Human Sex Trafficking in the Us free essay sample

Although many Americans are unaware that human sex trafficking goes on in the US, it is a problem that happens more often than people think and requires education to others on the topic, as well as more enforcement from police and law enforcement officials. Human trafficking is the act of recruiting, transferring, or receiving a person through the use of force for the purpose of exploiting them. Specifically, human sex trafficking involves a man or a women who â€Å"traffics,† and forces others to have sexual intercourse with someone else for money. Human sex trafficking is derogatory, disrespectful, and takes away people’s basic rights as a human being. According to Ms. Walker-Rodriquez assistant states attorney and a current member of the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force, â€Å"Not only is human sex trafficking slavery but it is big business. It is the fastest-growing business of organized crime and the third-largest criminal enterprise in the world† (Rodriguez, FBI. We will write a custom essay sample on Human Sex Trafficking in the Us or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page gov). It involves both physical and mental abuse, as well as bully tactics, and drugs in order to have full control over these individuals. This crime usually has life-long psychological effects on the people being affected, and could end in death. The major problem with human sex trafficking is that the person trafficking only cares about money, will do anything for money, and those being trafficked are often the most vulnerable people that will let the trafficker control them without even realizing what is going on. The most vulnerable group of people that human sex trafficking affects are children ages nine to eighteen. According to the U. S. Department of Justice, â€Å"of the 2,515 cases reported, more than 1,000 of those involved children† (Baldras USAToday). That is just the number of cases being reported, however one can conclude that there are many more cases than those being reported because of a child’s fear to come out and tell someone what is happening to them, as well as the low rate of enforcement against this crime. The children being affected are usually run-aways; these children are coming from broken homes, some financially unstable, some having damaged relationships with parents, and some having experience with domestic abuse. This makes them very vulnerable because they are still developing and cannot even fully distinguish from what is right and wrong. An estimated 80% of the children being affected each year are girls, and the average age being affected is twelve years old, but some can be as young as nine. These facts just emphasize how vulnerable these children are which makes it easier for the trafficker to abduct and control them. In contrast to the innocent children being trafficked, the trafficker, often known as â€Å"the pimp,† is driven by two primary factors: high profits and low risks. These are greedy people that have no morals and only want money. The National Human Trafficking Resource Center estimates â€Å"it’s a $32 billion industry, with half coming from the United States† (USAToday). Also, it is a low risk for the trafficker because often children either do not understand that what is going on is wrong, or are too scared to come out and are trapped by pimp because of abuse. They purposefully choose runaway children because they know how easy it will be to control them. Although making lots of money, the pimps are usually uneducated, high school dropouts, with the average age entering into the industry being 23. The psychological mind set of a pimp is that human sex trafficking is a business that makes lots of easy money, and is not made by controlling just one girl. Often times, these pimps have houses of groups of girls anywhere from three to fifteen people, and require them to come home every night with hundreds of dollars. One example of just how much money a pimp makes can be seen using basic math skills: 10 girls each required to make $500 dollars a night equals to $5,000 dollars just in one day. If each of the girls were to make this much money every day, that would equal up to around $1,825,000 a year. This industry is ever growing, bringing in lots of money as well as terrible effects on the victims. The process of the trafficking includes manipulation and luring the victims into these terrible situations by prying on their hopes to improve their lives, promising them a better life, a good job, a loving relationship, or new opportunities. In other cases, pimps kidnap victims and use constant physical, psychological, and often drug abuse to control them. Examining one case of millions, Jeannine Amber wrote about a young girl named Nikki who ran away when she was 12 years old and did not return home that night. Like Nikki, most of the victims affect by sex trafficking are young, vulnerable, and unable to make a right decision. Nikki was on the debate team, swim team, and track team, got good grades, and never disobeyed her mother, but one night she and he mother got into a fight in which Nikki decided she could not handle. The night of the fight, Nikki decided to run away from her home in Harlem, New York and take the subway to Brooklyn to get away for a while. Nikki reported that she intended to come home that night until a man approached her telling her â€Å"how sexy she looked in her tight blue Baby Phat jacket and laced-up Timbs† (Amber Lost Girl). Nobody had ever talked to the girl like that before, and when the man asked Nikki if she wanted to go to a party with him, she said yes. This is how the process begins: with manipulation. The pimp first makes his victims feel good about themselves, knowing that they will accept the compliments because they are young, vulnerable, and do not realize the consequences of what will happen. The process of trafficking begins with â€Å"small favors,† that eventually lead to larger and larger â€Å"favors,† that leads to the child being trapped in an unwanted industry, not knowing which other place to turn. The party that Nikki went too ended up being with the man and one other person in his basement. The man offered her weed to smoke with him, and