Sex Trafficking: Are the Women Criminals or Victims - Essay Example

According to Webster Education, 90% of the victims of sex trafficking are women and children (par. 4). The age at which young girls and women are brought into the sex trafficking business is getting younger all the time, many are around 12 or 13 years old (Hughes, Sporcic, and Mendelsohn. 2)Many of the women that are in the sex trafficking industry are targeted by pimps or recruiters because they seem to be in desperate situations such as being homeless or addicted to drugs, most of the women are suffering from extreme poverty.

Once the women are brought into sex trafficking the recruiters have various methods of forcing them to continue. These can include physical violence, threats of violence to family members, threats of exposure and restricting the women’s freedom. (Raymond, Hughes. 7-8) The women that are forced into this lifestyle are most often victims and should not be criminally prosecuted.Some of the women that are involved in sex trafficking do so willingly, mostly in the form of prostitution. One reason that many people oppose this form of sex trafficking is because they feel that it is morally wrong and the women are harmed by doing so (Dempsey. 18) Criminal prosecution of the women that willingly become prostitutes may deter others from becoming prostitutes, it would do nothing to stop unscrupulous people from forcing women into the trade.