Human trafficking is considered one of the fastest growing criminal industries in the world. Poverty, gender-based discrimination and a history of sexual and physical violence are all factors that can make women and children vulnerable to traffickers. Some are abducted and sold, some are deceived into consenting by the promise of a better life or a better job, and some feel that entrusting themselves to traffickers is the only economically viable option. Once trapped, they are held and exploited in slavery-like conditions. Traffickers use several means to prevent victims from escaping.
According to David R. Hodge in the article “Sexual Trafficking in the United States: A Domestic Problem With Transnational Dimensions,” 600,000 to 800,000 people being trafficked across nations with about 14,500 to 16,500 people being trafficked into the United States annually. With numbers this high, awareness in the nation should be more prominent when it comes to dealing with trafficking. Many young women, like Maria, are sold into the sex trade at young ages and are forced to perform sexual acts. The women’s “sponsors” brainwash the women into thinking multiple reasons that make forced commercial sex seem acceptable. It is the duty of government to enforce laws that will help protect women and children from becoming victims.
The Polaris Project website also has a page dedicated to information on sex trafficking which states, “There are more than 5,000 brothels disguised as massage businesses nationwide” (The Polaris Project). These kinds of “businesses” cannot be considered acceptable. The same website also states a standard day for a woman working in one of these establishments works a 10 AM – 3 AM day and has sex with about 6-10 men everyday (The Polaris Project). People think they have had a hard day at work when they work a 9 hour day job. These women work 17 hours a day, are forced to have sex with multiple strange men a day, and are most likely being forcibly held in their workplace.
Have you ever stopped to think about the number of prostitutes that are in the United States? Well, in the United States there is an estimated 3 million known prostitutes. As long as there are men and women on earth, there will be some form of sexual interactions between the two. Prostitution, also known as the “oldest trade in the world,” is a form of paying someone for sexual interaction. (Toh) Not to be confused with human trafficking, prostitution is done willingly where as sex trafficking is done against a persons will.
Sex Trafficking of Children in the United States I As bad as it may seem or sound, child trafficking is actually happening in the world and has been going on for years. Federally funded human trafficking task forces opened 2,515 suspected incidents of human trafficking for investigation between January 2008 and June 2010. Most suspected incidents of human trafficking were classified as sex trafficking (82%), including more than 1,200 incidents with allegations of adult sex trafficking and more than 1,000 incidents with allegations of prostitution or sexual exploitation of a child (U.S. Department of Justice). This concludes that majority of the incidents of human trafficking are women and children being sexually exploited. Therefore, I
Stiffer punishment for crack cocaine use also has landed more black women in prison, and for longer sentences than white women (and men). There is no doubt that there’s feminization of poverty and racial stereotyping. More than one out of three black women jailed did not complete high school, were unemployed, or had incomes below the poverty level at the time of the arrest (PARC). While black men are stereotyped as violent, drug dealing “gangstas,” black women are stereotyped as sexually loose, conniving, untrustworthy, welfare queens. Many of the mostly middle class judges and jurors believe that black women offenders are menaces to
The criminal justice system manages most convicted sex offenders with some combination of incarceration, community supervision, and specialized treatment (Knopp, Freeman-Longo, and Stevenson, 1992). While the likelihood and length of incarceration for sex offenders has increased in recent years (since 1980, the number of imprisoned sex offenders has grown by more than 7 percent per year; in 1994, nearly one in ten state prisoners were incarcerated for committing a sex offense [Greenfeld, 1997]), the majority are released at some point on probation or parole (either immediately following sentencing or after a period of incarceration in prison or jail). About 60 percent of all sex offenders managed by the U.S. correctional system are under some form of conditional supervision in the community (Greenfeld, 1997). While any offender’s subsequent reoffending is of public concern, the prevention of sexual violence is particularly important, given the irrefutable harm that these offenses cause victims and the fear they generate in the community. With this in mind, practitioners making decisions about how to manage sex offenders must ask themselves the following questions: What is the likelihood that a specific offender will commit subsequent sex crimes?
About 80% of all human trafficking is for the sex trade. It is estimated that 27 million adults and 13 million children are victims of sex trafficking. The sex traffickers often "train" the girls themselves, through repeated rape and sexual acts. The
The crime of indecent assault and battery occurs when an attacker, has non-consensual physical contact with a person in a sexual manner. This could be any unwarranted physical contact to a person’s private body. This assault is punishable to up to five years in prison. The majority of sexual assaults are committed against women between the ages of 15 and 25, making college-aged women the group with the highest vulnerability to being assaulted. In fact, according to Kelly Walker from campusspeak.com, and a sexual assault survivor, one in four women will be raped during their college experience.
This pattern occurred especially among female inmates. Forty-six percent of the abused women committed their current offense under the influence of illegal drugs. Among women who were not abused, 32% committed their offense while on drugs. Source: BJS, Prior Abuse Reported by Inmates and Probationers, NCJ 172879, April