Sex trafficking in the United States
[citation needed] The measures against trafficking of women focus on harsher criminal legislation and punishments, and improving international police cooperation.
[12][13] The 1921 Convention set new goals for international efforts to stem human trafficking, primarily by giving the anti-trafficking movement further official recognition, as well as a bureaucratic apparatus to research and fight the problem.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys represent the opposing sides in court, and judges make decisions based on the facts of the case and applicable laws.
The goal of the juvenile justice system is to provide a safe and supportive environment for minors to recover from their trauma, and to prevent them from becoming victims of exploitation or trafficking in the future.
Also specified in the TVPA was a mandate to collect funds for the treatment of sex trafficking victims that provided them with shelter, food, education, and financial grants.
Although US Senators Rob Portman, Richard Blumenthal and Claire McCaskill authored SESTA specifically to strengthen existing laws combatting sex trafficking, the bill was mainly met with negative responses online, with many expressing concerns that they would endanger online free speech and social media by gutting Section 230, a law that enables platforms relied on by many users on the internet.
[27] The San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2006 that in the 21st century, women, mostly from South America, Southeast Asia, and the former Soviet Union, are trafficked into the United States for the purposes of sexual slavery.
Sex trafficking in the United States may be present in Asian massage parlors, Mexican cantina bars, residential brothels, or street-based pimp-controlled prostitution.
[38] Research conducted by University of California at Berkeley on behalf of the anti-trafficking organization Free the Slaves, found that about 46% of people in slavery in the United States are forced into prostitution.
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.
While they did not interview any of the adolescent subjects of the inquiry, they estimated through secondary response that as many as 300,000 American youth may be at risk of commercial sexual exploitation at any time.
[44] Scholarly research funded by the National Institute of Justice and realized by the Social Networks Research Group at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Center for Court Innovation in New York City had used Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS), Social Network Analysis, capture/recapture, and Markov based probability estimates in 2008 to generate a prevalence estimate for New York City that suggested far fewer commercially sexually exploited children than the 300,000 and far more than the 827 suggested by these two most widely read sources.
A 2012 study done in Atlantic City, New Jersey, by the same group incorporated an extended qualitative ethnographic component that looked specifically at the relationship between pimps and adolescents engaged with street based sex markets.
[47][48] This study found the percentage of adolescents who had pimps to be only 14% and that those relationships were typically far more complex, mutual, and companionate than has been reported by social service providers, not-for-profits, and much of the news media.
The SNRG-NYC New York City study found that out of 249 underage prostitutes (48% female and 45% male) who constituted the final statistical sample, the average age of entry into the market was 15.29.
"[63] However, AHA has successfully referred numerous individuals seeking help in fleeing or avoiding a forced marriage with qualified service providers and law enforcement.
[65] The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) has been suspected of trafficking underage women across state lines, as well as across the US–Canada[66] and US–Mexico borders,[67] for the purpose of sometimes involuntary plural marriage and sexual abuse.
[68] The FLDS is suspected by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police of having trafficked more than 30 under-age girls from Canada to the United States between the late 1990s and 2006 to be entered into polygamous marriages.
This has been described by numerous former members as sexual slavery, and was reported as such by the Sydney Morning Herald,[72][73] One former resident of Yearning for Zion, Kathleen Mackert, stated: "I was required to perform oral sex on my father when I was seven, and it escalated from there.
[76] The majority of child sex trafficking cases referred to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) involve ads on Backpage.com, a classified advertising website.
Online classifieds, social media vehicles, discussion boards, chat rooms, dating websites, and custom web pages are commonly used to attract and book new business.
It concludes that individuals in society need to be alert to report suspicious behavior, because the psychological and physical abuse occurs which can often leave a victim unable to escape on their own.
[94] While there is substantial evidence to the contrary, including research published by the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women in 2011[95] warning that the repetition of unsupported data leads to human rights violations against trafficking victims and voluntary sex workers, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott claims that sporting events, particularly the Super Bowl,[96] are a prominent haven for sex 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.
During Super Bowls, the ECPTA-USA runs campaigns to raise awareness of sex trafficking, mobilizes volunteers and trains people involved in tourism.
During Super Bowl XLIX, authorities led a sting operation called National Day of Johns and arrested almost 600 people and rescued 68 victims.
The transient nature of truck stops makes it easier for traffickers to frequently relocate without arousing suspicion and attracts a customer base of men who have been traveling and are in search of commercial sex.
Truck stops have both individual pimps who are constantly relocating their victims and brothels that have a use local businesses, typically massage parlors, as store fronts.
[112][113][114] Detective Greg Harvey, from Eugene, Oregon, said such cases were in reality very common; he said, "It's happening right now, it's amazing how many girls are shipped from here to different brothels in northern and southern Nevada.
"[113] Brothel industry lobbyist George Flint disagreed, saying "Anybody that has an ounce of brain or intelligence has to know they (legal and illegal prostitution) are two different things.
