Human Trafficking in the US - Research Paper Example

HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN THE USA Module Module ID:   The present study is determined to define and elaborate the notion human trafficking with the aim of exploring the facts and truths associated with it. The research will be carried out by concentrating upon the perils appeared in respect of the constant and hazardous increase in human trafficking in the USA during the last few years (Estes & Weiner, 2002, pp.3-4), and will attempt to unearth the reasons behind such a drastic increase in the offence of human trafficking. The study will also elaborate the consequences of this heinous crime on the individual and collective life of the victims and their families undergoing the human trafficking. The research is also interested in elucidating the steps taken by the federal and state governments for the eradication of this condemnable crime against the nation, state and the entire humanity as well. The study will also bring the challenges appear to be the hindrances on the way to investigating the trafficking offence, and the strategies articulated and adopted by the US authorities for overcoming the same. Consequently, the study will provide a detailed and analytical overview of the human trafficking challenge in the light of the available facts and figures, so that it could turn out to be supportive in taking necessary measures for the eradication of the trafficking curse by elucidating its various aspects and myths attributed to it. Introduction: The term human trafficking simply refers to the unlawful and unauthorized trading of the human beings by shifting and selling them through smuggling and other methods against their free will and consent with the purpose of earning illegal profit and financial benefits out of their trafficking (HHS, 2010, p.3). In other terms, instigating the human mobility through unfair ways and illicit methods including kidnapping, deceit, fraudulence, coercion, misrepresentation and other wiles and tricks with malicious objectives in view comes under the definition of human trafficking (US Department of State, 2008, p.5). In the same way, keeping the humans under habeas corpus or in any place as captives without their free consent or choice beyond the statutes of the prevailing laws for getting them involved into any immoral and indecent activity and/or forced labor also comes under the category of human trafficking (Azaola, 1999, p.31). Consequently, abducting, kidnapping and unwilling shifting of the humans to the place of kidnappers’ choice, and inflicting forced labor, involuntary prostitution or every type of enforced and imposed incarceration as well as toil and drudgery upon them, beyond the provisions of law are categorically regarded to be the offence of human trafficking (US Department of State, 2008, p.6). Brief Historical Overview of Human Trafficking: The historical evidences date back the exercising of human trafficking in ancient times, when the men, women and children used to be abducted for different objectives in view. The kidnapping of male members of a tribe or clan by the traffickers contained the purpose of handing them over the enemies for getting them employed in forced labor, wars and battlefields and personal services by selling them as slaves (Ember & Ember, 2003, p.421). On the other hand, the trafficking of women and children mostly maintained trading them to some other cities or states to exploit them for sexual gratification and domestic labor for their future masters. The ancient Greek mythology endorses the trafficking of humans to present them for the service of gods (Mackenzie, 1996, p.242). Similarly, the wars between Spartans and Trojans also reflect the incidents of human trafficking, where the strong soldiers and beautiful women were enslaved and traded on the eve of obtaining triumph over a city-state (Graves, 1990, pp.337-8). In addition, the condemnable tradition of trading the humans in markets as slaves had been an essential part of the European and Ottoman invaders, where the weaker and pauper African and Asian individuals used to become the worst victim of human trafficking for the last many centuries (Thomas, 1997, p.80). The same nefarious tradition continued to be intact as a condemnable norm during the purported enlightened era of the previous century, where the American, British, German and Japanese soldiers came out as the part of this obnoxious game of human trafficking particularly during the Great Wars and post-wars eras (Mahajan, 2003, p.462). Hence, the poor and helpless humans used to be traded as the trivial odds and ends for centuries in the markets for the personal and domestic services as well as physical and sexual pleasure of their fellow humans. Human Trafficking during the Cotemporary Era: Despite the very reality that modern age of spatial and technological advancements has brought tremendous growth and developments in the aftermath of it; nevertheless, the instruments