Resources

Aronowitz, Alexis A. Human Trafficking, Human Misery. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2009. 135-36. Print.

Batstone, David. Not For Sale. New York: HarperCollins, 2007. Cover-278.Print.

Cummings, Nina. "Trafficking In Women." Forsaken Females. By Andrea Parrot. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. 138-43. Print.

Eliyah, Chaim. "Studying the Sex Trade." The Daily of the University of Washington (2007): 1. Web. 01 May 2010. . Freed, Wendy. "HIDDEN IN THE SHADOWS: Sex Trafficking and Women’s Health." Powerpoint. N.p., 13 Mar. 2007. Web. 5 Apr. 2010.

Jasper, Margaret C. "Human Trafficking and the Sex Trade." 2007. The Law of Violence Against Women. 2nd ed. New York City: Oxford UP, 2007. 75-76. Print.

United States. Department of Health and Human Resources. National Human Trafficking Resource Center. Sex Trafficking Fact Sheet. Department of Health and Human Resources. Web. 25 Apr. 2010.

Solution To Save Lives

There are many ways the world could go about ending human trafficking but one country can not do it alone. It is safe to say that poverty in certain countries causes high numbers of human trafficking and makes it harder for that government to put an end to it. Some of the countries experiencing sex trafficking also have corrupt governments who most likely don't place ending sex trafficking at the top of their to do list. There needs to be a worldwide global committee put into place from every country dealing with this problem to create a union to stop this issue. A tighter policy should be put into place and have organizations that can deal with the problem face to face such as undercover cops or agents. If each country were to have a specialized organization and team to combat the problem, I think there is a chance.

Sex trafficking is an inhumane act that deprives women and children of their natural born right while taking away their womenhood and confidence of ever leading a normal life again. No women or child should be forced into an act against their will while being harmed in the process. Though ending sex trafficking seems like a hard task at end, I believe that a global union coming together to end a serious crime is possible eventually. Putting yourself in a sex trafficking victim could change one's entire view on the importance of the matter.

Lives Are Forever Changed By Slavery

The lives of those who have experienced slavery due to sex trafficking first hand are left with phyiscal and emotional scars that may never go away. These women and children are traumatized by on going abuse and even suffer from starvation throughout their servitude. The thought of a child being starved and beaten to have sex with a stranger should be enough to ignite a complete stop to trafficking. The women and children are raped and sometimes drugged to keep them from trying to escape. From pictures and research I have seen, according to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center,"Women and children are left with scars, burns, bruises, broken bones, possible drug addiction, transmitted diseases, and even forced abortions" (NHTRC 1). HIV/AIDS is a large worry for all victims most likely because condoms are not used during rape since a large majority of the young victims start as virgins. Some of the girls are even forced to get abortions if they become pregnat while prostituting. These items listed above are just the pyshical damages that human trafficking causes humans but there are also emotional scars that cut deep and may last forever. Women and children experiencing or have experienced human trafficking may feel grief, ashamed, self-hatred, depression, afraid, insomnia, or even hold suicidal thoughts (NHTRC 1). Imagining just a young child who has yet to experience the world fearing the outside world and feeling ashamed of themselves is inhumane as it's highest level. No human should ever experience a lifetime of these terrible feelings, especially just a child. The sex trafficking just goes to show how much gender inequality still exists today. According to Goh, "There are around 4 million women and children being trafficked per year" (Daily 1). Trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry as of right now and traffickers are making millions off these women and children.
The photograph to the left captures a women who was beaten and abused by either a client or a sex trafficker possibly for trying to escape or for pleasure. This picture is living proof that the abuse and corruption is as bad or worse than it sounds. She holds phyiscal scars and from the look of her face, emotional as well. The best way to get a strong emotional effect from this picture is to imagine if that were your own child who was forced to have sex with a stranger and beaten by a stranger without a choice of a free life.

"How many years can some people exist before they’re allowed to be free." -Bob Dylan

Real Stories, Enough Proof?

There have more than enough worldwide human sex trafficking cases coming to the media spotlight, but somehow it is not enough to spark a massive stop. A mass majority of these cases occur in India and Thailand, but little is done to stop more from taking place. Surprisingly, some cases are even happening in our own backyard in America. Could it be that those in charge do not want it to stop? Here are some cases that were lucky enough to be solved and make it into the media.






Shaniya Davis was a young five year old little girl when she experienced sex slavery without a choice. She was visiting her unhealthy and unstable mother for a few days when her entire life was turned upside down in Fayetville, Arkansas. Shaniya's mother was working to get her life back together but it seems as though no positive changes had been made. Her mother allowed a older African American man to come to their house and take Shaniya away for prostiution. There is even a video which surfaced in the news capturing a man carrying Shaniya away in his arms. Shaniya's mother had sold her little five year old child into prostitution. Not too long after police began searching for her, she was found on the side of a road dead and raped.
The picture below this article is quite frankly disturbing and reflects the hardship and abuse women face when their live is consumed with prostituion and abuse.


