Victimization: Sex Trafficking

Victimization: Sex Trafficking

Sex trafficking is the modern slavery that exist throughout the world. There are 20.9 million trafficking victims worldwide having a profit of 150 billion (Alvarez ,2016) . This problem goes easily unnoticed it. Sometimes a victim and their assailant  just look like any other ordinary couple. Victims are afraid to speak up because the law isn’t on their side. The other way women make it out of sex trafficking is through death. The women are not treated like humans they are given a price and treated as property.

Women are sexually exploited, some consider themselves willing participants , some are force into it , and others confuse the exploitation for love and romance. Trafficking goes unnoticed but there are many signs among teenagers. For example, teens are texting strangers online and receiving new fancy items, hotel key cards or they may even run away. The average age of entry into prostitution is between the age of 12 and 14  and in some parts of the world is as young as 3 to 5 (Carter, 2013) .It is harder to identify among women since some of them develop a dysfunctional relationship with their abusers, they may also be domestically abused. They develop similar traits with women who are domestically abused, they are abused physically, emotionally , sexually and economically. They are isolated, threatened and held in captivity.  25% said that they were raped by spouse or someone who they cohabiting partner. ( Walsh, 2016)The men take control by stripping them of their human rights and taking all control. Traffickers target vulnerable people who come from broken or abusive homes, runaways or even family members. In 77% of trafficking cases the assailant is a family member, a friend or someone they know .This problem is difficult to identify since local police does not believe that sex trafficking happens in their community.

Victims are afraid to speak up for many reason. Their pimps abuse their women mentally and physically.  Pimps manipulate the women by telling them that no one will love a prostitute and saying that he cares for them. At first they lure women in by saying what the women want to hear knowing that they are in a vulnerable position. If they cannot lure in the woman they’ll kidnap then when they’re alone.  These  women cannot leave them because their pimps provide for them giving them shelter and food. Prostitution should be viewed as sex trafficking because some women are coerced or tricked into the sex trade.

Karla Jacinto is a survivor of human trafficking. At age 5 she was sexually abused by a relative, at age 12 she was targeted by a sex trafficker who told her he cared he was 22 years old. The first 3 months he gave her nice things and gave her attention but then red flags started popping up. She suffered for 4 years. At age 15 she became pregnant, after the baby was born she was not  allowed to see her baby. She was raped over 43,200 times. 30 times a day, 7 days of the week for 4 years until the age of 16, now she advocates for sex trafficking victims (Romo, 2017) . Women and are targeted all over the world being used for sexual services.  Teenage girls in Ontario, Canada are worth 5,989. A person from canada is worth 4,879. A virgin child in Medellin, Colombia is worth 2,600 in an online auction. In India a child is worth less than a buffalo. In Iraq Virgin girls are 5,000  while non-virgins are 2,500. Sex trafficking is a worldwide problem and a new form of slavery for economic gains.

The law is not on the victims side. Cyntoia brown was a runaway  who became a  victim of sex trafficking.She was tried as an adult and sentenced  to 51 years in prison for killing her rapist and abuser, Johnny Allen. Her case has gone viral and caught the attention of various celebrities, for example, Kim Kardashian and Rihanna. 86% of women in prison are survivors of sexual violence.  Police will most likely believe the victim is a willing participant for prostitution rather than her being forced into that life. Sex trafficking cases are difficult to understand to prosecute. Women are prosecuted for criminal activity related to their being subjected to trafficking despite harbor laws.  ( Alvarez, 2016)

Women are sexually abused and assaulted, sex trafficking is just one of the “reasons” why it happens.

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