Paper Example on Human Exploitation

Introduction

Sex trafficking refers to a subset of human trafficking where women, men and/or children are forcefully involved in commercial sex acts. The United Nations defined sex trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons who under force, threat, fraud, coercion, deception or abuse of power are sexually exploited for the financial gain of another. According to this definition, sex trafficking involves three elements; the act, the means and the object (Ernewein & Nieves, 2015). Promises are used to lure indigenous and those who live in abject poverty and are typically economically and politically marginalized to commercial sex without their consent. Sex trafficking affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide, it is estimated about 17,500 to 20, 000 victims trafficked in the United States annually (Ernewein & Nieves, 2015).

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Demographics of Sex Trafficking

Human sex trafficking victims span all ages, races, and genders, however, females are believed to be more traffic than males. Victims include individuals from all walks of life. Nevertheless, there are some visible trends with who is most likely to be a victim. Majority of sex trafficking victims are female with different research studies showing different statistics. Many argue that men are less likely to self-report thus the numbers may be high in men than it is reported. Trafficking in the United States, for example, is estimated to occur at around 12 to 14 years (Ernewein & Nieves, 2015). Victims of sex trafficking are disproportionately likely to be from lower socioeconomic classes and those likely not to afford the basic needs. The traffickers usually look for victims who have low-self-esteem and lack support systems. Research has shown that most of the victims are survivors of former sexual abuse that began at home. The abductors of the victims rely on the low self-esteem and feelings of isolation to reinforce and promise them that they care about them resulting to a form of Stockholm syndrome on the victims (Ernewein & Nieves, 2015).

Sex Trafficking Statistics

A number of organizations including the United Nations International Children's Emergency (UNICEF) and the Department of Defense Fund classifies human sex trafficking especially that of women and children as the world's fastest growing crime. According to the Department of Defense, human sex traffickers are reaping huge profits off the crime. The industry is estimated to be worth over $99 billion each year ("Combating Trafficking in Persons > Home", 2018). According to the United Nations, between 2012 and 2014, 23, 000 people were reported to be trafficked for sexual exploitation globally. While the majority of the victims were women, men also reported as victims with most cases concentrated in Southern and Western Europe and the Americas.

There are an estimated 24.9 million people trapped in forced human trafficking. According to United Nations on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in a report of 155 countries where data was gathered on human trafficking, 30% of the countries which provided data on the gender indicated that women make up the largest proportion of traffickers ("Global report on trafficking in Persons", 2018). This means that in most some parts of the world women and children sex trafficking is done by women traffickers. Women reused commonly to recruit other women. Data from claimed court cases indicate that most of the convicted traffickers are women. According to the report by UNODC released 2016, 54% of all trafficking victims in 2014 were trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation. This makes sex trafficking the most common type of human trafficking globally. Lastly, it is important to mention that prosecution of sex trafficking cases remains alarmingly low despite the high number of estimated victims and cases of trafficking worldwide. According to the State Department's 2017 Trafficking in persons (TIP) report, only 14,894 cases of trafficking were prosecuted and 9,071 convictions made in 2016 (State.gov, 2018).

Top Countries Involved in Sex-Trafficking

Below are some of the countries with the most sex trafficking cases:

China

According to the United Nations Inter-Agency Project (UNIAP), China is both a source and destination country for human trafficking. In China, human trafficking occurs mainly in the context of large-scale migration within the country (Ni, 2015). Sex trafficking in the country occurs among women and children where the victims are trafficked for marriage, prostitution and illegal adoption. Men, women, and children are subjected to forced labor and sex trade by traffickers (Ni, 2015). The most targeted individuals are those with developmental disabilities as well as children whose parents have migrated into the city in search for job opportunities living them with their relatives (Ni, 2015).

Russia

In Russia, it estimated that between 5 and 12 million migrants working in Russia are subjected to different forms of slavery including sexual exploitation. An estimated 50, 000 children are forced into prostitution (Ryazantsev at al., 2015). The Russian government has failed to undertake enough efforts to protect human sex trafficking victims in the country. Many of the reported cases remain unprosecuted because officials are bribed not to investigate human trafficking crimes (Ryazantsev at al., 2015).

Iran

Human trafficking in Iran is for the purposes of sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude. Women and young children are snuggled into Arab countries participate in prostitution and other forms of sexual slavery (Peters & Wolper, 2018). Most of the victims in the country are taken to special places to service both foreign and Iranian sex tourists. Corruption in the country has resulted in a low number of investigations into case reported though there exists legislation prohibiting all forms of trafficking (Peters & Wolper, 2018).

References

Combating Trafficking in Persons > Home. (2018). Retrieved from https://ctip.defense.gov/

Ernewein, C., & Nieves, R. (2015). Human sex trafficking: recognition, treatment, and referral of pediatric victims. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 11(8), 797-803.

Global report on trafficking in Persons. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.unodc.org/unodc/data-and-analysis/glotip.htmlNi, J. (2015). Selling bodies and souls: Human sex trafficking in China.

Peters, J. S., & Wolper, A. (Eds.). (2018). Women's rights, human rights: International feminist perspectives. Routledge.

Ryazantsev, S. V., Karabulatova, I. S., Mashin, R. V., Pismennaya, E. E., & Sivoplyasova, S. Y. (2015). Actual problems of human trafficking and illegal migration in the Russian Federation. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6(3 S1), 621.

State.gov. (2018). Trafficking in Persons Report. [online] Available at: https://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/ [Accessed 29 Oct. 2018].