Comparative criminal justice systems and approaches

Human Sex Trafficking

Introduction to the Issue

Globalism may be increasing human trafficking

Sex Trafficking is a global issue, developed and developing countries alike

Trade is both overt and covert

Statistics on the trade

Reasons for the trade (incentive)

Pathways

Use of trickery and subterfuge to entice young people and parents

Use of drugs and addiction to make "slaves" pliable

The underdeveloped world

Economic issues with larger families

Attitude of girls being "disposable" as cultural tenet

Techniques used to ply trafficking trade (intimidation, drugs, brainwashing)

The response

Difficult to coordinate response and law enforcement because of locations

Those involved in many underdeveloped countries are part of the wealthy or elite -- corruption part of culture

c. U.S. And Interpol working together

d. Nature of legal scrutiny and substance via technology

Conclusions

a. Global Problem and the United Nations

b. Education and techniques for mitigation

c. Future goals and prospects

Human trafficking is the illegal slave trade of humans, largely for the purposes of sexual exploitation or forced labor. Recently, this has broadened to the trade in extracted organs or tissues, surrogacy, and even ova removal. International law states this is a crime because it violates the victim's rights through coercion and commercially motivated exploitation. The problem is vast, and the reason it occurs so seriously is that it is about a $30-40 billion part of the $700 billion in illegal trade per annum (Haken, 2011). While this may be the 21st century and the process of globalism is in full force, making the world seem far closer together politically and economically, there remain remnants of the past that, while abhorrent, still exist. In some countries, children are married as early as 9 years old, 7-year-olds are put to work in factories, human organs are harvested and sold to the highest bidder, and slavery and trafficking in human beings remain global problems (Heiner, 2007). Trafficking is sex is not a regional or country problem -- it is global in scope. Experts estimate that up to 2 million women and children are smuggled through borders, countries and oceans every year specifically for the purposes of sexual slavery and exploitation. Ironically, after the fall of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the former Soviet Republics and much of Eastern Europe has become one of the focal points for sexual slavery. In fact, the situation is so endemic; some estimate that the black market sex trafficking economy is comparable to the African Slave Trade at its height during the Colonial Expansion into the Americas (Farr, 2004).

The trade is not always overt, but it is viewed by such agencies as Interpol as "the recruitment, transportation, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, or deception, the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of one person having control over another, for the purposes of exploitation" (Human Trafficking, 2009).

Human trafficking and smuggling are some of the fastest growing areas of international criminal activity, a problem in virtually every country of the world. The trafficker is one in a long line of individuals involved in the enterprise, both to keep the controlling interests free from incarceration and to provide a more local force for recruitment. The trafficker, despite promises to the contrary, never intends to allow any victim freedom. This must be differentiated from smuggling (as in between borders) because that is economically based and the fee is paid to provide access across a border into a new country, with monetary gain the prime (U.S. Department of State, 2006). There are also other varieties of similar crimes, often making it difficult to identify and prosecute perpetrators across borders. Forced labor and involuntary servitude are any work or services in which people are forced to do against their will under some sort of threat of punishment or retribution to family; peonage and debt bondage, on the other hand, are debtors bound to service until a specific debt is paid (HTAP, 2012).

The trafficking industry operates primarily using subterfuge, trickery, and outright lies. Many young people are promised a new life in the West with job offers of being a maid, cook, butler, nanny, model, or even with promises of movie contracts or marriage opportunities. Ironically, many of the parents involved are quite happy to have this transaction take place, all with the promise of money being sent back from the new location to aid in the original family's welfare (UNODC, 2013). Additionally, traffickers prey on families that are usually quite poor, more rural, uneducated, and with larger families. The organized criminal activities that support this typically focus on the poorest areas of developing countries due to the economic impetus and ease of convincing young people, teens and their parents with promises of wealth. These people have run out of options and the traffickers go to rural communities during poor times (drought, prior to harvests, when food is scarce) and persuade fathers to sell their daughters for small amounts of money. Sadly, though, traffickers make millions because there is a high demand for their product; no taxes, and the girls are unable to do anything legal against them. One prime example of this, according to the FBI, is the Cadena-Sosa Family. This Mexican crime family uses recruiters to Mexico to lure locals with typical promises of jobs and economic security. Instead, once in Texas, these girls were placed in brothel trailers, raped and beaten (Trafficking Family, 2009).

