Current Issues and the Future of Victimization Learning Outcome: Analyze trends in trafficking and hate crimes.
12.1 Human Trafficking
• Compare various trafficking types, their impact on victims and society, and how organizations are working to eliminate trafficking.
Defining Human Trafficking
Slavery is the more common term we think of when we discuss human trafficking. Starting in the Neolithic era, with the rise of agriculture, the demand for hard labor increased, and slavery became a common practice for cheap labor and continues today. Image: Slavery in chains. Authored by: Gustavo La Rotta Amaya. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/45696337@N05/14964142573/. License: CC-BY 2.0
Human trafficking, also known as slavery, is the trade of people, especially women and children, for the economic benefits of the trafficker. This includes, but is not limited to, sexual slavery, forced labor, and forced marriage. Human trafficking is a serious problem internationally, with an estimated global profit from trafficking of around $150 billion annually. Trafficking is different from smuggling because smuggling is voluntary and once people are at their destination, they are free to go. Trafficking is often done through deception or coercion and against the victim’s will. Victims are not free to go where they want when they reach their destination. In addition, not all trafficking involves travel; some people are trafficked in their hometown. Although there may initially be an agreement between the victim and the offender, the offender might change the terms or add on additional costs (such as food, clothing, and shelter) that the victim must “pay for” before they are free, creating bonded labor, which is also illegal (National Human Trafficking Resource Center, n.d.).
Refugees, internally displaced people, and stateless people are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking rings because they lack a stable living situation. Their ability to protect themselves and ensure they are not abused or exploited is very limited. Image: Unloading Second Refugee Bus. Authored by: Gustavo Montes de Oca. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gmdeo/308662801/. License: CC-BY 2.0
The National Human Trafficking Resource Center (n.d.) and the U.S. State Department divide trafficking into two types: sex trafficking and labor trafficking. Sex trafficking is recruiting, harboring, obtaining, and patronizing a person (or child) by force, coercion, or fraud into engaging in commercial sexual acts. Labor trafficking is the recruiting, harboring, and obtaining people against their will to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. This can also include serving in the military or militant groups if individuals are forced to fight against their will.
Populations most often targeted for trafficking are vulnerable populations, including refugees and migrants, LGBT individuals, religious minorities, and those who are stateless (they lack an official home, for example the Kurds and the Bedouins). Children are also a common target and can either be lured by traffickers or sold by their families. Girls are much more commonly sold into trafficking situations, including commercial sexual exploitation as well as forced labor and early marriages. Boys
are more commonly sold into labor and as child soldiers. According to the International Organization for Migration, 35 percent of all trafficked persons were under the age of 18.
Sex trafficking is one of the most common forms of human trafficking. Girls as young as five are taken from their homes, or sold by their families, into prostitution rings. Travelers, both foreign and domestic, pay for sex with young women, which ensures the continuation of the practice. This practice occurs globally, including in the United States, where up to 300,000 girls are lured into the commercial sex trade annually. The largest groups trafficked in the United States are runaways and homeless kids who use sex as a way to provide for their basic needs. Image: A Silent Plea. Authored by: Kiran Foster. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rueful/6021399416/. License: CC-BY 2.0
Women and girls are disproportionately targeted for trafficking because in many societies they are not considered as valuable as boys. This is true in societies where inheritance (wealth and property) is passed through male children. In addition, boys are considered more useful for working and are therefore more likely to be able to contribute financially to their families. Girls’ vulnerability and lack of potential income make them more likely than boys to be sold. In addition, because much of the trafficking is focused on the commercial sex trade, girls and women are idea
targets. The sex trade has a particular interest in very young girls, regarding them as prized assets because, especially internationally, the idea of “deflowering a girl” is highly valued. Women who are reaching their late 20s and early 30s are often no longer desirable for commercial sex work, making them disposable commodities to traffickers.The use of children as soldiers is not uncommon. While some children volunteer, many are coerced or recruited by force. Child soldiers, after the conflict ends, suffer debilitating psychiatric illness including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), have poor education rates, and have higher rates of suicide and violent behaviors as adults. Fourteen countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan, still widely use children as soldiers as well as countermovement soldiers for insurgent groups such as ISIS. Image: A child soldier. Authored by: janeb13. Source: https://pixabay.com/en/young-child-sad-soldier-war-1166349/. License: CC-0