and devices assuring swiftest possible communication opportunities have also caused the rise in the number and proportion of committing crimes and offences to a great extent (Bales, 1999, p.8). The criminality of human trafficking also serves as a universal phenomenon as well as one of the most widespread crimes committed against humanity in modern era, which has taken the entire world into its cruel clutches (Europol, 2005). In addition, an unabated spread of drugs and narcotics in various geographical zones of the globe during the last few decades has also increased human trafficking along with it, where the services of humans are also exploited in the illegal drug smuggling activities. Hence, humans turn out to be victims of the obnoxious designs of drug traffickers both consciously and unconsciously. Similarly, prostitution and forced child lobar have also observed tremendous growth and progress in the modern era (Azaola, 2001, p.33). Consequently, the women and children from Africa, Latin America, Central Asia and Far East are traded and transferred to the region of the trafficker’s preference for the sexual exploitations (O’Neill, 2012, p.44); therefore, both women and children are molested and misused for the rest of their life by getting sold and shifted from one person and group to the other, leaving their family members at the perplexed state of affairs regarding their whereabouts, and they remain hanging on the scaffold of the endless wait with hope against hope to have get-together with them at least once before leaving the world (Clawson et al., 2006, pp.6-7). However, the cruel and stone-hearted traffickers do not have any mercy for the humanity, and thus they could touch the bottom even for generating money out of the shameful trading and illegal trafficking. In simple terms, the atrocious and avaricious nature of the criminals tempts them to commit such offences on the innocent humanity by pushing them towards the inferno of sufferings and anguishes subsequent to their painful acts against state, society and the humanity in general (Bales, 1999, p.35). Human Trafficking in the USA: Identical with rest of the world, the US citizens also find themselves to be unprotected and insecure at the hands of human traffickers particularly in the aftermath of the advent of globalization (Clawson et al., 2006, pp.3-4). It is therefore, the incumbent US President Barack Obama in his message issued to the Federal Strategic Action Plan on Services for Victims of Human Trafficking in the United States has categorically declared human trafficking as the denial of common humanity and an affront to the national ideals as Americans. He has further asserted that his administration is committed to combating this modern incarnation of slavery prevailing in the form of human trafficking (FSAP, 2013, p.3). Several US states predominantly Mexico, New York, California and several others are frequently reported to be few of the adverse victims of human trafficking of present age (Estes & Weiner, 2002, pp.3-4). Consequently, the Americans and their neighboring Canadians appear to be the most frequent targets of human trading. Actually, being the leader and center of global corporate, social, cultural activities, as well as due to one of the greatest multicultural states existing on the face of the earth, the USA also seeks an upward trend in crime rate all over the country. The human trafficking and their exploitations for forced labor and sexual exploitations also serve as the rapidly growing offences against both adults and children in the country (Estes & Weiner, 2006, p.4). The hazardous increase in trafficking offences in America is partly due to the very fact that administering and assuring of law and order in such a large, populated and culturally diverse country could not be stated to be an abnormal issue (Hagan, 2002, p. 67). Nevertheless, the country’s experiencing severe problems with regards to human trafficking is certainly a challenging task for the authorities and law enforcing agencies at large (FSAP, 2013, pp.39-40). The authorities look dedicated to collect the information about traffickers in the wake of registering the cases of missing persons supposedly abducted by offenders and avaricious miscreants, which get indulged into trading of humans for financial, political, religious and other reasons. As a result, the hapless individuals particularly children have to become the target of traffickers having greed for pecuniary gains out of trading of the innocent children (WHO, 2012, p.2). Illegal Trafficking as an Organized Crime: Despite the very fact that the traffickers individually look involved into human trading by developing their small groups, most of the cases detecting trafficking have found a strong network of the criminals regulating the criminal activities at various positions and scales in an organized way (Hagan, 2002, p. 284). Thus, there appear to various human trafficking organizations, indulged into committing the crime in a