Child Trafficking Persuasive Speech

Professor DeFrance
English 1
12 March 2014
A Stop to Child Trafficking
Statistics from the Department of Justice show that over 100,000 children in the U.S. fall victim to sex-trafficking each year, and 300,000 to 400,000 American children are involved in some form of sex-trafficking annually. The average age of child prostitution is 13. By the time these kids become adults they have already gone through multiple abortions. These are kids who are supposed to be in school reading and writing, making friends and having fun enjoying their childhood. Instead, they are being kidnapped and forced into child prostitution, and scarred for life mentally and physically. Their childhood is being stripped away. A proposed bill titled “H.R.3081” aims
to amend the Missing Children 's Assistance Act to better enable law enforcement to identify, locate, and recover child victims of sex trafficking. This bill is sponsored by Representative Tim Walberg and was introduced September 11, 2013. On January 16, 2014 Ann Wagner co-sponsored this bill, she is the only co-sponsor. This bill focuses on funding annual grants for children that are exploited to sex trafficking. It provides technical assistance to law enforcement agencies, and first responders that help identify, locate, and recover children. Another proposed bill is “S. 1354: End Sex Trafficking Act of 2013”. I disagree with this bill because instead of focus on trying to find the children like H.R.3081, this bill focuses on investigating and prosecuting people who patronize or solicit children for sex.
Child Trafficking can happen to any child, in any form, at any place.
“Human Trafficking is a crime against humanity. It involves an act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring, or receiving a person through a use of force, coercion, or other means, for the purpose of exploiting them,” according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). It is also the fastest growing form of international crime and the second largest source of income for organized crime, which is even higher than the drug trade. Innocent and vulnerable kids are being taken away from their friends and family and are imprisoned, tortured and sexually abused. Just this year on February 2nd, 2014, the day of the Super bowl, “The FBI rescued 16 juveniles and arrested more than 45 pimps in conjunction with a child sex trafficking operation that revolved around the Super Bowl” (“CBS Sports- Eye on Football”). These kids ranged from 13-17 years old, and were all reported missing by their families. Big events like the Super Bowl that draw large crowds have been reported to be the most profitable opportunities for child prostitution. This bill supports federal agencies like the FBI, but funding them to help in situations like this to rescue and recover children from
trafficking.
Over the past 30 years UNICEF reports that across the world, there are over one million children kidnapped and forced into the sex trade every year and that approximately 30 million children have lost their childhood through sexual exploitation over the past 30 years. UNICEF reported, “In October 2000, the United States enacted the most comprehensive modern-day anti-slavery legislation in the world, offering significant protection to victims. It is called the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000”. Through this act in 2004, 7000 traffickers were prosecuted, and 3000 convicted. Maximum jail time for trafficking is 20 years to life imprisonment, depending on offense, and convicted traffickers must "provide full restitution to victims” (UNICEF). “H.R.3081” or “the Missing Children 's Assistance Act” was proposed to help find children that are victims of child trafficking. It requires funds from the annual grant from multiple groups including the Administrator of the office of Juvenile Justice and the Delinquency Prevention National Center for missing and exploited children. The Administrator of the office of Juvenile Justice specializes with juveniles with sexual assault cases and provides special programs that keep youth out of the juvenile justice system and reduces their risk of residential placement (“Working for Youth Justice and Safety”). The Delinquency Prevention National Center serves to educate, get citizens involved, and help families whose loved one has been a victim and support them all together. Together these groups are according to the bill,” … used to provide technical assistance to law enforcement agencies and first responders in identifying, locating, and recovering victims of child sex trafficking” (H.R.3081). Money is being taken aside to help support the effort in finding these kids, and that’s really what it is all about. This bill not only helps find children, but gives them and their families help and support to recover from this nightmare.
In addition to, Bill H.R. 3081 another bill introduced to the senate toward child trafficking is S.1354 End Sex Trafficking Act of 2013. This bill was introduced to the Senate on July 24, 2013 by Senator John Cornyn. The only cosponsor to this bill is Amy Klobuchar. This bill serves to amend he federal criminal code to expand the scope of prohibitions against sex trafficking to include patronizing or soliciting a commercial sex act with a victim of sex trafficking. It also uses the “Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000” to expand the definition of “sex trafficking” to include patronizing or soliciting a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act (S.1354- End Sex Trafficking Act of 2013). Just as H.R. 3081 this bill is trying to help end sex trafficking but unlike H.R.3081 it focuses on banning sex trafficking as a whole and it expands the definition of sex trafficking to include patronizing or soliciting a commercial sex act. It also focuses on investigating and prosecuting people who patronize or solicit children for sex. This is where I disagree because the main focus should be on the children and other victims and recovering them instead of the people responsible. This bill also focuses on trying to ban sex trafficking as a whole which is probably not going to help much. Whether it is banned or not people will still continue to kidnap women and children traffic them. Therefore, the focus should be towards finding, locating, and helping victims of trafficking.
To conclude, I believe H.R.3081 is a great start in trying to find and rescue children that are forcefully involved in child trafficking. Unfortunately this bill can only do so much, which is why we the people need to get more involved to at least bring down the number on kids that are fall victim to this crime. These are young children we are talking about taken away from their loved ones and imprisoned and exploited for money. These kids need our help. I fear that there will never be an end to child trafficking, but legalizing this bill sure will help. Other proposed bills will have to address more on helping runaways, and homeless children and providing protection so it will decrease the chances of children being taken. For the sake of the children this proposed bill needs to be passed.

Works Cited

"Child Protection from Violence, Exploitation and Abuse." UNICEF. UNICEF, 26 Dec. 2012. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
Listenbee, Robert L. "Working for Youth Justice and Safety." Administrator. Office of Justice Program, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
"National Center for Missing & Exploited Children." National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Feb. 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
Singer, Mike. "FBI Rescues 16 Juveniles in Super Bowl Human Trafficking Operation." CBSSports.com. CBS Interactive, 4 Feb. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
"S.1354 - End Sex Trafficking Act of 2013." S.1354. Library on Congress, 24 July 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
"United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime." UNODC. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.