The three most forms of human trafficking are forced labor, sex trafficking and debt bondage. The United Nations defines human trafficking as: “The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.” “San Francisco is not immune to the problem and has been considered a prime destination for human trafficking due to its ports, airports, industry and rising immigrant populations.”
“Human trafficking is the second largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world with as many as 27 million individuals living in slavery-like conditions throughout the world.” This is a plague and we need to contain it.
“Sex trafficking affects women and children and they are forced into sex acts. Women and girls make up 80% of people trafficked transnationally. Yearly traffickers exploit 1 million children in the commercial sex trade.”
It is perceived that only women are trafficked but men, young boys and children are forced into labor. Construction work, janitorial work, hotel services, hair, nail salons and strip clubs.
Survivors of modern-day slavery are misled or tricked into human trafficking. If they escape the survivor may face extreme trauma, may not be able to function in an everyday normal environment. They may not speak the language if they were trafficked transnationally. For example, if a child runs away from home and is approached by someone who promises them food, shelter and love. Then the child is coerced into a prostitution ring while the pimp keeps all the money. This is a grievous crime and it needs to be stopped.
Anytime a person is forced to perform sexual services against their will it is sex slavery. “According to the F.B.I., sex trafficking is the 2nd fastest growing criminal industry -- just behind drug trafficking. It is an easy, and low risk (many traffickers still believe the high profit margin to be worth the risk of detection) and profitable industry because of huge consumer demand.”
Traffickers are using the internet to lure unsuspecting, and vulnerable kids for their own financial gain. They see these children and women as nothing more than just dollar signs.
They use the same grooming tactics that a pedophile would. A promise of a better life, they will form an online relationship, they want to meet in person and they shower the person with expensive gifts. The ultimate end game for the pimp is to enslave the person and force them into prostitution.
They will target boys and girls between the ages of 12 to 19. Teens from all types of backgrounds. They seek out kids who are unsupervised, depressed, or who may be isolated from family and friends. Runaways and homeless kids, sexually abused children and children from domestic violence homes are frequently targeted.
Unfortunately, a trafficker can be anyone a teacher, a friend, your neighbor, boyfriend and girlfriend. They could be someone you met online. They will set up fake accounts to lure their victims in.
They may pretend to be a young teenage kid and they start to gain someone’s trust with a variety of techniques. Agreeing with the person they are speaking with online. Finding out what the person likes or doesn’t like and saying they have the same things in common. This is what is known as grooming.
“The National Center for Missing and Exploited children operates the Cyber Tip Line a national mechanism for the public and electronic survive providers to report instances of child sexual exploitation. In 2018 the Cyber Tip Line received more than 18.4 million reports that related to apparent sexual abuse images, online enticement including sextortion, child sex trafficking and child sexual molestation. Since its inception the Cyber Tip Line has received more than 45 million reports.”
“A 2016 study by the Center for Court Innovation found that between 8,900 and 10,500 children, ages 13 to 17, are commercially exploited each year in the United States. Child pornography offences have exploded by more than 200% in the last decade, a trend that advocates say is fueled by the easy spread of illicit material over the internet. Incidents of child pornography climbed for the eighth year in a row in 2016. The agency recorded 6,245 incidents last year, up from 4,380 in 2015. That represents a more than 40% rate increase in just one year and a 233% spike from the rate reported in 2006 (according to Statistics Canada 2017). 67% of Child Sexual Abuse Imagery (CSAI) survivors said the distribution of their images impacts them differently than the hands-on abuse they suffered because the distribution never ends, and the images are permanent.”
“The annual number of persons prosecuted for commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) cases filed in U.S. district court nearly doubled between 2004 and 2013, increasing from 1,405 to 2,776 cases.”
“Suspects referred for the possession of child pornography (72%) accounted for the majority of all CSEC suspects, followed by those suspected of child sex trafficking (18%) and child pornography production (10%). Most suspects arrested for CSEC crimes were male (97%), were U.S. citizens (97%), were white (82%), had no prior felony convictions (79%) and were not married (70%). CSEC suspects had a median age of 39 years and more than half (56%) had no more than a high school education. (Department of Justice 2017).”
“NCMEC’s Child Victim Identification Program, which helps to locate and rescue child victims in abusive images, has reviewed more than 273 million images and videos and law enforcement has identified more than 16,700 child victims. (Source: National Missing and Exploited Children, Exploited Children Statistics Accessed May 3, 2017).”
Parents need to monitor their children’s activities on the internet. What we should be doing is staying committed to the technology our children are using, and stay current with our internet safety issues. Monitor what your children are doing online. Do not make things public, turn the location off on your cell phone and in your photos.
The internet has made it so easy for traffickers and their customers to do transactions discreetly. They will utilize social media, dating websites, online advertisement to market their victims. The trafficker will lie about their victims age or even use someone to disguise themselves as the person in the ad.
The United States is a source of transit, and many of the victims wind up on the streets forced into prostitution, brothels, escort services, massage parlors, hotels or may be forced into pornography. Some of the victims of sex trafficking become victimizers themselves.
They will go out and recruit for the traffickers. So many times, the victims are promised they will be free after they pay their debt. This is worldwide victims are baited with promises of work. People from poor countries are more vulnerable because of lack of education, and resources. There are traffickers that are using cross country dating services, and when these people arrive, they are threatened, beaten and sold. Thank you for listening. Save a life call in a tip if you see something say something. Call the National Human Trafficking Hotline 1-888-373-7888.
References
Epilogue & Prologue
https://sf-hrc.org/what-human-trafficking
www.missingkids.com/gethelpnow/cybertipline
https://www.fbi.gov
https://humantraffickinghotline.org
https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org
https://www.acf.hhs.gov/otip/victim-assistance/national-human-trafficking-hotline
https://www.un.org
https://www.justice.gov
https://sf-hrc.org/what-human-trafficking
www.missingkids.com/gethelpnow/cybertipline
https://www.fbi.gov
https://humantraffickinghotline.org
https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org
https://www.acf.hhs.gov/otip/victim-assistance/national-human-trafficking-hotline
https://www.un.org
https://www.justice.gov
Call the National Human Trafficking Hotline 1-888-373-7888.
National Suic
ide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.
About the Author
I was born in Binghamton, NY and lived in the small town of Owego, NY. I was sexually abused as a child. I never felt safe, and I would often escape into books and National Geographic magazines.
My father was a gay man living in a small town. I lost him to AIDS when I was 14 years old.
My favorite authors were Stephan King, Dean Koontz, and my favorite stories were short stories by authors like Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe.
I loved reading, and music as a child they were my way to escape my cruel dark world. As I child I also loved writing it eased my pain. I really enjoyed making up characters, stories, and sharing them with my family and friends. I was discouraged from writing by my teachers and my mother was called into my school for my writings. My teachers told my mom there was something wrong with me. All I was trying to do was release my sadness, my anger and everything I had been through in a healthy natural way.
I started playing the piano and clarinet as a child. They have been my lifeline, both instruments have saved my life as well as writing.
I wrote my story A Little Girl Shattered before I wrote this book. My hope is that this story and my personal story helps so many survivors out there.
I currently live in Rochester, NY and I love playing my clarinet, piano and I still love to write.
www.amazon.com/author/leerachael
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Trafficking the Disappearance of Lily Rose Flannery: Based on Many True Stories Page 17