Sex Trafficking

By: Tiara Fulton

Sex trafficking, also referred to as modern day slavery, is a horrifying act that happens every day in America and around the world. Sex trafficking happens so often in fact that, 100,000 children are sold into the sex trade in in the United States every year. [1] That is a huge number and it is not even including the international count. Some may ask, what exactly is sex trafficking? Sex trafficking is the trade of humans that is mostly used for sexual slavery, labor, and commercial sexual exploitation for the pleasure of others. In the United States, the growth of this disgusting industry has generated an annual income of $34 billion dollars per year. [2] According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, sex trafficking is the fastest growing crime in the world and is the second largest criminal enterprise after drugs. [3]

Since the start of civilization, to ancient Rome, to the slave trade of Africans, and to present day times, sex trafficking has been occurring for thousands of years. In May 1904 a treaty was finally passed that tried to combat sex trafficking and sexual slavery. This treaty was called the International Agreement for the Suppression of White Slave Traffic. During this time “white slave traffic” was considered as the forcing of white women and girls into prostitution. This treaty was mainly put into action to control the large number of European women who were trying to find jobs abroad. [4]

White women weren’t the only people being forced into prostitution. It can happen to anyone at in time. Although mostly women and children account for this, your race, class, age, or gender does not matter to a pimp that owns you and makes a profit. On average a pimp can make $150,000-$200,000 per prostitute a year, and each pimp has on average four to six girls. [5] Sex trafficking is also something happening very close to come. The Department of Justice released a list of the top twenty sex trafficking jurisdictions in the country. Among that list was Atlanta, Georgia, Washington, D.C., and Charlotte, North Carolina.[6] It’s almost scary how close this act is going on in proximity to my university, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and beautiful city of Charlotte. It is hard to believe that this is tainting our city and most citizens of Charlotte and others around the United States do not even realize that this is going on. Some people believe that sex trafficking, especially prostitution, is a choice that a prostitute choses to make. I believe that is a false accusation that no one can truly make until they have been in that situation themselves. Most are forced into this fast growing organized crime “industry” and are often threated by vicious acts. Their pimps have complete psychological control over them. They maintain their power through ways of force, terrorization, abuse, rape, and by taking them far from their homes and families.  This is an issue that is going on way to close to home for me and way too often, I believe something should be done about it. There should be stricter rules for sex trafficking in order to put a stop to it. This is a hard task accomplish due to the fact the average sex slave looks like anybody, an average person. I hope that my generation will spread more awareness about Sex Trafficking as many people do not know that it exist, and one day put a stop to it.

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[1] Youth Radio, "Trafficked Teen Girls Describe Life in "the Game"." Last modified December 06, 2010. Accessed February 26, 2014. http://www.npr.org/2010/12/06/131757019/youth-radio-trafficked-teen-girls-describe-life-in-the-game.

[2] Human Trafficking Awareness, "Worldwide ." Accessed February 25, 2014. http://media.wix.com/ugd/a47cdc_a08bb99caab041c2c58396ff9222a720.pdf0.

[3] Human Trafficking Awareness, "Worldwide ." Accessed February 25, 2014. http://media.wix.com/ugd/a47cdc_a08bb99caab041c2c58396ff9222a720.pdf0.

[4] Rutgers University, "Timeline of Human Trafficking." Accessed February 26, 2014. http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~yongpatr/425/final/timeline.htm.

[5] Youth Radio, "Trafficked Teen Girls Describe Life in "the Game"." Last modified December 06, 2010. Accessed February 26, 2014. http://www.npr.org/2010/12/06/131757019/youth-radio-trafficked-teen-girls-describe-life-in-the-game.

[6] John T. Floyd Law Firm , "Human Trafficking ." Last modified November 07, 2007. Accessed February 26, 2014. http://www.johntfloyd.com/comments/november/07a.htm.