Governments and NGOs have committed much time, money, and effort to the reduction of human trafficking around the world. The United States enforced the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) in 2000 in order to track and shut down trafficking organizations. Following 9/11, the United States has additionally tightened security, making it more difficult for traffickers to transport individuals into the United States (Soderlund 4, 11). The Bush Administration has also taken on sex trafficking as a "key humanitarian issue" during the government's War on Terror (Soderlund 8-9). The Untied States government and others work in cooperation with many NGOs that work to identify trafficking victims and intervene before individuals are exploited or hurt.
Despite the actions of these organizations and governments, as well as the spending of millions of dollars, much work still needs to be done to even understand the extent to which sex trafficking occurs in the twenty-first century. Mainly, it is a lack of information that prevents NGOs and governments from acting to help those who need it. Identifying...
Designing policy that focuses efforts based on the needs (not just the morally perceived exploitation) of individuals in the sex trades will additionally help. Studies that identify victims and track their progression from their homes or places of origin would additionally shed light on the problem of human sex trafficking. Only by identifying accurate data and using it to develop focused organizational and governmental policy, can the problem of international human sex trafficking be addressed at all.
Works Cited
Schauer, E.J., and Elizabeth M. Wheaton. "Sex Trafficking Into the United States: A Literature Review." Criminal Justice Review 31.2(2006): 146-69.
Soderlund, Gretchen. "Running from the Rescuers: New U.S. Crusades Against Sex Trafficking and the Rhetoric of Abolition." NWSA Journal 17.3(2005): 64-87.
Citations in-text used page numbers from provided word documents since the original…