highly systematized manner, where uncovering and unveiling of their designs and network has proved a far cry in the real sense of the maxim. The ruthless traffickers involved into trading of children are frequently reported to be supplying the innocent souls to the networks administering the prostitutions; as a result, the traffickers commit the heinous crime of pushing the children into the inferno of prostitution work in an organized way, where various slang terms including pimps, madams and others are applied as code words by these stone-hearted organized and habitual criminals and human traffickers (Barnitz, 2000, p.21). In addition, being an entirely illegal activity, and having no moral or legal grounds for the approval of the same, providing actual statistics depicting human trafficking in a comprehensive way has turned out to be almost impossible for the authorities and researches in general (WHO, 2012, p.1). Furthermore, since the reports about the missing persons are registered under numerous possibilities of their disappearance and absence, the crime statistics look unable to present the details of the individuals having become the victim of trafficking (WHO, 2012, p.2). Somehow, it does not mean that no data has been generated indicating the facts and figures about abduction of the humans with trading motives behind the same (WHO, 2012, pp. 2-3). Obstacles on the Way of detecting Human Trafficking Statistics: The US Department of State annually prepares the data that demonstrates the statistics about human trafficking. According to its 2010 annual report, nearly fifty thousand persons were identified as the victims of illegal trading, where almost 4100 persons could be prosecuted for their alleged involvement into trafficking during 2009-10 (US Department of State, 2010, p.8). Hence, unavailability of accurate data indicating human trafficking could be stated as one of the most considerable hurdles on the way to investigating the crime and persecuting the culprits involved into it. Another noticeable obstacle on the way to investigating into the crimes includes the high magnitude of diversity prevalent in America partly due to continuous rise in the percentage of immigrants in the country. It is a reality beyond suspicion that the people from all geographical zones and regions of the globe migrate to USA for seeking superior employment, health, education and business opportunities (Weeks, 2011, p.49). Such a rapid flow of the immigrants not only increases unpleasant burdens on the US economy, but also leaves drastic influence on every walk of life at large. Since providing the rapidly arriving immigrants belonging to divergent ethno-racial and religious and nationalities with all necessities of life really serves as an arduous task for the government, a large proportion of these immigrants has to undergo joblessness and poverty (Macionis, 2008, p.387). As a result, some of these unemployed immigrants tend to get involved into criminal activities, including human trafficking and others. Such an uncontrolled migration may add to more problems for the political authorities and law enforcing agencies of America, and turns the investigation system to be more complicated and intricate one subsequently. Furthermore, the outsiders entering in the USA on temporary or permanent visas certainly cause great alterations in the national demographic statistics. Consequently, the investigators have to start embarking upon the inquiries and investigations from the starting point so that all US inhabitants could be included in the census process or other similar campaigns aimed at unearthing the traits and characteristics of the US population (Weeks, 2011, p.265). The same is also the case with the persons going abroad from the country; which could also be suspected for having the have their considerable share in human trafficking. The US Authorities responsible for Regulating Human Trafficking: The US political authorities have established various bodies at federal and state levels that look resolute to strive for the eradication of illegal human trading from the country. First of all, the powers have been assigned to all US law enforcing agencies including police and other forces especially established for the same objective of eliminating the curse from the American soil (US State Department, 2010, p. 44). Moreover, Federal Strategic Action Plan on Services for Victims of Human Trafficking in the United States has been working under the State Department including human trafficking task forces, which are responsible for the discovery, recovery and rehabilitation of the abducted persons (US Homeland Security, 2014). International Organizations Controlling Human Trafficking: As discussed in the above paragraphs that the trafficking is not confined to one city or state of the world only; on the contrary, the illegal trafficking network has captured the entire country under its sway. As a result, federal and state authorities have devised various strategies