Child Sex Trafficking Problem

Child Sex Trafficking:

Sex trafficking is basically defined as the enlisting, harboring, provision, moving, or acquisition of an individual for the main goal of a commercial sex act. In this case, an individual who has not attained 18 years old is forced or coerced to perform sexual acts. Generally, a person is forced or coerced for the purpose of debt bondage, involuntary servitude, or slavery. In the past few years, child sex trafficking has become a major epidemic not only in the United States but also across the world. While many people know the issue of child sex trafficking, they are not aware of the extent of uncontrolled exploitation of children and its impact. Given the severity of the impact of child sex trafficking, it is increasingly important to understand this crime and develop appropriate policy measures to reduce its prevalence.

The Problem of Child Trafficking:

As previously mentioned, child sex trafficking is defined as recruitment, movement, provision, or obtaining of an individual who has not attained 18 years old and coercing or forcing him/her to perform sexual acts ("What is Sex Trafficking?" n.d.). This crime has become an ever-growing epidemic across the globe even though many people may have heard of it. The extent of uncontrolled sexual exploitation of children around the globe remains largely unknown since many people do not give the issue a second thought. However, child sex trafficking involves exploitation of children in a disgusting, inhuman manner through which perpetrators make money. This implies that the perpetrators of the crime exploit children for the sole purpose of personal financial gain.

Despite the increase in child sex trafficking, the practice has always been an act of disrespect to human dignity since it involves invariable infringement of various core human rights. Child trafficking is considered an affront to human dignity because the victims face a wide range of threats to their well-being, health, development, and even their lives in some cases. HIV / AIDS is also a clear and evident danger or threat because the trafficked children are increasingly forced into sexual servitude. In addition, children coerced into military and paramilitary setups in conflict zones face numerous threats to their lives and limb because of the grave situations in such areas.

Child trafficking is widely recognized as an abominable practice though most people do not have knowledge about the health risks associated with such illegal practices. As a result of the lack of knowledge of the risks and threats that child victims are exposed to, the development of the most appropriate measures to address the problem is quite challenging. At the level of the child victim, trafficking is accompanied with physical and mental health threats. Moreover, access to care for vulnerable children is strongly restricted by the exploitative and concealed nature of the case. Generally, children rarely come across healthcare providers and even in situations where there is access their conditions are likely to remain unrecognized and unreported. As compared to victims of women trafficking, the lack of healthcare settings for trafficked children is not described well. This is regardless of the fact that child victims may be highly unlikely to understand the nature and degree of their conditions and ignorant of their respective rights (Beyrer, 2004, p.16).

The severity of child sex trafficking is difficult to understand because of the significant challenges in measuring the number of trafficked children across the globe. Nonetheless, child trafficking problem is an issue of wider geographic distribution. Most of the groups dealing with the problem of child trafficking have agreed that approximately 1.2 million children are trafficked worldwide on an annual basis. Some of the most commonly affected areas include west Africa, south Asia, central Asia, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, western Europe, and Latin America, particularly Colombia and Mexico. Since most child victims are trafficked for controlled and cheap labor, they end up working in homes, factories, restaurants, farms, and on construction settings.

There are various contributing factors to the problem of child trafficking across the globe including the widening gap between the poor and the rich, structural forces, increased demand for cheaper and more forced labor, and increased use of children in armies and conflict zones. Regardless of the various measures undertaken to address the problem, it is predicted that child trafficking will continue in the future because these root-cause factors are yet to be addressed. The other reason for the expected increase in child trafficking cases is the exploitation of children for sexual purposes, which has led to the emergence and increase of child sex trafficking across the world.

The Extent of Child Sex Trafficking:

According to Rafferty (2013), trafficking of children including for commercial sexual exploitation is one of fastest growing and financially rewarding criminal activity around the world (p.559). Children are increasingly becoming targets for perpetrators of these offenses who move the victims within their home country or transport them away from their homes countries. The offenders treat their victims as commodities to be purchased, sold, and resold for sexual exploitation or labor. The findings of numerous surveys have indicated that girls are increasingly likely to be trafficked into sex trade all over the world. Actually, girls and women account for approximately 98% of victims who are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. The victims of these criminal activities are exposed to numerous threats to their health and well-being because of the generally extremely low status of the health and safety standards in the exploitative settings.

The determination of the nature and extent of child sex trafficking is based on the implementation of ongoing prevention and programs towards child trafficking/commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) within specific countries and regions. Most of the existing literature on this issue is based on victim profiles, case studies, and in-depth reports from countries that show the growth of this phenomenon. In essence, the reports consists more statistical data and trafficking profiles unlike literature addressing the trafficking of women.

