Good Stuff Happens in 1:1 Meetings: Why you need them and how to do them well
Editor's Notes
Sex trafficking is a modern-day form of slavery in which a commercial sex act is induced byforce, fraud, or coercion. Rather than viewing trafficking as slavery, most believe it to just be another form of prostitution. The difference is victims of sex trafficking are forced and driven to perform sex acts not under their free will. An estimated 27 million people are held in slavery worldwide today, but a vast majority of the world doesn’t even know it exists at all.
This picture gives insight to why sex trafficking is considered slavery. Do you think that Julia wants to be with 30 men a day and abused daily? The statement “No freedom” is exactly what is meant by slavery. Why would anyone want to lose all control of themselves and give it to an abusive individual? The underlying truth is that no one would choose to be beaten daily; sex trafficking is not a choice, it is modern-age slavery.
Although most people assume that those being trafficked are strictly young girls and women, this is not always the case. There are few cases in which older men are trafficked, but quite often young boys are made victims in the world of sex trafficking. Statistics show that over 50% of the victims are children, both boys and girls. As you can see in this graph, women and girls make up 56% of those being exploited while 44% make up men and boys. However, statistics also show that women are 80% of victims while men are 20% so therefore in the men and boys category, more than half are boys, those under the age of 18.
An example of how often children are forced into sex trafficking can be found in the Mekong sub-region of South East Asia, up to 35% of the people involved are between the ages of 12 and 17. This is just over 1/3 of the victims. According to an article on change.org, this means that if you went to this part of Asia and had sex with 3 different women in prostitution, one of them would be a child. It is believed that these numbers are so high as a result of the recession and therefore families are willing to do whatever it takes for money.
Sex trafficking is a game of manipulation. The promise of a better life and more money lead families to sell other family members to become the victim. Sex trafficking exists in 161 countries. As you can see in the chart, Asia and parts of Europe consist of a very high number of people being trafficked, which goes back to my example of the sub-mekong region. However, the United States, Alaska, and different parts of Europe are the most common destination that victims go to, most of the time believing they are going to these countries to receive a better job but then forced into this trade when they arrive.
The movie Taken gives some insight into the reality of sex trafficking as well. The young girls are made to believe that this attractive man just wants to have a good time just like they do. However, because of their encounter with who they thought was just someone who wanted to be a friend, both the girls end up getting kidnapped. Kim, the main character, is given numerous drugs, physically abused, raped and kept in a local house filled with other young children.
The word punter may refer to: A British, Australian and Irish-English colloquial term for a paying guest or customer. Therefore, this picture represents the idea of someone walking into a brothel of sorts thinking that these girls have chosen this lifestyle. However, since these women are forced into selling sex and forced sex is rape, engaging in sexual activities with these women makes you a rapist. Since sex trafficking is a form of prostitution, it is often hard to distinguish between those in brothel houses that are doing it to earn a living and those who have been sold or kidnapped into the business. If more was done to end sex trafficking, it would eliminate the idea of any prostitution as being forced; it would all be by choice.
When someone gets involved in sex trafficking, they leave their previous lifestyle behind and face numerous health risks, both physical and psychological. Physical risks include drug and alcohol addiction; physical injuries; traumatic brain injury resulting in memory loss, dizziness, headaches, numbness; STDs; sterility, miscarriages, menstrual problems; other diseases; and forced or coerced abortions.
Psychological harms include mind/body separation, shame, grief, fear, distrust, hatred of men, self-hatred, suicide, and suicidal thoughts. Victims are at risk for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD, which may not be a visible wound but it consists of acute anxiety, depression, insomnia, physical hyperalertness, and self-loathing that is long-lasting and resistant to change.
After understanding all of the health risks, both physical and psychological, that victims in sex trafficking face, you can see from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, that these victims begin to lack all of these needs. They are physically, sexually and emotionally abused and therefore if and when they are released from their abusers, they struggle with all 5 of these sociological needs.
Although, sex trafficking does not affect very many people personally, victims of sex trafficking could be anyone. These victims look like people you run into everyday. They are not a specific group of people. Men, women, and children, of all ages, races, and nationalities are vulnerable to human trafficking; it does not discriminate. They are, however, connected in that they are all forced into prostitution, they do not choose this lifestyle. in one case, a victim described initiation “parties” in which victims were held down and repeatedly raped by a series of men with the goal of bringing as many men to ejaculation as possible. It is evident that these victims do not have intentions of being “gang-raped” but it does happen and these victims are just average people.
These two girls are common examples of how young children become victims to sex trafficking. In one case, she was placed in an orphanage and from there, a man who obviously did not seem as though he would harm the children, took her in and eventually sold he to a pimp where she was beaten daily. In the example on the right, the girl runs away from the abuse at home and within 2 years, she became part of the community of sex trafficking. Statistics show that As many as 2.8 million children live on the streets, a third of whom are lured into prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home.
As you can see in this chart, the lower the income the more “nonfatal intimate partner violence” occurs within the home. This gives us better insight as to 3 of the most common patterns that lure victims into the business: A promise of a good job in another country, A false marriage proposal turned into a bondage situation, Being sold into the sex trade by parents, husbands, boyfriends. Due to the low income, the partners in a marriage become frustrated and turn to whatever they can to bring in some money. Should sexual, physical and emotional abuse ever even be an option for money? Is the abuse really worth it?