for overcoming the grave challenge that has victimized the hapless American citizens. As a result, various countries and alliances predominantly the European Union have established various bodies for combating with the curse of human trading from different platforms (O’Neill, 2012, p. 4). Furthermore, the World Congress has also been arranged in 1996 onward against the trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of the children by establishing a comprehensive agenda for taking all necessary measures for ensuring the child protection on the one side, and to find out the abducted children on the other (Barnitz, 2000, p.26). In the same way, UNESCO and other child and women protection organizations as well as human rights societies are also active in combating with the nuisance by working in collaboration with one another for the elimination of trafficking from the world. Children as the easiest and most frequent target of Human Trafficking: Regardless of the bitter truth that the individuals, belonging to almost all age groups and both the genders, have turned out to be the prey to human trafficking nuisance; nevertheless, children are stated to be having the highest proportion in respect of human trafficking victimization (Estes & Weiner, 2012, p.5). It is partly due to the very reason that having somewhat limited experiences of life as well as inadequate mental strengths in comparison to the adults, children are not in a position of comprehending with the nefarious designs of the abductors and traffickers altogether (Walters & Davis, 2011, p.5). Similarly, containing fragile physical characteristics, the adolescents and minors appear to be handicapped in respect of defending and protecting them from the criminal assaults being inflicted upon them (Walters & Davis, 2011, p.7). As a result, this poorest and most innocent group of humans turns out to be the easiest prey to the cruel schemes articulated by the ruthless traffickers (Hagan, 2002, p.227). Consequently, most of the researches carried out for exploring the under discussion crime focus on the children and narrate their pathetic plight at the hands of the physical and sexual abusers and exploiters (US Department of State, 2010, p.30). Not only this that the adolescents are raped and agonized through severe methods and manners, but also the trafficked children are also exploited by developing their nude and sexual videos to be sold to the pornographic magazines and websites (Barnitz, 2000, pp.12-13). These videos earn huge financial gains for the atrocious traffickers, though such nasty acts lead to crush the feelings and sentiments of the innocent children. Real Cases Depicting Human Trafficking: It is frequently ascertained that due to their having undeveloped mental faculties, the children can easily be tempted through trivial things, and hence are kidnapped and transferred to some distant places, where they are sold to the child molesters and sexual exploiters (Barnitz, 2000, p.8). The poor children are tortured and abused under such methods and manners that their mental faculties experience destructive impacts upon them for the future years to come (Barnitz, 2000, pp.10-11). The US state department has cited several heinous incidents of child trafficking, depicting the innocent children’s turning into forced sex workers, rigorous laborers, beggars and criminals in the wake of their sorrowful trading at the hands of organized criminals and offenders (2010, pp.31-2). While elaborating the heart-throbbing mishap experienced by Harriet, an eleven years old girl, the State Department narrates that the girl had left her home, where she became the victim of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of a 32 years old adult child molester and trafficker. Not only this that he inflicted all types of agonies on the poor girl, but also developed the habits of chemical dependency and drug addiction in her. Moreover, the man also forced her to become a prostitute, and presented her to several men, which resulted into her suffering from the sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) eventually at such an age of adolescence. Hence, her life met with complete ruination in the wake of her being traded, raped and tortured again and again by different child molesters and illegal traffickers. The US Department of State has presented another case involving a 17 years old girl Amy from Oceanside, California, who had left her house due to some domestic reasons, and subsequently was entrapped by her purported boyfriend. The boyfriend not only sexually exploited the girl regularly, but also convinced her to move to Las Vegas, Nevada (2008, p.13). At there, Amy was introduced to the friend of his boyfriend, who was running a brothel house and had kept other girls and women for the same purpose. Amy was forced to work as prostitute, and earned $1000 per night, all of which used to be snatched by the brothel owner called Ray. She was also arrested by police for being minor and under 