Based on the available literature, there is an increase in the number of children trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and a decrease in the age of sexually exploited children. For instance, countries in South America such as Paraguay have experienced an increase in these incidents and some of the victims are as young as 8 years old. In the past few years, more than 60% of victims of child sex trafficking are below 10 years while other are as young as 6 years (Gozdziak & Bump, 2008, p.6).

The increase in cases of child sex trafficking is attributed to several factors, particularly the development of the sex tourism industry. While some women are recruiting male prostitutes, men are the basic sex tourist exploiters of children in the world, especially in the Caribbean and Latin America. The development of the sex tourism industry has contributed to the trafficking of children for pornography and prostitution. Secondly, child sex trafficking continues to increase because of the ease in obtaining travel documents for a person below the age of 18 years. This implies that many countries do not have stringiest measures in preventing the likelihood of exploitation of children for commercial sex purposes. Third, many children are exploited to provide income for their families, particularly those in Latin America and the Caribbean. Fourth, children who are victims of sexual abuse in their homes are likely to become victims of child sex trafficking because of their engagement in prostitution. The other contributing factors are poor economic and living conditions, the low status of women in the society, and drug and alcohol abuse. In some cases, families allow child traffickers to take their children after being promised high-paying jobs or because of deceptive practices and false promises.

Given the increase of child sex trafficking, it is important to understand the impact of this crime on children and the society in general. Generally, trafficked children experience negative effects on their physical, psychological, and social-emotional development due to exposure to unhealthy living conditions. In some cases, an enslaved child is raped approximately ten times per night (Harden, 2013). These victims are typically stripped of their human dignity since their names are substituted with a number once they are coerced into a brothel. This implies that the main impact of child sex trafficking on victims is loss of human dignity because of exposure to illegal and inappropriate sexual acts among other activities. These victims sometimes turn into drugs and alcohol abuse as a tool for dealing with the physical, psychological, and social-emotional torture. In addition to engagement in drug and alcohol abuse, some of these children resort to engaging in criminal activities, which results in the increase in crime across the world and in nearly every society.

The increase in the cases of child sex trafficking is also brought by the weak governmental policies and legislation that address this crime. Many countries such as Cambodia have weak child protection infrastructures while government institutions are driven with corruption. For example, the anti-trafficking laws in Cambodia do not permit law enforcement agencies and personnel to carry out undercover surveillance on suspects and perpetrators of these offenses. Consequently, law enforcement personnel in such countries are at disadvantaged positions against child traffickers.

Law enforcement officers in some countries have stated that they are limited in prosecuting child trafficking violations because of the weak child protection systems in their countries. They have also stated that they do not have necessary expertise and technical equipment to deal with child traffickers (Hume, Cohen & Sorvino, 2013). Actually, these officers may witness a violation but cannot gather needed evidence to prosecute the offenders. Weak child protection systems and increased corruption in some countries, especially those in Latin America and Caribbean contribute to the increase in child sex traffickers.

Current Measures in Dealing with the Crime:

Even though some governments are to blame for increased child sex trafficking, others such as the United States have adopted several measures to deal with the crime. The efforts taken by the United States government are based on the recent increased attention to the problem of human trafficking in social work literature and the media. Public awareness of human trafficking in the United States has increased because of the numerous cases of global sex trafficking in the recent years. However, many individuals are unaware of the fact that many American citizens are victims of this crime than foreign national. Most of the youths in the United States are more vulnerable to domestic child sex trafficking to an extent that experts refer to crime against children as domestic minor sex trafficking.

One of the measures undertaken by the United States government in dealing with the issue is putting the crime into perspective. This process has involved determining the legal connection between human trafficking and prostitution of minors. In this case, the U.S. government has defined the crime as a modern-day slavery of children and stated that American children are more susceptible to becoming victims. This definition and classification was adopted after conducting research on the issue across 10 American cities in 2008. Furthermore, the United States Department of Justice as reported that there are no credible estimates of the degree of this crime because of questionable research methodologies, the hidden nature of the crime, and lack of adequate attention to the issue (Kotrla, 2020, p.182).

Secondly, the government has conducted numerous researches on national-level statistics on human trafficking investigations. These researches have been geared towards identifying the most common factors contributing to commercial sexual exploitation of children and growth of domestic minor sex trafficking. One of the findings of these researches is that industries like prostitution result in moral and ethical problems that in turn lead to domestic minor sex trafficking. The moral or ethical problems from these industries are attributed to the minimal attention paid to the age of those involved in the activities. The researches have also enabled the United States government to identify some of the ways through which trafficked children are sold for commercial sexual purposes.

The United States government has also examined the supply and demand of domestic minor sex trafficking based on supply-demand principles. The demand which increases child sex trafficking is understood from the perspective of the trafficker or offender, and consumer. The evaluation of the supply and demand of child sex trafficking in the United States has also contributed to the identification of organized criminal networks that participate in the illegal acts.