not wanting to seem childish, Nikki agreed and soon after passed out on the man’s bed. She awoke to the man stroking her leg telling her how sexy she is. â€Å"She pushed his hand away and told him she was a virgin. But he wouldn’t stop. She panicked. I didn’t know what to do, she says now. She thought, If I just lie still, it will be over soon† (Amber Lost Girl). Nikki was experiencing an introduction to what her pimp was soon going to be making her go through. The man kept Nikki in bed with him for 3 days, getting high with her, buying her meals, and giving her compliments. On the fourth day, the pimp convinces Nikki to let a man touch her for $50 dollars by reminding her of the 2 meals that he had paid for her on previous days, and telling her that he could not always pay for her. He explained to Nikki that she had to make money, and that they would have a good life together. When manipulation of the mind occurs, especially in a mind as vulnerable as 12 year old girl, it is often difficult for the girl to process what is going on. Over the span of a few months, Nikki’s favors to her pimp became larger and larger, ranging from working in a strip club in Las Vegas to being gang raped by six men in the back of a minivan. Nikki was suffering physically from all the sexual abuse, as well as emotionally and psychologically. Nikki started to believe that she was worthless, and that her only purpose in life was to serve her pimp. These effects are devastating, and truly alter the way a child develops, physically and cognitively. Also a dangerous effect of this crime is when the victims become criminalized for prostitution. The first time Nikki was arrested for prostitution, she was 12 and sentenced to a year in detention. When she was released, she received no therapy, and went back home to her mother who put her in a nearby middle school. A few months later, when Nikki became distraught over a boy who stopped talking to her at school, she ran away again back to the streets, and a man who told her he’d always take care of her. Nikki went back to her pimp because of the psychological effects he had on her. At this point in her life, Nikki has become psychologically dependent on her pimp. She had no other choice but to return to him. Like Nikki, the psychological effects of human sex trafficking are disastrous, destructive, and deadly. Nikki did finally escape the industry when she was 20 years old and realized that her pimp was not going to fulfill the promises he told her. Because of her age, her pimp let her go because â€Å"he preferred the younger girls anyway,† but this is not always the case (Amber Lost Girl). Many times, children who are trafficked at a young age like Nikki do not always escape the lifestyle of human slavery. Sometimes these children never escape, become adult prostitutes and are in a forever cycle of this abuse. Although Nikki escaped, she still suffers today from being a victim. She lives at home with her mother with a minimum wage job as a supermarket cashier. However, Nikki is on her way to making her life better, â€Å"her dream is to study law or advertising: she hasn’t made up her mind. All she knows is that she’s determined to be one of the girls who made it out† (Amber Lost Girl). Furthermore, Nikki’s story emphasizes the fact that this is a huge underground problem in the United States that people need to be aware of. Also, there needs to be more rehab and therapy programs out there for girls being trafficked. Instead of being arrested for prostitution at age 12, children should be evaluated and put into a relief program. The problem is that Americans are so conservative when it comes to sex and do not want to open their eyes to such a vulgar problem such as human sex trafficking. The solution is to raise awareness about the situation: teach junior high students about human sex trafficking in health class or have a local documentary showing about a victim who went through the tragedy at the local library. The important part is letting American families who may have be at risk of being affected to look out for signs of this, as well as getting the word out so that those who are being affected may realize that they are being victimized and ripped of their own rights and come forward, despite the risks and their fears of their pimps. Lastly, more enforcement needs to be made against human sex trafficking, so that innocent children, like Nikki, aren’t arrested for a crime that they did not commit. The child does not choose to be in the situation, so therefore he or she should not be punished for a crime that was never committed. Although congress passed â€Å"The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act† in 2000 that was passed â€Å"to combat trafficking in persons, especially into the sex trade, slavery, and involuntary servitude,† the law has not been properly enforced, because thousands of girls like Nikki still exist in present-day 2012 (state. gov). Police, FBI, judges, and all other officials need to be aware of this problem in order to further prevent this process from occurring. All in all, human sex trafficking is modern-day slavery that gets the title of â€Å"Prostitution. † Human sex trafficking is a federal crime that occurs every single night in the USA, and can be fought against. With the help of education systems in the U. S. , as well as more awareness amongst law enforcements, Americans call all work together in order to stop this horrendous crime of human disrespect. Works Cited Amber, Jeannine. Lost Girl. Essence 40. 7 (2009): 164-169. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. Baldas, Tresa, and Detroit Free Press. USA TODAY. USATODAY. COM. N. p. , 22 Jan. 2012. Web. 12 Dec. 2012. Congress. Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. State. gov. U. S. Department of State, 28 Oct. 2000. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. Frundt, Tina. Enslaved in America: Sex Trafficking in the United States. Womensfundingnetwork. org. N. p. , 2012. Web. 12 Dec. 2012. Human Trafficking. FBI. N. p. , 2012. Web. 12 Dec. 2012. Smith, Heather. Sex Trafficking: Trends, Challenges, And The Limitations Of International Law. Human Rights Review 12. 3 (2011): 271-286. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Dec. 2012.