Sex Trafficking Epidemic
You are walking to your car in a parking garage after a successful day of shopping at
your local mall. You’re about to put the key into your car door to unlock it when suddenly you feel a grown man’s hand on your face and his body bending you over on your car. The next thing you remember is waking up in the back of a dark truck with other crying victims. All the victims including you get dragged out of the vehicle and handed off to someone else in exchange for some money. The new unknown man takes all of you to a secret building with a large bed in the middle of the room. He has his way with everyone in the cramped room. There's officially no more hope left in the world, you just got used like a rag doll, you think to yourself that no one is going to save you, you’d rather die than experience that again. In an article about this issue it says, “Sex trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery in which individuals perform commercial sex through the use of force, fraud, or coercion” … “Minors under the age of 18 engaging in commercial sex are considered victims of human trafficking regardless of the use of force, fraud, or coercion” (Sex Trafficking, 1). More and more people every day across the world are becoming victims of sex trafficking. We can lower those numbers just by being aware of the signs of a predator looking for innocent victims.
The act of sex trafficking is defined as “the action or practice of illegally transporting
people for the purpose of sexual exploitation” (Google definitions, 1). Sex trafficking of women and children has been happening for thousands of years. This “business” was finally recognized as a political issue in the early 20th century. The United Nations addressed this problem at the “Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others” in 1949, at which the “Mann Act” (also known as the White Slave Traffic Act, which was ostensibly aimed at keeping innocent girls from being lured into prostitution) was ratified by 49 other countries (Women and Global Human Rights, 1), (Congress Passes Mann Act, 1). What causes not only sex trafficking but trafficking in general, is the choice of the pimps to become a trafficker. Trafficking has and never will be a part of human nature. The traffickers lure their victims in by coaxing them into a better, happier, and more carefree life. In the United States alone, more than 50,000 women are trafficked for sex every year (Women and Global Human Rights, 1). Many victims are sold into the sex trade by parents, husbands, and significant others, whereas others are unwillingly and forcibly kidnapped by traffickers (Sex Trafficking of Women and Girls, 1). If a victim of kidnapping is used for sex, the kidnapper might not be prosecuted for sex trafficking, because it probably does not go along with the specific ‘Commerical Sex Act’ regulations (Combating Sex Trafficking, 1). The definition of CSA is “any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person” (Google definitions, 1). The victim wouldn’t be a victim of sex trafficking, but instead they would be of kidnapping.
In the whole world, out of more than 7 billion people, 90% of sex trafficking is women
and young girls (Deshpande, Neha A, and Nawal M Nou, 1). “There are approximately 800,000 people trafficked across international borders annually and, of these, 80% are women or girls and 50% are minors” (Deshpande, Neha A, and Nawal M Nour, 1). One million children that live in Asia are forced to be trafficked against their will every year (1). “Asian women are sold to North American brothels for $16,000 each” (1). During the summer in Queens, New York, “deaf people were recruited in Mexico and transported to New York, where they were forced to peddle trinkets on the street and turn over all proceeds to a family-operated trafficking ring”, this is important because this is when the name was changed from “trafficking of women and girls for prostitution,” to “trafficking in persons” or “human trafficking.” (Combating Sex Trafficking, 1). Shortly after this, in the United States, it was starting to be called “modern-day slavery” (1).
A woman is sitting on a subway on her way home from a long day at work. A strange
man is standing near her on the same subway car probably for the same reason. The woman automatically thinks of the worst-case scenarios. She starts thinking of ways she could defend herself if the man were to approach her, and she starts looking for the quickest exit. The subway stops at her stop, so she gets up and scurries off finally thinking she got away from the strange man. When she relaxes, she hears footsteps in the distance behind her. She turns around and it’s the same man from before, walking in her direction. She begins to walk faster, and after a few minutes he turns on his street to go home. She thinks to herself that she’s silly and that she over reacted.
