WINNEMUCCA - As many as 300,000 minors are being trafficked for sex in the United States each year. Human trafficking is defined as the illegal trade in human beings for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor. It is the equivalent of modern-day slavery.
Sex trafficking is the fastest-growing criminal industry in the world. It is also linked second largest to the illegal arms industry, after the drug trade. Usually affecting women and children, the total annual revenue for trafficking in persons is estimated to be between $5 billion and $9 billion U.S. dollars.
The question is: What brings people to this decisive fate and how can it be prevented? Unfortunately, there is little in the way of a prototype that describes the kind of person who is at risk for trafficking. Everyone is vulnerable in certain ways, and traffickers are very good at finding those vulnerabilities and using them.
Victims of sex trafficking are generally found in dire circumstances and easily targeted by traffickers. Individuals, circumstances, and situations vulnerable to traffickers include homeless individuals, runaway teens, displaced homemakers, refugees, and drug addicts.
Each victim's story is different. Some are abducted and kidnapped, though a large number of them are running away from home, on the streets and feel helpless. In some cases, young girls are simply offered rides home in the rain, or told by a good-looking man at the mall that he can make them a model.
These girls are often naïve by default due to their young age, take many of these men at their word, glad to be singled out as special. Whatever the circumstances, it is important to understand that although a girl may make one bad decision to talk to a man or to run away, becoming a sex slave is never their choice.
There is not a 13, 14 or 15-year-old girl in the history of humanity, or in any culture, that daydreamed about becoming the target of human trafficking and thought, "Being sold into sex slavery would be a dream come true."
There is a commonly held perception that women choose to enter into the commercial sex trade. Yet, for the majority of women in the sex trade, and specifically in the case of trafficked women and girls who are coerced or forced into servitude, this is not the case. It is a degrading, abusive, humiliating existence, and it's literally slavery.
Often, before servicing clients, rape is forced by the traffickers themselves, initiating the cycle of abuse and degradation. The results of sexually exploited women and children are severe physical and emotional wounds. Many acquire diseases such as HIV and AIDS, and almost all experience rejection by their families and communities in addition to fear, shame and despair.
While it may seem like trafficked girls are the most vulnerable and powerless minorities, victims are consistently exploited from every ethnic and social background.
Generally, victims are going to be minors that have lower self-esteem, and lack adult supervision, or girls that ones are starved for attention and love. Many believe that sex trafficking is something that happens somewhere else.
Yet, many of the biggest trafficking consumers are developed nations, and men from all sectors of society support the trafficking industry. There is no one profile that encapsulates the "typical" client. Rather, men who purchase trafficked women are both rich and poor, Eastern and Western.
There is a commonly held perception that women choose to enter into the commercial sex trade. For the majority of women in the sex trade, and specifically in the case of trafficked women and girls who are coerced or forced into servitude, this is simply not the case.
If you suspect an incident of sex trafficking in the United States, call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center's 24-hour toll-free hotline number at 888-3737-888.
Callers can receive a number of services including crisis intervention, urgent and non-urgent referrals, tip reporting and comprehensive anti-trafficking resources.
This column is not is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical or psychological advice or treatment.
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