The notion that slave trade was abolished years ago is not very accurate. This paper presents the way slavery has reemerged through sex trafficking and its effects. Kotrla, K. (2010) shows a new kind of sex trafficking of mainly the youth called "domestic minor sex trafficking," abbreviated as DMST. This paper offers the real insights from the ground, about the prevailing situation about sex trafficking in the US. DMST is mainly the modern day slavery of children. It has been found that the industry of prostitution has played a significant role in the emergence of the domestic minor sex trafficking in the USA. Since prostitution has been taken to be a legal industry on its own, it was indirectly granted latitude to morph into sexual exploitation of children.
The children end up being victims of circumstances and until there is a change in perception about the minors caught up in this trade from being viewed as ‘criminals' to being viewed as ‘victims,' a solution to the problem would not be readily forthcoming. The primary incentive fuelling the industry of child trafficking is the principles of supply and demand and the greed of the offenders to take in as many profits as possible for themselves. It is evident that child prostitution and sex trafficking of children is thriving. This is indicated by the enormous amounts of economic flow and profit making in the industry. For instance, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that in 2007, the expected benefit of the sector fell at $32 billion while in 2009, the estimated profits came to approximately $91 billion.
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To get a good understanding of the effects of human trafficking, the overwhelming complexity of the nature of the trade is demonstrated by Hodge, D. R. (2008). One of the impacts of human trafficking and sex trade is that increases the rate of crime. The main reason why crime is becoming persistent and prevalent is that sex trafficking is the fastest growing industry or area of organized crime. The sector attracts a lot of profits hence luring a lot of people into the trade. Another reason that makes the industry to thrive is that in addition to creating a lot of benefits, it has low risks. In that case, the smaller groups of criminals have evolved to become more involved and more significant groups and networks of transporters, recruiters, and pimps. After narcotics and sales of arms, the trade of trafficking young girls and women has been found to be the most significant source of income and profits for organized crime. This is why the deal is thriving and creating a large pool of criminals, overriding even the trafficking and sale of drugs.
Another effect is that sex trafficking industry in its nature is also more profitable because of the environment in which revenue is generated. For example, women who have been sold into prostitution earn pimps profits regularly, without much involvement of risks, unlike narcotics which involves risks every time benefits are accrued from them. The main perpetrators of the crimes earn more money from the women who are used as objects. The women receive very little from the profits of the sex industry, which is more unfortunate because most of them were kidnapped from their homes to be sold into the sex industry. Therefore, it is clear that women are being exploited in the worst manner of ways. Unfortunately, authorities have indirectly played a significant role in encouraging this area of organized crime to thrive.
The reason for this is that despite the industry violating human rights and destroying the lives of young children, authorities have done nothing much to counter its growth. What with the low risk that the trade is characterized with. Economic and political instability is one of the primary contributing factor or stimulant as indicated by the trend of countries primarily involved in sex trade. They include the following; Asia, Africa, the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Latin America, to a lower extent. Such kinds of vulnerable environments mark to a larger size, the most comfortable spots for sex trafficking to thrive.
Human trafficking should be condemned as a violation of human rights because the primary intention of the trade is to sell humans as sex objects for a profit. Mohsen, R. (2016) presents a model of the catalysts of the rapid sex trade and trafficking going on. That will be useful in the formulation of a solution that will mark the end or at least a reduction in the rate of growth of sex trade. In this model, Mohsen demonstrates that natural disasters and human-made disasters serve as the most significant facilitators, triggering massive displacement of populations and people and the destabilization of countries' policies and enforcement of laws and the social cohesion collapse. In that sense, a nation is left to be fragmented and weak.
In the process, the vulnerable people in the society like children and women are taken advantage of. When the social, political and economic cohesion of a country is broken, a door is opened for various ills. Ills such as unemployment, poverty, gender discrimination and ethnicity lead to perpetration and cultivation of human trafficking. It eventually causes modern slavery as the primary outcome. The greed of human traffickers is one of the leading stimulants to human trafficking, and the desire of slavers perpetrates modern slavery. Measures have been put in place to counter the problem of human trafficking.
One such measure is the Minnesota Human Trafficking Task Force. Through a multidisciplinary, coordinated and statewide response, the task force has the sole purpose of ending sex trafficking and other forms of sexual exploitation. The governmental and non-governmental agencies, the task force agencies work together to fight human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Another resource that has been utilized to combat sex trafficking in the United States is the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC).
This resource center is a national resource center and hotline that is tasked with serving the victims of human trafficking and the survivors of the same. The United States has put in place measures of fighting human trafficking and the growth of sex trafficking, but it is strikingly interesting that the business continues to thrive despite such actions. The central question that remains is this, ‘are the measures to fight human trafficking ineffective?' The answer that the measures employed by the government are not effective plays out promisingly. Otherwise, the business would have been alleviated long ago and the industry would not be growing at the rate at which it does. It is noteworthy that much attention has been concentrated on the process of rescuing the victims of sex trafficking, but less has been banked on fighting the perpetrators and pimps. In as much as the pimps are allowed to have a free ride in the industry, they will continue to grow stronger and stronger. Therefore, the best way to tackle the problem is to destroy their strength and weaken them.
Kempadoo, K. (2016) identifies the fact that the nature of the modern human trafficking and the modern-day slavery is different from the old forms of slavery. Therefore the measures that should be employed in fighting the modern day slavery should be various and valid for the current day slavery. The author also recognizes the importance of pooling together as nations to fight the common problem of modern day slavery. That brings the need for collaboration of the countries that are stable with those that are unstable. That will be an effective way of destroying the trend and networks of human trafficking from the politically unstable countries to the stable ones. If an active collaboration is formed, there will be less of cases of human trafficking because the source of the trade would have been frustrated while at the same time tightening the security of the borders of the nations with the most significant demand.
Owing to the above, it is essential to understand the rampant growth of the sex trafficking industry is the leading cause of the modern day slavery. Most of the victims of the trade were either lured or kidnapped from the countries or even the countries where they operate. Their dignity and rights as a human being wholly violated and instead of being helped, most of them are referred to as criminals and not victims. The measures and policies put in place to fight the vice should be revisited to ensure effectiveness.
References
Hodge, D. R. (2008). Sexual Trafficking in the United States: A Domestic Problem with Transnational Dimensions. Social Work, 53(2), 143-152.
Kempadoo, K. (2016). Countering Human Trafficking: Introduction. Social & EconomicStudies, 65(4), 1-4.
Kotrla, K. (2010). Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking in the United States. Social Work, 55(2), 181-187
Mohsen, R. (2016). The emerging epidemiology of human trafficking and modern slavery. Middle East Journal Of Business, 11(3), 32-36.
Orme, J., & Ross-Sheriff, F. (2015). Sex Trafficking: Policies, Programs, and Services. SocialWork, 60(4), 287. doi:10.1093/sw/swv031
