Human Trafficing

[thalassa]

human trafficking of children in the us

more sauce

more sauce


...sadly I could probably post links all day


Other links/info:

http://www.demiandashton.com/

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/vc_majorthefts/cac/innocencelost

[DanieMarie]

Re: Human Trafficing

It's not just teens either. Sadly a lot of younger children who are kidnapping victims end up in forced child prostitution, which is somehow even more disgusting.

Human trafficking for both adults and children is a global problem as well. A lot of girls (usually recent high school grads) from Eastern Europe get lured to Western Europe and the UK with promises of "summer jobs" in those countries at bars and stuff, only to get their passports taken away when they meet up with their "employers" and forced into prostitution.

[Caelia]

Re: Human Trafficing

Yes, it is a horrible problem that I hope we can end very soon.

Man victims of human trafficking also end up as child soldiers or slaves. Nestle is allegedly under fire because some of their workers are children from human trafficking sources. I'll see if I can dig up a link on it, but even then it's hearsay.

I've heard that sometimes they lure women with modeling jobs in America as well as other parts of the world.

[DanieMarie]

Re: Human Trafficing

To be honest even for cases of adult prostitutes, I think a system of criminalizing the women doesn't work. A lot of women have severe problems that drive them to that point in the first place (when it's even a choice at all). Prosecuting them for desperately selling their bodies doesn't accomplish anything.

[thalassa]

Re: Human Trafficking

[quote author=DanieMarie link=topic=1132.msg20415#msg20415 date=1291718028]
Human trafficking for both adults and children is a global problem as well. A lot of girls (usually recent high school grads) from Eastern Europe get lured to Western Europe and the UK with promises of "summer jobs" in those countries at bars and stuff, only to get their passports taken away when they meet up with their "employers" and forced into prostitution.
[/quote]

Here though--in the military we went thru an annual training on the subject--it portrayed more as a adult (or at least an issue with older teens) issue concerning immigrant women either brought here (or to other countries) under shady circumstances, or illegally.

It isn't normally addressed as a "domestic" issue in the sense that "our" citizenry are affected. Its much easier to say "oh, thats so sad" when its not something that you perceive could happen to your kid or one of their friends.

[DanieMarie]

Re: Human Trafficking

[quote author=thalassa link=topic=1132.msg20464#msg20464 date=1291723946]
Here though--in the military we went thru an annual training on the subject--it portrayed more as a adult (or at least an issue with older teens) issue concerning immigrant women either brought here (or to other countries) under shady circumstances, or illegally.

It isn't normally addressed as a "domestic" issue in the sense that "our" citizenry are affected. Its much easier to say "oh, thats so sad" when its not something that you perceive could happen to your kid or one of their friends.
[/quote]

I just mean it's both. I agree with you, and the articles. It could happen to a girl that's brought into a country under false pretenses, and it can also happen to women (and men too) who are born in that country. I just meant that it's a global problem in that it seems to happen in a lot of countries, even developed ones

[thalassa]

Re: Human Trafficking

[quote author=DanieMarie link=topic=1132.msg20467#msg20467 date=1291724078]
I just mean it's both. I agree with you, and the articles. It could happen to a girl that's brought into a country under false pretenses, and it can also happen to women (and men too) who are born in that country. I just meant that it's a global problem in that it seems to happen in a lot of countries, even developed ones
[/quote]

And its sad...I mean...I don't think I've just stumbled upon or heard a human trafficking story on the news EVER without it being from PBS or NPR, or without going looking for it intentionally on the net.

[B. de Corbin]

Re: Human Trafficing

[quote author=thalassa link=topic=1132.msg20470#msg20470 date=1291724169]
And its sad...I mean...I don't think I've just stumbled upon or heard a human trafficking story on the news EVER without it being from PBS or NPR, or without going looking for it intentionally on the net.
[/quote]

Why? Why don't we ever hear about it on the news?

Things like this done to anybody, but especially children, are just too awful to imagine, and if it ever broke into the national consciousness, people would be up in arms.

Yet, on the news, we get all kinds of utterly stupid and useless crap (like a minister of a congregation of less than 100 people who threatens to burn a book). So, again, why don't we hear about it?

[thalassa]

Re: Human Trafficing

and yet, we even have a National Awareness Day for it...January 11.


