People often never think about human or child trafficking, simply because we never hear much about it in the news, media, entertainment and barely ever talked about. Would you be surprised if you find out that the number one country in the world with the highest rates of human trafficking is the United States of America? Hard to believe I know and yet not that many people know about it although it is the largest worldwide crime after drugs and weapons.
After interviewing people around New York city and Campus, I was shocked that very few had an idea of what child/human trafficking is. They didn't even know details or what it was really about! So I created a blog so we can spread awareness because it is such a horrific crime! Save innocent lives!
After interviewing people around New York city and Campus, I was shocked that very few had an idea of what child/human trafficking is. They didn't even know details or what it was really about! So I created a blog so we can spread awareness because it is such a horrific crime! Save innocent lives!
Every year 200,000 American children are at risk of child trafficking, the average age of entry into prostitution in the United States is 12-14 years old and thats the average which means children can get sold to sex slavery at a much younger age.
The girls and women who engage in prostitution are expected to either end up in jail or dead as the average life time of a prostitute is only 7 years.
My question remains why are victims end up getting prosecuted and in jail? They are forced into crime, they lured into this horrific environment as children. Victims are usually charged with prostitution even though they are trafficking victims and are either put in a juvenile detention center, CPS, or a safe house if there is room available. However, victims frequently run away from rehabilitation centers as they don’t consider themselves victims.
Often times victims don't consider themselves as victims due to the fact that for many years, this is the way they knew how to survive. Victims frequently run back to their traffickers because they are brainwashed to not trust law enforcement, (seen as enemy) and or service providers and unfortunately they end up running back to their pimp or trafficker. This loyalty the victim holds for their trafficker is due to trauma and Stockholm Syndrome. Pimps prey on vulnerable girls and women, using a mix of violence and tenderness to alternately make them feel loved and secured but then again abused and scared. The result is that these girls and women become psychologically attached to their pimps, and do not turn against them out of their dependency of fear and misplaced affection.
Although I believe that victims should not be put in jail just like Scotland has ruled out!
—1: Human Trafficking Statistics, no
date, Make Way Partners, 18 Jul. 2010 www.makewaypartners.org/effects.html
—2: University of Pennsylvania School of
Social Work
—3: What is Human Trafficking?, no
date, Polaris Project, 18 Jul. 2010 www.polarisproject.org/content/view/26/47
—4:
United Nations 2006
—5: U.S. State Department
—6: The Protected Innocence Challenge:
State Report Cards on the Legal Framework of Protection for the Nation’s
Children. Shared
Hope International, 2011. Print.
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