24. February 2009 by student.

Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, harboring, or receipt of people for the purposes of slavery, forced labor (including bonded labor or debt bondage), and servitude. It is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, with the total annual revenue for trafficking in persons estimated to be between $5 billion and $9 billion.  Human trafficking is has become a major issue in the United States and it occurs right here in Florida.  This has become a major issue in social change.  Usually victims of human trafficking  are tricked and lured with false promises such as, “freedom.”  The victims are told once they cross the border they are on a road to freedom.  Other traffickers use coercive and manipulative tactics which include but are not limited to intimidation, deception,threat and use of physical force, debt bondage, isolation, feigned love, and other forms of abuse.  In rare cases they are captured through a process called slave raiding.  Which is, an organized and intensive attack on a region or settlement, with the motive being, the taking of the areas’ people.  Trafficked people are usually the the most powerless minorities in a selected area.  They come from areas in which opportunities are limited. Trafficking is very profitable industry. In areas like Russia, Eastern Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, and Colombia, trafficking is under the control of large criminal organizations.  However, the majority of trafficking is done by networks of smaller groups that each specialize in a particular area, like recruitment, transportation, advertising, or retail. This is very financially rewarding because very little startup capital is needed, and prosecution is relatively rare. Women are usually the at the highest trafficking risk, they are usually used in sex trafficking.  Traffickers will exploit lack of opportunities, they promise good jobs or study opportunities, they then force the victim(s) into prostitution.  Sometimes these women find themselves in abusive and very dangerous situations these situations can lead to rape and even fatality.   Children are also trafficked.  This can be a result of the poverty of their parents.  Parents will sell their child to traffickers to pay off debts or gain income.  Sometimes the parents will be deceived and think the traffickers are finding a better life for their children when in actuality they are being sold to trafficking.  Trafficked children can also be the result of the death of their parents, such as AIDS in African cultures. In view of the fact that trafficking is illegal and the differences in methodology, the exact extent is unknown.  According to the United States State Department, an estimated 600,000 to 820,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders each year.  About 70 percent are women and young girls and 50 percent are minors.  A majority of these individuals are trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation.  These figures are likely to be very underestimated. Thousands of trafficked humans are brought into the United States each year.  Florida is believed to be one of the top three destinations, along side with New York and Texas, according to the Center for advancement of Human Rights at Florida State University.   This is disturbing to know that such an awful feat happens right in our backyard.  According to news reports, in 2004– in Miami a Haitian couple  were indicted by a grand jury for smuggling a young girl from Haiti when she was 9 years old for forced domestic services and sexual exploitation.  She was under enslavement for eight years.  Many believe slavery is a thing of the past, unfortunately these individuals are profoundly mistaken.   This incident is living proof that trafficking violations occur on our very own soil, not a single state is immune from this terrible matter.  There are also social groups working to end events of human trafficking, such as the FLORIDA COALITION AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING.  This is an issue that needs to be addressed and is growing everyday.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 3 Comments »

24. February 2009 by student.

    Stem Cell Research is a huge controversy that faces today’s society. When it boils down to it, people are more concerned with ethics than the anything else; even though the research has brought promising outcomes for almost 70% of its patients. For example it saved one girls life that had acute myeloid leukemia. With a simple transplant, a girl’s life was saved. Now isn’t that something worth thinking about?

    Stem cells have the ability to divide and renew themselves for long periods of time. When they divide they create new cells, known as “daughter cells”. These daughter cells have the ability to become any specialized cells they want. This, in laments terms, means a world of possibilities. These cells can be grown for multiple things such as transplant medicine, new body parts for handicapped people, and could even allow for new drugs to be tested for safety before actually using them on humans.

    The two main sources for obtaining stem cells: adult cells and embryonic cells. For the most part there are no ethical problems with the use of adult stem cells because they are obtained from any consulting adult. No one is harmed during the process; they are extracted with the use of a needle from certain organs or tissues in the body. The most common places are the bone marrow or the peripheral system.

