Gray 1

Sydney Gray

McLaughlin

English 12

07 May 2019

Human Trafficking Must End

An estimated 30,000 victims of sex trafficking die each year from abuse, disease, torture,

and neglect. Additionally, eighty percent of those sold into sexual slavery are under twenty-four,

and some are as young as six years old. Even though human trafficking is one of the biggest

human rights violation around the world, it has somehow been ignored or easily forgotten due to

the perception that it is not modern day slavery. Because of the hidden nature of this crime, many

Americans don’t realize that sex trafficking is not just an international problem. Hundreds of

thousands of people are being sold for sex against their will right here in the U.S.” (“Malone” ).

Because human trafficking has reached epidemic proportions, governments around the world

must work together to stop the exploitation of people, including young children, for sexual

slavery and forced labor.

Sex trafficking is ​the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of an

individual who under force, fraud or coercion is induced to perform a commercial sex act (“Sex

trafficking”). ​Sex work, better known as prostitution, has been viewed throughout American

history as a moral, legal, and social problem as early as the 1880s. From ​1526 through 1866 the

transatlantic slave trade became the largest human trafficking network in history. ​It was the first

major outburst of human trafficking where they transported between ten to twelve million

enslaved Africans across the ​Atlantic Ocean ​to the Americas (“Human Trafficking”).
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After World War Two ( 1939-1945), the United Nations issued the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, which stated that all humans, regardless of nationality,

religion, gender, race and other attributes, are endowed with basic human rights (Skinner).

Article four of the Declaration states, “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; smuggling

slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms” (Skinner).

The prevalence of street children engaged in street prostitution has reached “epidemic

levels” (“Child Pornography and Prostitution in the U.S.”). In 2005, the U.S. Department of

Justice estimated around 293,000 American minors were at risk of becoming victims of

commercial sexual exploitation (“Child Pornography and Prostitution in the U.S.”). A majority

of these victims tended to be children who had run away from home or had been turned out by

their parents. Once children run away, they frequently become caught in a vicious cycle of

dependence on older men because they have no job and no income. This dependance is often

exacerbated by dependence of drugs and alcohol. However, pimps will try to discourage the use

of drugs and alcohol since the prostitute does not “perform” as well nor bring home enough

money (“Child Pornography and Prostitution in the U.S.”).

A regular sex offender is known to abuse up to a maximum of 100 children in his or her

lifetime. The current rate for a U.S. girl in New York City is $3,000 to keep them as a slave and

$75 an hour. There are even cases where pimps impregnated their teenage prostitutes to either

increase dependency or to put a very young child on the prostitution market due to the increasing

demand for younger virgin prostitutes​.​ Though much less openly, young boys will prostitute

themselves. This is done online because of the social stigma attached to homosexual prostitution.

The average age for girls to start prostitution is between twelve and fourteen, yet the average age
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for boys and transgender youths is even lower at eleven and thirteen years of age (“Child

Pornography and Prostitution in the U.S.”). In 2003, the U.S. Department of Justice made an act

called Exploitation of Children Today Act to help in crimes against minors, including sexual

exploitation, by creating punishments for Americans who engage in illicit sexual activities with

children both in and out of the U.S. (“Human Trafficking”).

Human trafficking is estimated to surpass the drug trade in less than five years. ​ ​Supply

and demand for sex trafficking has increased through the years partially due to the Internet and

the ease with which traffickers and customers can discreetly complete a transaction. ​ ​Men and

boys are sent overseas to work in construction and agriculture but may also be forced to perform

commercial sex acts. Women and young girls may be offered jobs as models, nannies, waitresses

or dancers (“Sex Trafficking”).

When the U.S. Craigslist “Adult Services Section” was available, there were

10,000-16,000 adult services postings per day in the U.S. alone. Women in prisons are being

recruited by sex traffickers who force them into prostitution upon their release. Guardian

Investigation has found that traffickers are using government websites to obtain information on

women (mugshots, release dates, and charge sheets) to identify potential victims. Traffickers will

bail the women out of jail; once released, the women are told they must work as prostitutes or

have their bond rescinded and be sent back to jail. If women do not bring home enough money at

the end of the day, their lives are one step closer to being over. Survivor Nicole Bell states,

“Predators thrive off isolation and trauma, so prisons are perfect hunting grounds because there

you have a captive population of women who often have nowhere to go, and no support when

released.”(“Kelly and Mcnamara”). ​The victims will face physical risks, such as drug and
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alcohol addiction, contracting STDs, sterility, miscarriages, forced abortions, vaginal and anal

trauma, among others. The psychological effects are everlasting; they include developing clinical

depression, personality and dissociative disorders, suicidal tendencies, Post-Traumatic Stress

Syndrome, and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome ​(“Kelly and Mcnamara”).

