Sex+Trafficking

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2010), sex trafficking is a “modern-day form of slavery in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act is under the age of 18 years.” The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (2000) defines a commercial sex act as “any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person.” The law understands that coercion may include psychological and/or physical “threats of serious harm to or physical restraint against any person; any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in serious harm to or physical restraint against any person; or the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process” (TVPA, 2000). Essentially, the TVPA made sex trafficking illegal, punishing any offend ers of the terms set in the aforementioned act; in the United States, sex trafficking is a violation of Federal law.
 * Sex Trafficking, Defined**

Unfortunately, it is difficult to estimate the exact number of sex trafficking victims. The Public Broadcast ing Service (2006) published an exposé on sex slaves, finding causality in the fact that sex trafficking is an illegal underground business. Therefore, it is even more difficult to measure the size of the problem from arrests and convictions. Moreover, victims fear retribution. Many victims do not come forward with their experiences because they are afraid their traffickers will retaliate against them, or worse – their families in the United States or in their home countries. In addition, although the United States provides a 1-800 National Human Trafficking Resource Center, Andrea Lange (2011) found that the help service line is relatively ineffective for victims. The call center is not used as much as it was intended because victims have little to no understanding of their human rights in the United States. They do not completely understand their status as victims and subsequently, are unaware that they are protected by Federal law, regardless. Aside from fear of retaliation, they may be further discouraged to report because of their fear of deportation. Many victims, trafficked illegally into the United States, do not realize that the anti-immigration laws do not apply to them. Furthermore, victims, especially women and girls, may be embarrassed to report. Because of cultural biases and stigmas toward prostitution, many feel ashamed of their experiences and thus, fail to utilize this resource. Ultimately, though, victims simply do not have access to a telephone to seek aid. Typically, their traffickers monitor them so closely that they have little to no access to a phone or any form of outside contact. Consequently, it is more difficult to figure the numbers of victims. The U.S. Department of State estimated in 2005, that 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked internationally each year. And approximately, 14,500 to 17,500 are trafficked into the United States each year. The U.S. Department of State makes annual reports on human trafficking. Currently, its statistics are the most conclusive and most cited. However, it fails to give data on sex trafficking, specifically. It covers the range of human trafficking, including any person trafficked for any type of forced labor, sexual or not.
 * Sex Trafficking in Numbers**

Although victims may be men, women, girls or boys, the majority of victims are female – women and children (Kotrla, 2010). According to Kimberly Kotrla (2010), at least 70 percent of women are forced into the commercial sex industry before 18 years old. And the average age at which a child is sexually exploited is between 11 and 14 years old, with a minimum age of 5 years old. According to Amanda Kloer (2010), the International Labor Organization estimates that 1.39 million girls and women are victims of sex trafficking at any time. Kotrla cited one victim, “we’re all under 18. We’re all the same age. There would be a few girls I knew who were in their 20s or whatever, but they were doing it since they were our age anyways. I did wait till 12, and these girls had been doing it since they were eight or nine and now they are like 23” (Kotrla, 2010). In Kotrla’s data collection of 1,229 human trafficking cases, 83 percent of the cases were sex trafficking cases. Of the 83 percent, about one-third involved minors (2010). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2010) lists common practices that traffickers employ to recruit these victims:
 * The Victims of Sex Trafficking**

1. A promise of a good job in another country 2. A false marriage proposal turned into a bondage situation 3. Being sold into the sex trade by parents, husbands, boyfriends 4. Being kidnapped by traffickers

Traffickers may also easily subject their victims into debt-bo ndage, or an “illegal practice in which the traffickers tell their victims that they owe money (often relating to the victims’ living expenses and transport into the country) and that they must pledge their personal services to repay the debt” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010). While sex traffickers use various methods to lure their victims, they will basically do anything to get their victims to supply their demand.

