Human Trafficking is the world's fastest growing criminal enterprise and the United States has a part in it. The third largest international crime industry (after drug trafficking and arms trafficking) is human trafficking. With an annual profit of 32 billion, 15.5 billion of that is made in industrialized countries...nearly half!
The US government has been proactive in fighting against trafficking. In 1994 they began monitoring trafficking in the states. At first, monitoring was only of sex trafficking of women and girls, but since then they have broadened to monitor all forms of forced labor and also the men and boys involved in such enslavement as well.
The US is a tier 1 country for trafficking, which means we are in full compliance with the Trafficking Violence Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000. The US recognizes the need to sustain and improve efforts achieve the goals of the TVPA of 2000 and this act was also reauthorized and signed into effect in 2006. The US assists other countries in enacting anti-trafficking legislation and is responsible for assigning a rating for their level of compliance to the TVPA. See this map that rates each country according to their compliance/accomplishments in dealing with trafficking.
However, regardless of our efforts, trafficking is an issue here. The US Justice Department estimates that 17,500 people are trafficked into the country every year, but the number could be much higher because of the amount of undocumented immigrants. The number of people trafficked in is a separate number than the actual incidents of trafficking that occur. A portion of that number will be for forced labor and some for sexual exploitation but 80% of trafficking involves the sex trafficking. Also 80% of children trafficked in the US are US citizens. Some people may think that children are usually abducted for this purpose, but in reality only 1% of children are abducted and the rest are recruited through cohersion.
The number of children and youth that were at risk for specifically sex trafficking every year in the US was 244,000 in 2000 and is likely higher now. 38,600 of these originated as runaways. The average age for a teen to enter the sex trade is 12 to 14 years and children who are runaways are usually approached or recruited within the first 48 hours of being on the streets. Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego are 3 of the 13 highest sex trafficking areas in the country. To read a recent story on what is being done in The L.A./Hollywood area, see this article.
Because many individuals and organizations are becoming increasingly aware of the problem, and the shocking rise of its occurrence, there are many programs and ministries working tirelessly to end the trafficking in our country. Even unaffected teens need to be aware of the issue so that they are able to recognize when this could be happening to a friend or classmate. There is some great material out there for educating teens and youth.
I look forward to writing about some of the organizations that exist and that are passionate about eradicating the problem next time.
Pray for the United States: That our land would be healed.
That women, children, men and boys would be rescued from this darkness.
That there would be wisdom on the part of the authorities to tell who is being forced and who is forcing...this all becomes very muddled when children are recruiting children!
That organizations standing up against this would receive favor and support from citizens and government.
www.humantrafficking.org
www.wikipedia.com
www.state.gov
www.huffingtonpost.com
www.dosomething.org
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/46003680@N04/8431438320">Billboard</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(license)</a>
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/54497431@N05/5650382450">Big Links</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">(license)</a>
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