Chains not broken

Just cause you don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist...

The Harvard Journal of law and Gender quoted the US Congress's declaration that “trafficking in persons is a modern form of slavery, and it is the largest manifestation of slavery today.” According to the Journal, human trafficking, with profits soaring into the billions of dollars, is one of the largest criminal industries in the world. Each year tens of thousands of humans are purchased and sold for the purpose of free labor with a focus on sexual services. The hopelessness of the human trafficking issue can be most clearly seen by analyzing how trafficking is accomplished, how big the problem is, and the solutions attempting to address trafficking.

The first step in understanding the human trafficking problem, is to analyze the process by which it is accomplished. Trafficking of humans is fairly simple when analyzed by its basic process. There are two ways trafficking is accomplished. The first is when the subjects, most commonly women, are lured into traveling from one country to another in an attempt to gain employment. The second form is when a person is simply kidnapped and smuggled into another country. In either of these cases, the subject is lured or forced into some sort of coerced labor. Nearly 80% of trafficked persons are female, and 70% of those females are trafficked for the purposes of sexual labor (Harvard Journal of Law and Gender). An example of trafficking is seen on our own U.S.-Mexico border where, according to the Journal of Trauma Practice, illegal smuggling of humans has become a lucrative business. Each year the process has become more and more involved. Lured into migration by the promise of work, the migrants are taken captive upon arriving in the United States. Once held captive, the illegal immigrants have little or no recourse to the law as even their presence in the U.S. is a crime. Although the process of luring and capturing immigrants may seem a slow business, it has in fact become a growing industry.

The second key point needed to properly analyze human trafficking is to look at how big the industry has become. The demand for low cost labor and sexual services has created a steady market for trafficked humans. Prostitution is a global business, and human trafficking will follow where ever the demand exists (Harvard Asia Pacific Review). 

The crime isn't that she's 13 yrs old, the crime is she is a human...

Where there is money to be made, there will be people there to make it. As long as the demand continues, the business to supply the demand will continue regardless of its legal status. The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology clarifies this in their 2008 winter publication. It states that the demand for prostitution by the male population has fostered and indeed been impart responsible for the massive increase in trafficking. In his article David Hodge, a professor in the social work program at Arizona State University, states that the yearly trafficking rates in the United States alone are between 14,500 and 17,500 people. In their report, the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender estimates the number to be much higher, between 45,000 and 50,000 people annually. In addition, the Harvard Journal estimates that between 700,000 and 2 million people are trafficked world wide, with profits rising to between 7 and 10 billion dollars per year. With rates increasing and profits so high, there is little chance of human trafficking ending without substantial intervention through governmental bodies. The basic law of supply and demand will foster the existence, and indeed, the growth of this illegal industry.

The last key point to understanding the issue of human trafficking is the major legislative attempts at solving the problem. Each country has their own individual laws attempting to solve the specific form of human trafficking with in their own borders; the United States offers a perfect example. The primary legislative attempt at slowing or stopping human trafficking in the Untied States is the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, or TVPA. The act makes it illegal to traffic and enslave people. The act also sets a high level of consequences for those who participate in trafficking or coerced labor. However, the act's primary function is to offer support to victims of trafficking. This support ranges from monetary assistance, to housing and food stamps. In order to obtain this assistance individuals must qualify under the eligibility standards outlined in part I of the act.

This act has faced wide spread criticism on the grounds of ineffectiveness. While each year nearly 50,000 people are trafficked into the United States, only 228 received benefit from the TVPA in 2005. Beyond that, many are turned away with no apparent explanation or reason given (Harvard Journal of Law and Gender). Perhaps the reason so many people are refused help from the TVPA is in the actual text of the act. In the first part of the act, according to the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, the eligibility requirements are too strict and exclude many of the applicants. Effectively, due to the strict nature of the statute's own provisions, it prevents itself from being effective at providing victims with support. Why the act itself was designed as it is remains a mystery, but it is clear reform is necessary to ensure success of the act.

Having analyzed the current process, growth rate, and the attempted solutions to human trafficking, the picture of the current problem is much clearer. Human trafficking is a response to the demand for free labor, sexually exploitative in nature. In response to the high demand, the rate of trafficking has sky rocketed into the hundred of thousands, if not millions. Without significant reform, critics doubt there will be any significant reduction in trafficking. In closing, the The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology summed up their view on the current approach. “The root cause of trafficking is demand for commercial sexual services, without which trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation would dissolve.” The Journal holds that until the demand for sexual services is addressed, the problem of human trafficking will never find resolution. What ever the case is, increasing rates of human trafficking illustrates the current approach is not working. Without significant reform, improvement cannot be expected with in current system.

Works Cited:

 - “Missing the Mark: Why the Trafficking Victims Protection Act  fails to protect sex trafficking victims in the United States” - Harvard Journal of Law & Gender; Winter2007, Vol. 30 Issue 1, p231

 - Journal of Trauma Practice; 2003, Vol. 2 Issue 3/4, p143 - “Prostitution and Trafficking of Women and Children from Mexico to the United States”

 - Harvard Asia Pacific Review; Winter2005, Vol. 8 Issue 2, p10 - “Prostitution and trafficking in Asia”

- Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology; Winter2008, Vol. 98 Issue 2, p655-656, p665 - “Of Vice and Men: A new approach to eradicating sex trafficking by reducing male demand through educational programs and abolitionist legislation”

 - David Hodge, Social Work; Apr2008, Vol. 53 Issue 2, p144 - “Sexual Trafficking in the United States: A Domestic Problem with Transnational Dimensions”