Not only does sex trafficking severely effects the victim(s) in many ways, but it also
effects everyone around them. If the victim can even get out of the trafficking business and somehow get back into a normal life, it could affect their next partner. The victim could have a life-threatening disease and pass it on to their partner without even knowing it. It could make them not want to trust anyone in an intimate way ever again. It can also affect the victim's family/friends. In most cases a victim comes out suicidal, depressed, with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), and more mental illnesses, causing them to push anyone and everyone that wants to help them away. The victim can also get addicted to drugs before they even get out if the business. Some traffickers use drugs to put the victims in a cooperative state, and the victims sometimes continue to use drugs in a way to cope with their experiences. A family member, or a friend, knowing that they can’t help the person coping with it, might end up leaving the victim to suffer alone.
Karla Jacinto, from Mexico City, was trapped in a “living hell” for four whole years. Before
she was lured into the business, she was being mistreated by her mother, and sexually abused at the age of 5 by a close relative. She was targeted by her predator at the young age of 12 with the help of an unknowingly boy. “She says she was waiting for some friends near a subway station in Mexico City, when a little boy selling sweets came up to her, telling her somebody was sending her a piece of candy as a gift” (Romo Rafael, 1). He persuaded her into running away and living with him with kind words and promises. “I lived with him for three months during which he treated me very well. He loved on me, he bought me clothes, gave me attention, bought me shoes, flowers, chocolates, everything was beautiful," (1). In the three months she lived with him he left her alone in his apartment (when she was still 12) for a week, and in that week, she noticed that his cousins were coming home to his place with a new, and different under aged girl every night. She asked him about it and that’s when her personal hell began.
In her first week of the gruesome business, she was taken to Guadalajara for a week and
used by 20 different men a day. After that week they moved from city to city and instead of 20 men, it bumped to 30 men using her a day, for what it seemed like at the time her life. In that time period she was raped over 43,000 different times. She didn’t get any days off. At the age of 15 she became pregnant and gave birth to a girl. Her predator fathered the child and used her as leverage to make Karla compel to his every wish. If she did not fulfill him, she would get kicked, punched, spit on, laughed at, hair pulled, beaten by a chain, and even burned. “Some men would laugh at me because I was crying. I had to close my eyes so that that I wouldn't see what they were doing to me, so that I wouldn't feel anything," (1). Her torture finally ended in 2008, when she was still a minor at 16 years old. She is now 23, and an advocate against human trafficking.
There are many things being done all around the world to spread awareness of not just sex trafficking, but human trafficking included. According to Jesionka, one of the things is passing federal acts for it, like the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) (What's Being Done to Stop Human Trafficking?, 1). The TVPA act was the first law authorized in 2000 to address sex and labor trafficking in the United States. It’s a law that helps further prevent any kind of trafficking, protects victims and potential victims, and prosecutes the kidnappers and traffickers used against the victims will (1). In Sweden, Norway, and Iceland, all forms of sex work are legal, but it is illegal to buy it (1).
There are solutions that we as citizens can do to help stop or prevent sex trafficking in our communities. One of the main things we can do is to spread awareness to this epidemic by helping educate people on not only the problems, but also the serious issues of this crime (15 Ways You Can Help Fight Human Trafficking, 1). Another solution that helps to stop this is practicing the Slavery Footprint act (1). Slavery Footprint is simply asking how your clothes were made, or who picked your fruits and vegetables for your local supermarket. Another solution that might seem easier to do to some people is donating to anti-organizations (1). Whether it’s donating money, food, or clothes, any donation helps those organizations stay in business to help victims of this issue. While all above solutions would work, research suggests that the Slavery Footprint Act would work best. For example, if everyone asked how their products were made and picked, then the companies who support using trafficked victims as slaves wouldn’t know how to answer the customers and would most likely go out of business.
