Human Trafficking In The United States Essay

Dawn Brown
Muehler
English III H-4
29 April 2012
Human Trafficking in the United States Human trafficking is the illegal act of forcing people, commonly women and children, to perform slave actions. Everyone knows human trafficking is a global problem, but most people do not realize it happens in the United States as well. Thousands of people are affected by this awful crime in the U.S. every day and most of the people that commit it are never caught. Sadly, most trafficking cases occur in massage parlors and spas while the customers are completely oblivious to it. The worst part about human trafficking is that kids, who are forced to commit these awful actions, are often caught and arrested for prostitution, vandalism, or curfew
violations. Human trafficking is a growing problem and it is time stricter laws are put into place to prevent it from happening. Tens of thousands of people are being held captive as slaves across the U.S. today (Swartz 2). The reason trafficking has become a typical crime in the U.S. is because victims are too afraid to speak up. Most victims never tell anyone of their situation, out of fear of risking their lives. The story is different for Nade, a woman who overcomes her fear and runs away from her life as a slave (Baldas 2). Nade is currently living in the United States, free and independent, but her traffickers were never caught (Baldas 2). Unfortunately, the problem of most trafficking cases is the same; the traffickers escape without ever being caught. Victims of human trafficking tend to be children or women who are turned into servants and sex slaves. Most of the victims have the same story; they are brought to America from a foreign country, not knowing the sense of freedom, and think being a prostitute or working as a slave is the best job they can get. The traffickers often promise the victims shelter, food and assurance that their family from their home country will be safe, which is the selling point for most of them. “Out of the 2,515 cases under investigation in the U.S. in 2010, more than 1,000 involved children” (Baldas 1). Children in the U.S. become victims of trafficking every day.
Seventy percent of victims of trafficking end up working in the sex trade (Swartz 2).
The sex slaves, who tend to be women, work in spas or massage parlors and do whatever sexual favors their customers or bosses, ask them to do. These women and children have no say; they are loaded up and shipped to another spa or massage parlor almost every week, doing the same routine with little pay. The conditions for victims of human trafficking only get worse because they are often arrested for crimes they are forced to commit, such as prostitution, vandalism, and curfew violation. According to the Department of Justice, 1,600 children were arrested for prostitution and violation of laws in 2006 (Carr 1). Police officers see the people as criminals, rather than victims because they do not grasp that there is a trafficker who is forcing them to do all of these crimes. Victims of trafficking are terrified of telling their situation, which only leads the police to believe they are criminals. Human trafficking can be found anywhere in the U.S., but the largest occurrence takes place in large cities. Some of the primary cities that deal with trafficking include Houston, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New Orleans, and New York City (Swartz 2). Houston is top of the list because immigrants, coming from Mexico, to look for jobs are taken advantage of. Most foreigners do not know the freedom they have in the U.S. and think they have no choice, but to obey the
traffickers. How large of a problem are people fighting human trafficking trying to take down? Human trafficking is a growing problem and the only way to stop it is for people to become aware of the crime. People are unaware how large of a problem human trafficking has become. Most police officers do not even realize when the crime is taking place because they do not examine the situation well enough. “The State Department says the U.S. has to do a better job at identifying these victims. Breitzke says it’s a matter of educating law enforcement about what to look for” (Lerner 2). Law enforcement needs more effective training on the crime to be able to know when they come in contact with it. The only thing that conserves human trafficking is the lack of recognition because the laws are in place and effective. Another way to stop human trafficking is for people to take charge, instead of relying on law enforcement. Reality is when people see a woman or young girl on the side of the street, dressed in a short dress and spike heels they look away, instead of actually analyzing the situation to realize the women do not want to be there. People need to understand that most prostitutes on the street are there because they are afraid to escape and feel they have no other choice. Once people research the awful tragedies of human and sex trafficking they will want to make a change. The way they can do that is to get involved into organizations against human trafficking and make known the horror of it.