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C
Causes of Human
Trafficking in the
United States
Western Governors University
CausesofHumanTrafficking
in theUnited States
According to the U.S Department of Homeland Security, “human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act” (What Is Human Trafficking?, 2020). Human trafficking can also be defined as forced marriage, child labor, bonded labor, forced labor, and domestic servitude. Right now, there are an estimated 40 million people from all walks of life who have been trafficked; one in every four of these people are children. The United States suffers greatly from this epidemic as men, women, and children from all over the world come to this country, both legally and illegally. Traffickers take advantage of the fear and ignorance of the law that newcomers innately possess. Visa holders and illegal immigrants alike are blackmailed with threats that they believe would return themselves and their family members to their home countries. However, human trafficking in the U.S. is heavily enabled by a lack of fear on part of the traffickers. Having no regard for the law and little concern for criminal consequences, they prey on the weak. Disproportionate groups
- socially and economically underprivileged - are more vulnerable to exploitation. Unfortunately, this market is driven by its profitability and the surge in the demand for commercialized sex - notably with women and girls. Human traffickers make an exorbitant amount of money with little apprehension of punishment or retribution. The United States has strictly prohibited human trafficking and if caught, traffickers face heavy prosecution. Unfortunately, the laws on human trafficking are
hard to enforce when the traffickers are difficult to catch. Law enforcement authorities face challenges locating and infiltrating the human trafficking rings. These rings are organized into networks all over the country that are highly profitable and protected by hardened criminals. Officers can investigate a ring for months and get close to shutting it down, however, if the leaders within feel as if they are being pursued, they will close it down and move the ring to a new jurisdiction. The frustrating part for most law enforcement is that they do not have to move far, only a county or sometimes a town over. Individuals being traded over and over repeatedly cause the overhead costs to be low and revenue to be high with a very little paper trail. According to Endslaverynow.com, the general price for sex at an American brothel is $30. A victim can be forced to perform 12 shifts and service up to 25-48 customers in a day. A procurer can earn between $150,000 and $200,000 through each of their victims. “The International Labor Organization estimates that profits from human trafficking and forced labor are $150 billion annually” (Unicefusa.org, n.d). Victims of human traffickers are often people who can easily be taken advantage of due to circumstance. People who are in a vulnerable state due to being runaway, homeless, impoverished, or have a history of abuse (substance or physical) are often the people who fall prey to the promise of jobs and love. Groups that suffer widespread inequalities (including disparities not only in race and ethnicity but healthcare, social and economic conditions) are susceptible to exploitation. “Mass displacement, conflict, extreme poverty, lack of access to education and job opportunities, violence, and harmful social norms like child marriage are all factors that push individuals into situations of trafficking” (How Trafficking Exists Today, 2016). People who are living in poverty are more likely to make extreme decisions out of desperation. In this type of situation, an uneducated daughter becomes an asset to be sold into sex work or married against her will. Youths are peculiarly at risk of human trafficking. Their
found was abuse. Cortes-Meza abused Cristina and made her work as a sex worker. “That's when I realized he was not telling me the truth," said Cristina. "A man who loves a woman would not make them do that. I lived under his humiliation, I lived under the beatings, under the fear, there was nothing I could do" (Relph, A.J., 2011). Sex trafficking victims, like Cristina, are often lured into commercial sex through deception, violence, or intimidation. Women and girls are usually offered jobs as models, live-in nannies, or maids while men and boys are lured in with jobs in construction and agriculture. Perpetrators will then use violence, drugs, fear, and manipulation to control the victim. Traffickers will also use a control tactic of claiming the victim owes a debt to their captors. The victims are told they will be free once they pay off the debt incurred by their recruitment, passage into the country, and provided living arrangements. Traffickers will also encourage victims to lure new prey into the business for a reduction in their supposed debt. When the United States abolished slavery with the Thirteenth Amendment, American’s believed they were ending human slavery for good in their country. Now, the U.S. and countries all over the world are finding themselves facing a repeat of history and the horrifying reality that humans never stopped being owned. In fact, there are more people living in slavery now than there were at the peak of the slavery we abolished. The primary root problems in America are that traffickers do not fear punishment or getting caught by law enforcement. Traffickers also prey on groups of people that are minorities that are suffering from social or economic inequalities, which make them more vulnerable to exploitation. The market for commercialized sex has grown significantly in the last 20 years. While unfortunately true, sex trafficking has been around for thousands of years and has become its own industry, recently assisted by the Internet and the rise of social media. Though the U.S. faces these challenges and more when it comes to human trafficking, there is hope in the darkness. The U.S., like many countries, has advocacy groups and multiple law enforcement agencies hunting these predators,
and zero-tolerance laws in place. Education is power, kindness is key, and people will never stop fighting to end human trafficking, the modern-day slavery. References Cardais, S. A. (2009, May 29). Men Are Victims of Trafficking, Too. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2009-05-12/men-are-victims-of- trafficking-too Child Labor: Enslavement of Children. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.endslaverynow.org/learn/slavery-today/child-labo Human Rights Commission. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://sf-hrc.org/what-human-trafficking How Trafficking Exists Today. (2016, January 06). Retrieved from https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/how-trafficking-exists- today/ Ink, S. (n.d.). Because Human Trafficking is a Public Health Issue. Retrieved from https://healtrafficking.org/ Relph, A. J. (2011, March 24). The sex slaves next door: New form of trafficking invades US. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna What Is Human Trafficking? (2020, December 18). Retrieved from https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/what-human-trafficking