These previously discussed measures have resulted in the establishment of various bodies to deal with the issue. These governmental agencies and organizations are mandated with the task of dealing with issues of human trafficking including child sex trafficking. Notably, these agencies work under the United States Department of Justice, which basically focuses on dealing with crime. They include the United States Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, and Trafficking in Persons Program under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

These agencies focus on developing suitable measures for dealing preventing the prevalence of child sex trafficking. They focus on the implementation of child protection programs based on established legislation, framework, and policies. The programs are based on human rights approaches to child trafficking, which establish a comprehensive conceptual framework through which victim-centered and law enforcement responses can be created, implemented, and evaluated. Apart from prevention of these activities, these agencies focus on ensuring that all victims of human trafficking including children have access to necessary support for promoting their health and well-being.

The main legislative framework used to address child sex trafficking issue is the Protected Innocence Legislative Framework, which is a guideline for protecting victims and holding criminals more accountable in the fight against trafficking. It is also an anti-trafficking policy that acts as the foundation for all initiatives geared towards dealing with domestic minor sex trafficking. As an anti-trafficking policy approach, the Protected Innocence Legislative Framework is the starting point for combating child sex trafficking. Similar to anti-trafficking federal laws, state laws have comprehensive and severe penalties for traffickers as part of the government's measures in establishing a complete criminal deterrence program. Generally, the United States government has established legislative measures based on four major objectives i.e. eliminating demand, prosecuting offenders, identifying victims, and offering protection, access to services, and shelter for victims.

Policy Recommendations:

The increase of child sex trafficking has contributed to various law enforcement efforts to deal with this crime. Law enforcement agencies and personnel deal with the crime because they are in a better position to identify victims who are most likely to be hidden in communities they serve. The law enforcement agencies, especially local police agencies also address the problem because of the difficulties in exposing such activities since they are subservice and the underground nature of the offense. One of the major efforts undertaken by these agencies is prioritizing human trafficking prosecutions as part of their initiatives to identify, expose, and respond to such crime. Secondly, law enforcement agencies have established several task forces that work in collaboration with each other to address the issue. These task forces work together with police officers to enhance response to incidents of child sex trafficking.

The multi-agency task forces are one of the various models implemented by the Federal government and the criminal justice system in attempts to enhance cooperation between federal, state, county, and local stakeholders in developing mutual problem-solving measures (Farrell, McDevitt & Fahy, 2008, p.8). These task forces are established to help the existing agencies in partnership with the United States Attorney's Office and victim service organizations to promote a victim-centered approach in responding to domestic human trafficking including child sex trafficking.

While these efforts have helped in addressing the crime they have relatively been ineffective in dealing with the problem of child sex trafficking. Some of the major policy recommendations that could help in lessening the prevalence of this criminal activity include

Development of Training Curriculum:

Law enforcement agencies could benefit from more research on the topic because of the limited knowledge regarding the issue. Given the limited literature on the topic, law enforcement agencies need to conduct more research on the crime. The research needs to focus on providing additional information regarding traffickers and offenders who do not come into contact with the criminal justice system. These studies should also focus on providing more information regarding the link between human trafficking network and other criminal networks, identifying effective measures for investigating cases, supporting trafficking victims, and promoting the successful prosecution of these cases. These studies should be combined with dialogue or discussions concerning complexities associated with dealing with the crime. The discussions should include definitions and challenges of victim changes in status of trafficked children or smuggled migrants.

The findings of the numerous research efforts should be used to develop a national training curriculum that targets law enforcement agencies' response to this crime. The training curriculum should recognize the existing level of understanding this crime, highlighting the utility of protocols and relevant personnel, and identifying appropriate investigative techniques. The research and curriculum will ensure that existing measures for fighting child sex trafficking are up-to-date and effective in dealing with the offenses.

Improved Identification and Investigation of Cases:

The second recommendation is promoting enhanced identification and investigation of child sex trafficking cases. Currently, law enforcement agencies are experiencing several difficulties in identifying and successfully prosecuting child sex trafficking cases. The identification and investigation of these cases can be enhanced through the acquisition and availability of model protocols to improve these processes. It will also involve defining the roles and responsibilities of partner agencies or organizations that help the law enforcement agencies (Farrell, McDevitt & Fahy, 2008, p.8).

Widening Victim-centered Approaches:

Law enforcement agencies could also benefit from widening on increasing the victim centered approaches to incorporate some attention on criminals as well. The significance of such initiative is that it will help in lessening some of the tension areas regarding victim classification that currently exist in several task forces. Broadening these approaches will also help promote investigations through incorporating a wide range of investigative techniques and tools. The widening of victim centered initiatives should also incorporate continued to use and support to multi-agency task forces in relation to enhancing investigations. This is primarily because these task forces have carried out more investigations, made more arrests, and more charges.