Sex trafficking
[15] Susan Tiefenbrun, a professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law who has written extensively on human trafficking, conducted research on the victims addressed in this act and discovered that each year more than two million women throughout the world are bought and sold for sexual exploitation.
The requests may progress, and the trafficker may reference previous sexual acts in order to normalize the behavior, as well as participating in blackmail, especially when the encounter occurs over the internet.
Author Kara Siddharth interviewed a Thai victim who stated that she was "proud to fulfill her duty to her parents in the form of tiny payments that the brothel owner sent to her father after her trafficking debts were repaid".
[53] Perpetrators use social media networks, videoconferences, pornographic video sharing websites, dating pages, online chat rooms, apps, dark web sites,[58] and other platforms.
[69] Forced marriage, which is identified by the United Nations as a "contemporary form of slavery", occurs without full consent of the man or woman, and is associated with threats by family members or the bride/groom.
[70] Many scholars critique the power hierarchies based on gender, race, and class which underlie economic systems as perpetuators of victims' vulnerability to sex trafficking.
[77] Duong cites Structural adjustment programs (SAPs), an aspect of development policies in the globalization of neoliberalism, as a cause for women's poverty, unemployment, and low wages which promote migration.
One must be aware of the indicators to identify victims: abnormal behavior, poor physical health, lack of control, and work and living conditions.
Persons at risk include homeless and runaway youth, foreign nationals (especially those of lower socioeconomic status), and those who have experienced physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, violent trauma, neglect, poor academic success, and inadequate social skills.
In a study of trafficked youth in Arizona, 20 to 40 percent of female victims identified with experiencing abuse of some form (sexual or physical) at home before entering into the industry as a sex slave.
[15] In a study conducted by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, "only one of 23 trafficked women interviewed felt well-informed about sexually transmitted infections or HIV before leaving home.
[89] The mental health implications range from depression to anxiety to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to the abuse and violence victims face from their pimps or "johns".
[91] Another study done through BMC Public health revealed that there was a negative relationship between the how much girls and women were exposed to SEA (sexual exploitation and abuse) and their “social status” (Gray et al.
A study conducted by the International Labor Union indicated that boys are at a higher risk of being trafficked into agricultural work, the drug trade, and petty crime.
[116] These efforts are designed to empower survivors, deter trafficking altogether, protect vulnerable populations, and prosecute perpetrators in collaboration with both territories and provinces.
Organized criminal groups kidnap or purchase and force Iranian and immigrant children to work as beggars and street vendors in cities, including Tehran.
[138] SOAR which is an acronym which stands for Stop, Observe, Ask, and Respond is a training program which aims to properly equip professionals with the necessary resources and methods to identify victims of human trafficking.
International pressure to address trafficking in women and children became a growing part of the social Reform movement in the United States and Europe during the late nineteenth century.
Recognizing this, many states have passed legislation that allows sex trafficking victims amnesty under prostitution laws, however many fail to do so due to legal illiteracy and institutional prejudices.
Jane Addams was one of the most notable reformers during the Progressive Era, and refined the still early concepts of white slavery and sex work in her book A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil.
She says in her article titled "White Slavery, Whorehouse Riots, Venereal Disease, and Saving Women..."[150] that "The Progressive Era was a time when society was rapidly changing, with influences stemming from urbanization, industrialization, commercialization, immigration, and civilizing morality, all interacting with one another to fuel both prostitution and the anti-prostitution movement."
Throughout the next 45 years the International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children was adopted by the League of Nations and the term white slavery was replaced by trafficking, the word used commonly today.
[22] California sex trafficking legislation offers legal protection for women so they can make choices outside the criminal justice system and pursue civil remedies.
For example, The United States' Tier 2 assessment of Japan on its 2004 TIP Report[178] encouraged the Japanese government to add additional constraints to its procedures and policies for obtaining an entertainer visa, sometimes used by migrant workers seeking employment at businesses within the sex industry.
[180][179] Practices of law enforcement officers in some countries have also been criticized for incentivizing non-trafficked sex workers to declare themselves to be trafficking victims and enter aid and rehabilitation programs to avoid prison sentences for prostitution charges.
[183] The organization has two methods for rescuing victims: brothel raids in cooperation with local police, and "buy bust" operations in which undercover agencies pretend to purchase sex services from an underage girl.
In September 2010, the pair announced the launch of their "Real Men Don't Buy Girls" campaign to combat child sex trafficking alongside other Hollywood stars and technology companies such as Microsoft, Twitter, and Facebook.
[195] The Not for Sale (organization) Campaign works in the United States, Peru, the Netherlands, Romania, Thailand, South Africa, and India to help victims of human trafficking.
Researchers analyzed the most salient terms in these online ads and found that most commonly used words suggested that many escorts were traveling across state lines to Dallas specifically for the Super Bowl.
The collective is a Vancouver, British Columbia, based abolitionist group of lawyers, judges, social workers, professionals, teachers, activists and advocates working to end sexual exploitation.