Because many people who are exploited through human trafficking are used for labor,

many governments and citizens turn a blind eye to the situation. Human trafficking affects

women, men and children from all walks of life, yet not many people are marching in the streets

for tougher laws. More than likely, because people do not see it committed in front of them or a

corporation benefits from those workers, nothing will be done to remedy the situation. As of

February 2019, forty percent of affected countries had not registered a single conviction, which

would help in deterring this type of crime (Heinrich). Obviously, if governments are not doing

anything about it, they clearly do not see it as a human rights issue.

Though some people look at sex trafficking and prostitution as a horrible, appalling act,

some people believe that everyone has a right to sell his or her body as they please. No matter

what the reasons, whether it is for the money or pleasure, no one has the right to question or stop

them. It is their choice, and, according to the law, everyone has free choice of employment.

According to a new study presented at the International AIDS Conference in Australia, the

transmission of HIV among sex workers could significantly be reduced by around 33-46 percent

if prostitution was decriminalized. In places where prostitution is illegal, sex workers are, in fact,

more susceptible to a sexually transmitted disease (STD) because of lack of access to healthcare

and other social services. Not to mention, sex workers face discrimination, stigma, and

harassment, which drive them more to less likely practice safe sex. Furthermore, sex workers
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usually experience anxious situations, where they are forced to forgo wearing protection, such as

the pressure from their pimps and clients, and the fear of using their condoms as evidence against

them when law officials do catch them. ​ ​There is an obvious reason why prostitution has been

called “the world’s oldest profession”. It has been around since almost the beginning of time, and

it will always be. There will always be people who will pay money to get sex for pleasure and

there will always be women or even men who will offer their body for money. ​ ​Every human

being has the right to use their ​body according to their will. If a sex worker would want to rent

out his or her body in exchange of money, then fine (Anderson).

Based on these disturbing statistics, the human trafficking trade must be stopped. ​There

are more human slaves in the world today than ever before in history. Human trafficking is a

huge issue that more people need to be aware of.​ Because human trafficking has reached

epidemic proportions, governments around the world must work together to stop the exploitation

of people, including young children, for sexual slavery and forced labor.
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Works Cited

Anderson, Dave. “Top 10 Reasons Why Prostitution Should Be Legalized.” ​Top 10 Lists |

ListLand.com​, 14 Aug. 2015, www.listland.com/top-10-reasons-prostitution-legalized/.

“Child Pornography and Prostitution in the U.S.” ​Crime and Punishment: Essential Primary

Sources,​ edited by K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, Gale, 2006, pp. 385-389.

Opposing Viewpoints in Context,​ https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX2588900157/

OVIC?u=pl2127&sid=OVIC&xid=ec54e9d6. Accessed 28 Feb. 2019.

Heinrich, Mark. “Many Countries Ignore Human Trafficking: U.N.” ​Reuters, ​Reuters, 2019,

www.reuters.com/article/us-un-trafficking/many-countries-ignore-human-trafficking-

u-n-idUSTRE51B5CB20090212. Accessed 3 May 2019.

“Human Trafficking.” ​Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection​, Gale, 2018. ​Opposing

Viewpoints

in Context​, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/PC3010627106/

OVIC?u=pl2127&sid=OVIC&xid=c4afd518. Accessed 25 Feb. 2019.

Kelly, Annie, and Mei-Ling McNamara. “Revealed: How US Sex Traffickers Recruit Jailed

Women

for prostitution.” ​Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection​, Gale, 2019. ​Opposing Viewpoints

in Context​, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/HNNBZK115094769/

OVIC?u=pl2127&sid=OVIC&xid=9efef1ec. Accessed 27 Feb. 2019. Originally published as

“Revealed: How US Sex Traffickers Recruit Jailed Women for Prostitution,” ​Guardian,​ 28

June 2018.
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Malone, Kevin. “Sex Trafficking is a Pandemic in the US, and It’s Time to End Demand” ​The

Daily Signal, ​The Heritage Foundation, 2018,

www.dailysignal.com/2018/12/04/sex-trafficking

-is-a-pandemic-in-the-us-and-its-time-to-end-demand/. Accessed 3 May 2019.

“Sex Trafficking.” ​EndSlaveryNow.org,​ End Slavery Now, 2019,

www.endslaverynow.org/learn/slavery-today/sex-trafficking. Accessed 1 Mar. 2019.

Skinner, Claire. “Human Trafficking and Human Smuggling.” ​Immigration and Migration:​ ​In

Context​, edited by Thomas Riggs and Kathleen J. Edgar, vol. 1, Gale, 2018, pp. 387-392. In

Context Series. ​Opposing Viewpoints in Context​, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/

CX3662200081/OVIC?u=pl2127&sid=OVIC&xid=c83d5274. Accessed 27 Feb. 2019.

Weitzer, Ronald.​ Legalizing Prostitution: from Illicit Vice to Lawful Business.​ New York

University Press, 2012.