" Trafficking gangs kidnap or lure women from Eastern Europe with promises of work as models or glamorous escorts. They are smuggled into the European Union on false papers via staging posts in Italy, Germany and Scandinavia. But when they reach the West, the girls' papers are confiscated and they have to pay off "debts" to the gangs by working as sex slaves (Clements, 2000).
Trafficked women do not walk the streets like Scots hookers, instead working in brothels (Clements, 2000)."
They speak little or no English and would be exposed to arrest on the streets so gangs buy flats to protect their investments and maximise their sordid profits (Clements, 2000)."
Definition of Good and Evil as it Relates to Sex Trafficking
Good and evil as it relates to sex trafficking is quite easily defined. The laws against sex slavery or sex trafficking are set up for the good of the victims and society as a whole Those who run the business, kidnap and exploit the girls are evil. Evil is also in the fact that sex slavery is just under murder on the moral wrong scale. It dehumanizes females in the worst possible way by stripping them first of their free will and free choice and then by forcing them to commit acts of sex outside of marriage and for profit with strangers (Staff, 2000).
The good and evil context of this industry is clearly defined. Girls who are kidnapped and sold into slavery are victims of free will as the people who kidnap them use their free will to commit acts of evil against them. They trust the people who con them or kidnap them and they trust that they will be taken care of. Often times they are being told or promised wonderful things for their life whether it is a career in acting or dance or the chance to go to college. They believe in the basic goodness of people and they agree to go to a different nation. Once they arrive they discover they are expected to perform acts of sex for cash and if they refuse their papers are exposed as fake and they have no way to get back home without the proper and legal documentation.
Eastern Europe has evolved into a major supplier of women for a flourishing international sex trade, and Romania is no exception (Staff, 2000). The International Organization for Migration estimates that about 300,000 women from the Balkans are trafficked annually into the 15 nations that make up the European Union. The United Nations estimates the worldwide profit for the trade in women to be over $7 billion a year, indicating that the trade in human flesh is almost as profitable as drug-running and illicit arms sales. Trafficking in women for the purpose of forced prostitution is growing problem particularly in Romania, one of the poorest Eastern European countries (Staff, 2000). The local press reports almost daily about women trapped in debt bondage, forced to work as unpaid prostitutes in Turkey, Italy, the Netherlands and other Western countries, as well as some of the former Communist countries, like Poland and Yugoslavia. The news that seven Romanian women had been sold in Cambodia, a country almost totally unknown to most Romanians, shocked public opinion in the country.
Evil has many faces (Staff, 2000). The selling of girls into the sex trade industry is an easily spotted evil but what about the men who purchase the sex from those girls? Are they evil. By good and evil standards, yes. They participate in the dehumanizing of females by purchasing sex from them, often times knowing full well that the girls they purchase the sex from are slaves and did not choose the lifestyle (Staff, 2000).
When Luan Plakici was found guilty of kidnapping women from across Eastern Europe and forcing them to work as sex slaves in Britain, the case made national headlines (Reichardt, 2004).
It was the largest case of its kind ever seen in the UK, and the Albanian's sentence - 10 years - was the longest ever handed out in this country for human trafficking for prostitution. Plakici's operation brought at least 50 young women to Britain and earned the 26-year-old and his gang more than pounds 1m."
The evil is evident in this case as well (Reichardt, 2004). The person who kidnapped girls from across Eastern Europe committed...
The free will theodicy mandates that free will is a choice given by the divine being known as God. That free will allows man to choose his actions and in this case the man chose evil actions.
The evil is also in the manipulation of young women who want a better life (Reichardt, 2004).
Many of the issues have been the same since Victorian times," says Dr. Mumm, a senior religious studies lecturer. "Thousands of 19th-century working-class British girls suffered similar fates because they were lured by lies of a new life abroad. Then, an invitation to work in a bar in a foreign country would sound like the best life chance you'd ever get - far more exciting than scrubbing floors. It sounded so glamorous - like the idea of being a model today (Reichardt, 2004)."
Dr Mumm says the dream of a better life is the obvious reason so many girls were taken in - and why, even in the 21st century, Plakici was so easily able to lure what his trial judge called the "poor, naive and gullible" from Eastern Europe (Reichardt, 2004)."
When it comes to the discussion of good and evil regarding this issue it is a wonder that God has not stepped in. God is all powerful and has unlimited influence on mankind. Mankind however makes choices based on free will which was given by God. God also has infinite understanding and insight to the world and mankind. It stands to reason then that God is aware of the evil of sex slavery in eastern Europe, could stop it if he chose to do so but because he does not want to interfere with mankind's free will he allows it to unfold even at the cost of those who are sold into the industry.
When examining the notion of justice at work when it comes to sex slavery there are aspects of it that suit the theory. Justice at work is the publicity that the sex slave industry is facing. It is coming to the lime light more and more often and it is creating a stressful situation for those who commit the evil acts against the kidnapped women.
Justice at work is when people get arrested for participating in sex trafficking across the continent.
When discussing good and evil as it relates to sex traffic it is important to remember the basic premise of the free will theodicy. While stealing humans and selling them for sex is evil, and the purchasing of the women's favors is evil the act of free will is exercised and that is ultimately good. God is all powerful and all knowing and for him to allow this to occur without interference presents further evidence of this great omniscience and omnipotence.
References
It is the ultimate degradation and worst violation of human rights short of murder' TRAGEDY of GIRLS SOLD as SEX SLAVES.(News)
The Mirror (London, England); 5/15/2000
RIGHTS-EASTERN EUROPE: DESPERATION FUELS ROMANIAN SEX TRADE
Inter-Press Service English News Wire; 8/29/2000; STAFF
Inter-Press Service English News Wire
OPEN EYE: Timeless victims of an evil trade; the recent case of Eastern European women forced into sex slavery in Britain highlights an age-old human rights abuse, says PATRICIA REICHARDT.(Features)
The Independent (London, England); 2/3/2004; Reichardt, Patricia
Byline: PATRICIA REICHARDT
In the face of evil the FAITHFUL WRESTLE ANEW WITH HARD QUESTIONS ABOUT GOD and SUFFERING and OVERCOMING HATE
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution; 9/15/2001; GAYLE WHITE, Staff
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
RABBI PONDERS OLD QUESTION: WHY DOES GOD ALLOW EVIL?
The Record (Bergen County, NJ); 2/10/2000; LAWRENCE TROSTER, Special to the Record
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
RABBI PONDERS OLD QUESTION: WHY DOES GOD ALLOW EVIL?
By LAWRENCE TROSTER, Special to the Record
Section: RELIGION & VALUES
Edition: All Editions -- Four Star B, Three Star B, Two Star P, One Star B
Column: POINT of Why does God allow this? Tsunami has theologians and scholars pondering nature of evil.
The Kansas City Star (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service); 1/3/2005
Byline: Bill Tammeus