    Embryonic stem cells aren’t as easy to explain. For one, they can only be extracted from embryos. More importantly, only from eggs that have been fertilized during in vitro fertilization, not from eggs fertilized in a woman’s body. For the most part researchers get these embryos from IVF clinics because they were leftovers and have no real use; of course they still get consent from the donors. After the process begins they are placed in culture dishes and taken care of until hundreds of replicated stem cells are created.

    Those who believe that a human life starts at the point of conception oppose the extraction of embryonic stem cells because it requires the embryo to be destroyed. However advocates of the process argue that the embryo has no human features and therefore it should not be compared to murder. Along with ethical issues, medical issues come into play. For example, it is true that in some cases tumor cells have arisen in some patients.

    When it boils down to it, millions of people are dying every day due to diseases that can be prevented. With any scientific research, some experiments are going to fail and some patients might die because of it, but that same research will one day lead to cures for lots of common illnesses and diseases. The ethical issue will always be in the back of some peoples’ minds but in the long run these minuet problems will be overcome through years of research and experiments.  In the future we will no longer think about moral issues, as we will be too focused on all the diseases we cured and all the lives we saved.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 3 Comments »

24. February 2009 by student.

It was late at night and I was flipping through the channels on the TV and I came across something very interesting on MSNBC. They were reporting about this 22 year old girl who calls herself Natalie Dylan and she is auctioning her virginity to the highest bidder. She is using a fake name to try and conceal her real identity. She has a bunch of picture up online and this has been going on for a long time. People think that what she is doing is illegal, but she apparently found a way to make it not illegal because she will bring the person to The Bunny Ranch in Las Vegas and in that place prostitution is legal. She has been on the Tyra banks show and Howard Stern discussing why she is really doing this. She says that she is putting the money towards her master degree in Family and Marriage Therapy which I think is the most ironic thing ever. She says that her parents are very supporting of her and the decision. She will have to go to a Gynecologist to see if she is really a virgin. So far the highest bidder is at 3.8 million dollars.

                In her mind she is saying that this is empowering to her. This is very shocking because it looks like this is degrading her and all women because they are buying her virginity and she thinks that is ok. She does not have to go to the highest bidder if she does not want to. She reports saying that she is down for anything during the time of intercourse, so they can be creative. People are asking her that she might become attached to them and will be heartbroken, but she considers this a business transaction. There have been a lot of people applauding her for doing this and others think she is trash for doing this. It is her body and she can do what she wants with it.

                I think that what she is doing is completely ridiculous and she should be arrested for attempting to solicit prostitution. She is a lonely woman that just wants attention and thinks that this is the best way to do it. I think that she should lose her virginity to someone that she really loves and not some random guy that’s giving her millions of dollars. She thinks that this is a good decision right now because she needs the money, but when she is older and finally find someone that she actually loves she will regret doing what she did. Overall it is her decision and no one is going to change that. I just think that she will regret this even if she will be getting millions of dollars.  

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 2 Comments »

24. February 2009 by student.

What I mean by there all the same is cops. Male cops to be exact, they really are all the same. I have been pulled over several times in my short driving career and have never recieved a ticket from a male police officer. I have absolutely no problem with this but some people do. I was just recently driving in the Orlando area and was pulled over going ten miles over the speed limit. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw the lights and turned on the tears. The police officer pulled me over and told me how fast I was going and then asked me if I had ever been to Orlando before. While crying and searching through my things I told him I wasn’t from Orlando and wasnt to sure where I was. He went to his motorcycle ( motorcycle cops are the sneakest cops) and came back to my window with a ten dollar fine. Male police officers just crumble when approaching a speeding car with a crying girl in it. Maybe they should have a police officer course for being stern no matter how hard the tears? Until then I’ll keep on cryin’.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 3 Comments »