As well as awareness and help groups and task forces...

[B. de Corbin]

Re: Human Trafficing

Is it, do you think, because "the powers that be" are afraid that we will find it too troubling?

I try to imagine what kind of actions "the people" would demand be taken if this were given the kind of attention it deserves, and it looks like a political mess. Maybe it's easier for someone to not give it air play...

[thalassa]

Re: Human Trafficing

[quote author=B. de Corbin link=topic=1132.msg20488#msg20488 date=1291729332]
Is it, do you think, because "the powers that be" are afraid that we will find it too troubling?

I try to imagine what kind of actions "the people" would demand be taken if this were given the kind of attention it deserves, and it looks like a political mess. Maybe it's easier for someone to not give it air play...
[/quote]

I don't know...I mean, its a global problem--the second highest crime.

I think it has more to do with the fact that the media can't make money off of it--its far easier to play the liberal vs conservative finger pointing game to keep viewers than to present people with a real problem and no easy solutions.



ETA: someone that is doing something about it

[DanieMarie]

Re: Human Trafficing

I don't necessarily think that it's a problem because prostitution is illegal either (meaning that women are more afraid to come out because of fear of the law). I think it doesn't help that the women themselves are prosecuted, but trafficking still happens in countries with legal prostitution (like here) or in ones where it's either the customers or pimps (or both) that are prosecuted. I think it does help, because women are less afraid to come out if they don't feel that they'll be arrested, and having legal prostitution puts a legitimate face on it (any legit brothel faces inspections to make sure that all employees are tested, legal age, and want to be there). But there are also always sickos that want to have sex with underagers (and consider that here, the age of consent is 15, so that's pretty damn young) and illegal businesses still pop up.
I think it's the taboo of prostitution that really keeps women afraid to speak up and people afraid to confront the issue. Here it's not illegal but it's still taboo, and the issues are still there.

[Dez]

Re: Human Trafficing

Actually, if I understand right, this has been an ongoing problem for more then 100 years...it's not new.

It was moral outrage, and accusations of luring young British and Eastern American women into a lifetime of sexual servitude that sparked the Utah War, leading the US Government to march on the territory of Deseret, make it part of America, and jail church leaders who refused to stop practicing polygamy and abandon their extra wives and children, eventually leading to the church abandoning the practice in the face of extinction in the 1890's.

In the 1880's, in the UK, there was a moral panic in England over "White Slavery", that sparked when a reporter went undercover and bought a 9 or 10 year old girl from her mother for practically nothing. The press went crazy, and began publishing all sorts of lurid reports of bordellos fitted with torture chambers, and so after the initial attention, and a few sting operations, it continued largely unchecked into WWI. What we *do* know, based on actual evidence, often photographs, is that lower class children were sometimes corset-trained, starting at the age of 4 or 5, so that they would have an adult shape by the age of 10. This was because many men would pay extra for virgins (a theme visible in the stories from India that Thal linked), to avoid disease, and because some believed that deflowering a virgin would cure them of STD's. There is some limited evidence that some were trained that young in order to create an extreme waist, for fetish purposes, as well.

I can't help but wonder whether it simply went underground again. I'm not sure how I feel, for example, about people consistently pointing to this "statistic" of unknown origin about the number of prostitutes who were sexually abused as children. On one hand, it makes it easy to understand why they ran away from home, but on the other, I can't help but feel that it still subtly encourages the idea that girls who end up in prostitution aren't normal....that they are tarnished, sexual creatures, waiting to lure in the unwitting middle-class man with a family.

The question shouldn't be "why isn't there moral outrage about this", but "how can awareness be raised, without causing a moral panic"? Moral panics have happened before, blow everything out of proportion, and ultimately don't do much. In American society, in particular, it would probably be similar to a greater awareness of child abuse in the 80's (good), leading to panic and allegations of satanic cults. If we're already starting with rings of child abuse, what would unscrupulous news groups do to kick it up a notch?

[thalassa]

Re: Human Trafficing

Bill in the house right now...http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h5575/show

[Dez]

Re: Human Trafficing

Ok, it'll take me a while to sort that out. I'm not used to politiceese.

Based on some of the linkbacks on the bottom of the page, some people are claiming that it will actually do more harm then good? Any idea what the arguments are on either side?