18 years, and working illegally as prostitute. The girl travelled to Florida, Miami and other places, and was twice arrested by the police. Her final arrest led to the detection of the illegal brothel network, and the owner was also sentenced for his criminal activities (US State Department, 2008, p.14). To conclude, it becomes evident that the human trafficking serves as a heinous crime as well as the black mark on the face of humanity. The startling incidents of modern era human slavery serve as the signs of alarm with regards to the exploitation of innocent and hapless humans by the beast-like fellow beings. The report invites the concerns of the parents, teachers and law enforcing authorities, all of which certainly have their responsibility for providing the women, children and elderly with complete and unconditional protection. In addition, the authorities should take all measures at every level for ensuring an absolute and flawless security and protection to the adults and adolescents alike. Finally, there appears to be an immediate need for the establishing of an international regulatory authority that could detect, prosecute and even announce sentence to the human traffickers within shortest possible period of time. It will not only be supportive in the elimination of offences and crimes, but also the people could lead a more peaceful and prosperous life eventually. References Azaola, Elena. 2001. “Stolen Childhood. Girl and Boy Victims of Sexual Exploitation in Mexico.” México DF: UNICEF. Bales, Kevin. 1999. Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. Berkeley: University of California Press. Barnitz, Laura A. 2000. “Commercial Sexual Exploitation of children: Youth involved in Prostitution, Pornography, and sex trafficking.” Y.P. International, pp. 4-47. Retrieved from http://www.childtrafficking.com/Docs/yapi_2000_commercial_sexual_exploitation_1.pdf Clawson, Heather J., Layne, Mary., & Small, Kevonne. 2006. “Estimating Human Trafficking into the United States: Development of a Methodology.” Final Report, CALIBER, December, pp. 5-66. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/215475.pdf Ember, Carl R. & Ember, Melvin. 2007. Cultural Anthropology. New York: Pearson Education Limited. Estes, Richard J. & Weiner, Neil Alan. 2002. “The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U. S., Canada and Mexico.” Center for the Study of Youth Policy, University of Pennsylvania, pp. 3-251. Retrieved from http://www.hawaii.edu/hivandaids/Commercial%20Sexual%20Exploitation%20of%20Children%20in%20the%20US,%20Canada%20and%20Mexico.pdf Graves, Robert. 1990. The Greek Myths 1 & 2. New Nork: Penguin Books. Hagan, Frank E. 2002. Introduction to Criminology: Theories, Methods, and Criminal Behavior. Fifth Edition, New York: Wadsworth. Macionis, John J. 2008. Sociology. 11th Edition, New York: Prentice-Hall. Mackanzie, Donald A. 1996. Crete & Pre-Helenic: Myths and Legends. London: Senate. Mahajan, V.D. 2003. A History of Modern Europe since 1789. New York: Paperback. O’Neill, Maria. 2012. “Trafficking in Human Beings: An ongoing problem for the EU’s law enforcement community.” .SIAK Journal, pp. 43-54. Retrieved from http://www.bmi.gv.at/cms/BMI_SIAK/4/2/1/2012/ausgabe_1/files/ONeill_1_2012.pdf Thomas, Hugh. 1997. The Slave Trade. New York: Simon and Schuster. Walters, Jim., & Davis, Patricia H. 2011. “Human Trafficking, Sex Tourism, and Child Exploitation on the Southern Border.” Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy on Children at Risk. Volume 2, Issue 1, Human Trafficking, Article 6, pp. 3-16. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1031&context=childrenatrisk Weeks, John. 2011. Population: An Introduction and Concepts and Issues. New York: Cengage Learning. Office for Victims of Crimes (OVC). 2013. “Coordination, Collaboration, Capacity: Federal Strategic Action Plan on Services for Victims of Human Trafficking in the United States 2013-2017.” US State Department, Pp. 1-84. Retrieved from http://www.ovc.gov/pubs/FederalHumanTraffickingStrategicPlan.pdf US Department of State. 2008. “Domestic Human Trafficking- An Internal Issue–.” Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center, December, pp. 2-15. Retrieved from http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/113612.pdf U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2013. “Human Trafficking Into and Within the United States: A Review Of The Literature.” Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Pp. 1-54. Retrieved from http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/07/humantrafficking/litrev/index.pdf US Department of State. 2010. “Trafficking in Persons Report.” 10th Edition., June, pp. 1-373. Retrieved from http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/142979.pdf World Health Organization. 2012. “Understanding and Addressing Violence against Women: Drug Trafficking.” Pp. 1-8. Retrieved from http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/77394/1/WHO_RHR_12.42_eng.pdf Read More