In much of the underdeveloped world, human trafficking and slavery are becoming more and more an issue. This has been concentrated on the sex trade industry, in which youngsters, mostly girls but sometimes boys, are "sold" to richer clients simply for the purpose of sex. Within these societies, mostly in Africa, Asia and somewhat in Central/South America, girl children are often considered disposable, and of little or no worth to the family. Therefore, the selling of these children is considered an acceptable form of behavior for rural parents, while it is considered quite deviant in other countries. Economics and poverty are the primarily sociological reasons for allowing this type of behavior, and it is typically the undereducated family that sees no other option that earning a year or mores' wages for the sale of one of their children (Skinner, 2008). How large is this problem? Many United Nation's experts believe that at any given time there are over ae million women and children that are part of this slave system, with this number increasing yearly, and no way of knowing how many in the system have simply been cast off or killed either in transport or when no longer of any use (Coonan, 2005).

The international criminals who traffic in humans use a variety of techniques to secure their victims. Typically, they search in countries or areas of countries in which the poverty level is abject -- many families will "sell" a female child and recoup as much as a year's wages. This child, being female, in many cultures has less value than a male child since not only is the female unable to work at the same level as a male, but will cost the family more with dowry, etc. These poorer areas of the world are typically comprised of illiterate peasants who do not choose to know that their daughters are being sold into slavery. The traffickers use terms like: "arranged marriages," "entertainment industry," or even "benevolent sponsor," to conclude their business, which is done with cash and typically through a native speaker so as not to arouse suspicion (King, 2004).

It is more typical for the women to be sold via a "verbal contract" with the father, promised employment, or the ability to move to the city to earn extra money for the family than actual physical violence (which mars the merchandise and might cause other members of the villages to refuse to deal with this sort of business). It is not long after this "business transaction" is completed, however, that it becomes apparent that the girls are, in fact, captives and being transported into sexual slavery (Maskika, 2002). Also typical is that women of this general economic base do not have the education or proper documentation (passports, visas, official documents) to find their way back home. In the case of some of the Eastern Europe and former Soviet areas, however, the passports and official documents are usually confiscated, sometimes with promises of returning, but typically held so that if any police authority were to find the women, they would likely assume they were illegal's anyway (McGill, 2003).

The traffickers use a great deal of threats, intimidation, or drugs to control their captives. Many of the victims go through a period of brainwashing in that food is held back, sleep deprived, and the use of punishment meant to condition the captive into total subservience. Often the victims are kept in such a state of drugged unawareness that they do not even realize they have been transported many countries away from their own village (Kempadoo, 2005). This is not always the case, though, some of the girls are victims of advertisements placed in local papers for "modeling" jobs in the west, "marriage" proposals, and even what looks to be legitimate offers of employment as nannies, restaurant workers, etc. (Kara, 2008).

Because of the economic viability of trafficking, it is difficult to enact international laws that are rigid enough and enforceable, to put a dent into the problem. It is only with Western pressure from the United Nations and resultant agencies, and other private and public groups, that prosecution is even attempted. The people that are engaged in this trafficking at the international level are, in fact, typically part of the wealthy and/or upper crust of the societies in question. They are the ones who are able to afford the bribes, transportation, and have the connections to make this behavior possible. And, interestingly enough, the idea of human slavery is abhorrent to most of these individuals for their own family, but they, like many in the 16th-18th century looked at the African Slave Trade, look at the individuals being sold as somehow less than human. Indeed, this is perhaps the most deviant part of these behaviors, looking at another human being as nothing more than a commodity to be bought and sold (Bales, 2004).