Advocate to Combat Domestic Sex Trafficking

Human trafficking is one of the most horrific human rights issues faced by our world today. The number of people bought and sold in worldwide order to be exploited is estimated to be around 2 million, and nearly half of those are minors (ILO, 2008).The majority of victims are are female and are trafficked in order to be exploited in the commercial sex industry (ILO, 2008). 

This issue is often only thought of as an international problem, but there is also a huge problem of domestic trafficking (trafficking that occurs within our borders) for both sexual and labor exploitation. One of the largest forms of domestic sex trafficking in the U.S. involves traffickers manipulating and coercing women and children to enter the commercial sex industry (strip clubs, street-based prostitution, escort services, and brothels) by using a variety of recruitment and control mechanisms. Domestic sex traffickers, commonly referred to as pimps, particularly target vulnerable youth such as runaway and homeless youth and reinforce the reality that in the U.S. the average age of entry into prostitution is 12-13 years old (Polaris Project, 2010). At least 100,000 children are trafficked within the US for sexual exploitation each year, and there are 200,000 to 300,000 considered “at high risk” of being trafficked (DOJ, 2009). 

The US’s anti-trafficking initiatives have thus far been focused on victims who are trafficked across international borders, but have overlooked women and children who are trafficked domestically within the US. Very little has been done to prevent or deter traffickers from exploiting at risk women and children in the US, and once they have been exploited (and on the slight chance that they are rescued) there are very few resources to help rehabilitate them. Many of the shelters that victims are referred to simply do not have the necessary resources to deal with the physical, emotional and psychological trauma that they have experienced. 

S. 2925  “The Trafficking Deterrence and Victim Support Act of 2009” provides critical funding to develop and enhance comprehensive, collaborative efforts to combat sex trafficking, especially of children, in the U.S. by providing six block grants of $2,500,000 each to state or local government entities who have designed a holistic approach to investigating, prosecuting and deterring sex trafficking, and providing special services and shelter to the victims.  

These are much needed funds for an difficult and often overlooked problem. 

Polaris Project, one of the most effective and thorough anti-slavery organizations in the world has made it extremely easy for you to ask your senator to stop fighting about controversial health care bills and start dealing with issues of life and death. Urge your senator to pass this bill that will help prevent lives from being ruined by sexual exploitation. Simply put in your zip code and it will automatically send your message to your appropriate representative.

(To read more about the problem of domestic trafficking, you can read an excellent article on the Department of State’s website called In Our Own Backyard: Child Prostitution and Sex Trafficking in the United States)