The picture shows a young girl who was only 13 when she was kidnapped by a women and sold into a brothel in Phnom Penh. The young girl claims she was beaten by the women everyday and shocked with an electric curreny until she cooperated. She was handcuffed and tied up at all times in the brothel besides when she was forced to be with a customer. She started out as a virgin when she first went in and her trafficker stitched her up four times to resell her as a virgin. She says she was beaten multiple times a day and forced to have two abortions from being raped. The trafficker even went as far as to gouging out the young girls eye with a metal prod during her slavery. She will forever live with the phyiscal scars and emotional pain of trafficking.

In Lebanon, a young girl named Silvia ended up in prostitution. She decided to answer a advirtisement for a housekeeping job in Lebanon. Once she got into the fake agency, they stole her passport and she was hired by a Lebanese women who held her hostage and limited her access to food. Treated like a prisoner and forced to prostitute herself, she was beaten and became sick of the treatment. Silva jumped from a tall window and escaped but was permanately paralyzed from the fall. She now goes around the country telling her story and warning other women to beware of trafficking.




In 1997, a young Mexican girl from Mexico was smuggled into the United States by a trafficker who told her she would be working in a restaurant as a waitress for a steady pay. Once she arrived in Florida for her job, she was told by other employees that waitressing was far from what her job would be. The trafficker told her she would be joining a brothel and be forced to become a prostitute. She was beaten, raped, and forced to have sex with random men to pay off her never ending debt owed to the trafficker for smuggling her into the United States. She knew little of the language so it made it difficult for her to ever find help.



In 2006, a male teacher from the United States was caught in Cambodia for raping, beating, and forcing 3 young girls to do what he said while video0-taping the entire act. He had bought them from their own mother for a small price. I was not aware that some countries will allow this to happen. The man was finally caught and sentenced to time.



Recently, a women from Budapest decided to take up a nanny-job she had seen in a newspaper ad in Canada. She spoke with the family who had written the article and they flew her into Canada. Upon her arrival, they told her she would not be babysitting and took her passport. They forced her into stripping and prostitution while stripping her of her passport and any way of recieving help.

The link below is a website containing a video of a survivor of sex trafficking in Cambodia. Her story is inspirational and should help draw attention to the need of stopping the slave trade.

http://vimeo.com/7357726

Human Sex Trafficking, Slavery Reborn

Slavery is no longer a thing of the past, in fact it occurs in more forms and more often today than ever before in the history. Human sex trafficking is the luring, tricking, or force of predominantly women and children into prostitution and abuse by a trafficker for a profit. Cases for this crime are happening wordwide everyday in immense amounts of numbers. The FBI estimated that for just the United States alone there are well over 100,000 young teen girls being sex trafficked and unable to get out of the slave trade each year. Sex trafficking is a serious violation of the law worldwide, but yet it stilll manages to takes place everyday in large numbers. The United States 13th amendment added to the Constitution declared that slavery was abolished. Yet, slavery still occurs more than ever before. Not just the United States is to be blamed though, many countries do little to end it or even put together a law. This just goes to show that countries federal officials and organizations are not doing their absolutely best with their power to end a soul depriving crime. Countries that are more impoverished and deficient of a stable government hold larger numbers of sex trafficking cases each year. I honestly believe that some corrupt country's rulers and officials feel sex trafficking is tolerable and helps boost the countries economy in some sick way. The picture seen above highlights the pain and loss a women of India feels from losing her daughter to traffickers in the sex slave trade. The women and children who are tricked, kidnapped, or sold by their own parents into the sex trafficking world are forced into prostitution and often beaten if escaping crosses their mind. These helpless women and young children hold nothing but fear and a life of unwilling servitude so that a cruel and heartless trafficker may receive a pay. Do countries not realize that sex trafficking is an unmoral act and deprives innocent women and children of their natural born rights? It would seem that. Each citizen or rulers, who have not lost a family member or child to the sex slave trade should imagine one of their own family members being kidnapped into a trade of prostitution and maltreatment. Women and children who are trafficked into the bondage, can be forced to become prostitutes, part of brothels, pornography, stripping, mail-order brides, or a numerous number of other things.

If you or anyone you know is caught in a traffickers hold or have been put through this traumatic experience, you can visit this site or call the number given below.
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/fact_sex.pdf
OR call 1.888.3737.888.