know why and how these individuals came about this act. Many people don’t find reason to help stop or reduce this offensive activity for as long as it does not involve their family members or children. It should be said that starting at the community level, awareness about this heinous act should be done in big numbers.
Such awareness can involve community outreach groups training and engaging all that matter in organized public forums. Case in point is the Polaris Project which provides a huge database of training materials that range from interactive training sessions to pre-recorded webinars (Karlsson, 2013). Since such groups require a lot of infrastructure to conduct their business, it is encouraged that people donate so as to encourage the efforts of those who mean to help victims. Also, it is important that the initiative of creating awareness is taken to the reach of potential victims by introducing it in the school curriculum in the US and areas where sex trafficking is rampant.
Families of affected victims can help them by not rejecting and subjecting them to victimization. This can be done by engaging the member in fun family activities that makes them feel appreciated and free of guilt. It is also important that such families embrace the situation and take it upon themselves to educate others who may not be aware of such. With the internet being a source of information where people and especially teens share information on social networking, awareness created on such forums can reach a big number of people than imagined. Friends can also make victims feel at ease and free of guilt by interacting with them in positive ways that ensure trust amongst them. This boosts a victims’ confidence and hence raising their self-esteem.
It is important that the US and the world as a whole look and treat sex trafficking just like the other current issues like global warming. This is because the issue of human trafficking which leads up to sex trafficking is being ignored by the society and its governance. As observed in the thesis, the US needs to generate stricter measures and better forms of gathering evidence on those who are caught perpetrating this act should be enacted. Perpetrators are not scared of being caught simply because they can buy their way out of the legal trap. Let us stand up for our society both as individuals and the administrative entities involved and bring back sanity to the world by standing up against this modern-day slavery. It is abhorrent, demeaning, and unacceptable to a society with status such as the US, even worse in this time of civilization.
References
Alvarez, P. (2016). When Sex Trafficking Goes Unnoticed in America . The Atlantic . Retrieved 27 November 2016, from http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/02/how-sex-trafficking-goes-unnoticed-in-america/470166/
Coorlim, L. & Ford, D. (2015). Sex trafficking: The new American slavery . CNN . Retrieved 27 November 2016, from http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/20/us/sex-trafficking/
Karlsson, M. (2013). Anti-Sex Trafficking Institutions. International Migration , 51 (4), 73-86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/imig.12040
Monitor, T. (2016). FBI sting shows child sex trafficking still thriving in United States . The Christian Science Monitor . Retrieved 27 November 2016, from http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2016/1018/FBI-sting-shows-child-sex-trafficking-still-thriving-in-United-States
National Research Council., & Institute of Medicine.,. (2014). Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States: A Guide for the Legal Sector (1st ed.). National Academies Press.
Palmiotto, M. Combating human trafficking (1st ed.).