Victims face a lot of physical and psychological damage, once enslaved. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2010) states that sex traffickers “‘condition’” their victims via “starvation, confinement, beatings, physical abuse, rape, gang rape, threats of violence to the victims and the victims’ families, forced drug use and the threat of shaming their victims by revealing their activities to their family and their families’ friends.” Kloer (2010) discovered that Gita – a 12 year old girl sold into sex slavery by her family – was locked into a room upon her arrival at the brothel. She was then raped, tortured and abused, or conditioned, until her owners considered her to be obedient enough. Once the brothel owners began to sell her, they threatened to kill her if she simply refused to have sex with a customer. Thus, Gita spent the next decade having sex with an average of 10 to 20 men per day. The brothel did not provide her with protection and she could not control which customer might use a condom. Consequently, Gita contracted HIV from a customer i n her late teens. The brothel did not allow her to seek testing or treatment, so she continued to have unprotected sex for several more years until she escaped to a shelter where she lives with HIV today. Sex trafficking victims are at risk for sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS, gonorrhea, syphilis, UTIs and pubic lice (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010).
 * Effects on Victims**

Other physical risks include “drug and alcohol addiction; physical injuries (broken bones, concussions, burns, vaginal/anal tearings); traumatic brain injury (TBI) resulting in memory loss, dizziness, headaches, numbne ss … sterility, miscarriages, menstrual problems; other diseases (e.g., TB, hepatitis, malaria, pneumonia); and forced or coerced abortions (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010). Vanessa Baird (2007) reported that about 95 percent of victims have been physically assaulted or physically forced into sex. Traffickers kick the pregnant victims, burn them with cigarettes, slam their heads into floors and walls, hit them with bats, drag them by the hair, punch them in the face and threaten them with knives. Baird (2007) explained such physical abuse by “‘traffickers maintained control over women by creating an unpredictable and unsafe environment to keep the women continually ‘on edge.’’” According to the American Journal of Public Health (2010), unpredictability and uncontrollability are characteristics predictive of more damaging and long-lasting psychological effects in such abuse. Survivors of sex trafficking escape with physical health problems, but the psychological effects are long term.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2010) described psychological effects like “mind/body separation/disassociated ego states, shame, grief, fear, distrust, hatred of men, self-hatred, suicide, and suicidal thoughts … Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – acute anxiety, depression, insomnia, physical hyper-alertness, self-loathing that is long-lasting and resistant to change.” Baird (2007) reported one survivor who said, “‘I am scared for no reason. I think someone is behind my door, window. Someone will find me, pick me up, beat me and kill me. I have run off and they are looking for me. My mood changes all the time. I cannot control my mind.’” The American Journal of Public Health’s (2010) study found that girls and women who spend a longer time in captivity are exposed to more abuse, and thus, may live with “more sustained feelings of entrapment, alienation, loss of control, humiliation, and hopelessness” – all sentiments associated with mental disorders. Victims may also suffer from “traumatic bonding” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010). Traumatic bonding is coercive control over the victim as the trafficker “instills in the victim fear as well as gratitude for being allowed to live” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010). Victims’ experiences are so traumatic that they are changed forever.

Agape International Missions. (2008). //Cambodian Sex Slaves// [Photograph]. Retrieved from [] Amnesty International. (2008). //Campaign Against Sex Trafficking// [Photograph]. Retrieved from [] Baird, Vanessa. (2007, September). Trafficking. //New Internationalist (404),// 4-7. Hossain, M., Zimmerman, C., Abas, M., Light, M., & Watts, C. (2010, December). The Relationship of Trauma to Mental Disorders Among Trafficked and Sexually Exploited Girls and Women. //American Journal of Public Health// //100 (12),// 2442-2449. Kotrla, Kimberly. (2010, April). Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking in the United States. //Social Work 55 (2),// 181-187. Kloer, Amanda. (2010). Sex Trafficking and HIV/AIDS. //Human Rights: Journal of the Section of Individual Rights & Responsibilities 37 (2)//, 8-25. Lange, Andrea. (2011, March). Research note: challenges of identifying female human trafficking victims using a national 1-800 call center. //Trends in Organized Crime//, //14 (1)//, 47-55. Public Broadcasting Service (2006, February 7). //Estimating the Numbers//. Retrieved from [] The Reagan Report News. (2011). [Photograph]. Retrieved from [] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2010, August 10). //Sex Trafficking Fact Sheet//. Retrieved from [] U.S. Department of State (2005). //Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000: Trafficking in Persons Report//. Retrieved from [] Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 § 103, 22 U.S.C. § 7102 (2000)
 * References**