Lauren Mitchusson (FGCU) Human Trafficking

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.

This entry was posted on 24. February 2009 at 23:52 and is filed under Introduction to Sociology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.