One major preventative to sex trafficking is to deter it before it even happens, by learning how to defend yourself. Whether its Karate, Jiu Jitsu, Boxing, or other options, chances are the predator won’t know to how to defend themselves against someone who is not only professionally trained but has had basic training. According to Durocher, if children are trained to defend themselves, then the predator won’t attack them, but instead move onto a new person. According to Clark, “When that kid screams, when that kid kicks, they are going to find another victim. They are going to find someone else who isn't going to put up a fight,” (Clark, Lauren, 1). Another solution to help yourself is learning the signs that someone is targeting you. If you see that someone is following you on foot or by vehicle, if possible, you should drive or get to the nearest public place or police station. If you are by yourself in a parking lot with a stranger approaching you, you should put your keys in between your fingers (like the character wolverine) and head straight to the nearest destination. Both of these solutions would work but if someone didn’t have the time and/or money to learn how to fight against a kidnapper, they should learn the area around them and pay attention to see if someone is following them. If they are being followed, they would need to learn how to stay calm and make quick, life changing decisions.
Camus believed in things that most of society doesn’t. He believed that life was a continuous cycle of the same thing every day and that everything at the end of the tunnel led to death. He often makes his readers question “What is the meaning of existence?” in all his pieces of work. On the outside, sex trafficking doesn’t seem like it has much in common with this topic, but just by doing a little bit of research about this epidemic, anyone would begin to doubt that. Most victims of sex trafficking go through the same thing every day for what seems like an ever-long eternity, until they are rescued, if they even are rescued. Their only meaning in life in those cruel, and brutal hours is to please their ‘client’ and obey them. Most of the time, the victims want to ‘skip’ the life part during and sometimes after that experience and go straight to the death part.
The definition for absurd is “wildly unreasonable, illogical, or inappropriate” (Definition of absurd, 1), making not only sex trafficking but any trafficking absurd because it’s inappropriate and against human nature in many ways. Sex trafficking is unreasonable and illogical because traffickers do it for money and pleasure, and there are legal ways to get both of those things at the same. Though, not very much different, prostitution in some states is legal because it’s considered a line of work that helps support the person offering the sex to earn some money, and it pleases both parties (the buyer and seller). Any kind of trafficking is inappropriate because it exposes an innocent person to their very raw bone (sometimes literally if they are beaten or killed).
Women, men, and children being used for illegal sex is a major issue around the world. It is slowly becoming less of a problem because of all the technology, and jobs our generation and the future generations have, and will come up with to help find any missing persons, and ways to spread or ‘share’ information around the world about it. Thanks to people like Karla Jacinto and other advocates against this epidemic, it is becoming a more popular and researched topic amongst curious people.
Works Cited
Clark, Lauren. “Combating Child Trafficking with Self-Defense.” KBOI,
idahonews.com/news/local/combating-child-trafficking-with-self-defense.
“Combating Sex Trafficking: A History.” Fair Observer, 8 May 2014,
“Congress Passes Mann Act.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 13 Nov. 2009,
Deshpande, Neha A, and Nawal M Nour. “Sex Trafficking of Women and
Girls.” Reviews in Obstetrics & Gynecology, MedReviews, LLC, 2013, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3651545/.
absurd&rlz=1CAEAQE_enUS777US777&oq=definition of absurd&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.4942j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8.
Jesionka, Natalie. “What's Being Done to Stop Human Trafficking?” Free Career Advice, The
Romo, Rafael. “Human Trafficking Survivor: I Was Raped 43,200 Times.” CNN, Cable
News Network, 20 Sept. 2017, www.cnn.com/2015/11/10/americas/freedom-project-mexico-trafficking-survivor/index.html.
“Sex Trafficking.” National Human Trafficking Hotline,
Humantraffickinghotline.org/type-trafficking/sex-trafficking.
“15 Ways You Can Help Fight Human Trafficking” U.S. Department of State, U.S.
Women and Global Human Rights, faculty.webster.edu/woolflm/trafficking.html.
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