Historical Context
Historically, countries and communities with limited resources are the places with the most cases of child trafficking. Children can be enslaved in many ways including being falsely offered jobs. In most cases, these children live in poverty and accept the job offers out of necessity. Once the children agree to the job offer, he or she is usually never seen again. In other cases, families willingly sell their children; again, out of need. Slave owners send payments to the slave's family, and "[the slave owners] use these paltry payments to entice more families to sell their children" (Kara 2009). Therefore, sexual slavery and trafficking is noticeably seen in, but not limited to, impoverished countries like Cambodia and Thailand (Kara 2009). Young girls and young boys are also tricked into slavery by "lovers." Pimps will seduce the young people and surround them with gifts in order to make the young people feel "loved." If the children are not used to receiving gifts, they are more likely to accept the behavior exposed to them by the pimps. Then, the pimps will encourage the young people to run away with them, which eventually results in slavery (Kara 2009). Therefore, children are being targeted in multiple ways that all eventually lead to sexual slavery.
Once children are enslaved, they are susceptible to numerous negative, long term effects. "Whips, cigarette burns, broken bones, starvation-every slave has suffered these tortures, but sex slaves suffer each of these as well as innumerable counts of rape-ten, fifteen, twenty or more times per day" (Kara 2009). These are some of the things that sexually enslaved children go through on a daily basis, and according to Love146, there are an "estimated 4.5 million [children] in sexual exploitation" in the world today (Love146 2014). Furthermore, men that grew up as enslaved children have challenges with alcohol problems (58%), drug problems (41%), alcohol dependence (39%) and women that grew up as slaves have high rates of depression (39%), post-traumatic stress disorder (39%), and alcohol problems (34%) (Estes and Weiner 2001).
Economically, these communities provide large profits for certain people and other communities. According to Sex trafficking: Inside the business of modern slavery, sex trafficking, "was directly produced by the...deepening of rural poverty, increased economic disenfranchisement of the poor, the net extraction of wealth and resources from poor economies into richer ones..." (Kara, 2009). For example, in 2007, sales of slaves to brothels produced a revenue of $1.0 billion ($1,895 per slave), and commercial exploitation produced $35.7 billion in profits ($29,210 per slave) (Kara, 2009). Even though so much profit is made by trafficking, there are chances that trafficked children can still be saved. If sexual slavery was to cease, the global economy would lose billions of dollars, which is to nobody’s benefit, financially. However, these children can contribute to the different economies if they are brought up without slavery and instead are educated. As much as each slave is worth for traffickers, more money would be produced if each child gets a college education and works. Since college is not for everybody, children should also be given more opportunities to find blue collar jobs or jobs that do not require a collegiate education.
However, the definition of human trafficking has complicated laws against trafficking and exploitation. According to Intercountry adoption as child trafficking, "trafficking appears to be a derivative of long-standing legal condemnations of slavery and ‘slavery-like’ practices" (Smolin 2005). In other words, laws surrounding trafficking only address the illegal transportation of humans instead of also including the resulting exploitation. Therefore, many children become victims of human
monstrosities and the perpetrators are left free. In other cases, laws that do target trafficking and address exploitation and slavery are simply not enforced.
For instance, Osita Agbu (2003) states, "In Bosnia, Human Rights Watch found evidence of visa and immigration officials visiting brothels for free sexual services in exchange for ignoring the doctored documents produced by traffickers to facilitate transport through the country." However, other countries have shown efforts in order to decrease trafficking. On January 1, 1999, Sweden passed, "the Law that Prohibits the Purchase of Sexual...This Law recognizes that it is the man who buys women (or men) for sexual purposes who should be criminalized, and not the woman" (Ekberg 2004). Similar laws bring hope to trafficked and enslaved children.
Once children are enslaved, they are susceptible to numerous negative, long term effects. "Whips, cigarette burns, broken bones, starvation-every slave has suffered these tortures, but sex slaves suffer each of these as well as innumerable counts of rape-ten, fifteen, twenty or more times per day" (Kara 2009). These are some of the things that sexually enslaved children go through on a daily basis, and according to Love146, there are an "estimated 4.5 million [children] in sexual exploitation" in the world today (Love146 2014). Furthermore, men that grew up as enslaved children have challenges with alcohol problems (58%), drug problems (41%), alcohol dependence (39%) and women that grew up as slaves have high rates of depression (39%), post-traumatic stress disorder (39%), and alcohol problems (34%) (Estes and Weiner 2001).
Economically, these communities provide large profits for certain people and other communities. According to Sex trafficking: Inside the business of modern slavery, sex trafficking, "was directly produced by the...deepening of rural poverty, increased economic disenfranchisement of the poor, the net extraction of wealth and resources from poor economies into richer ones..." (Kara, 2009). For example, in 2007, sales of slaves to brothels produced a revenue of $1.0 billion ($1,895 per slave), and commercial exploitation produced $35.7 billion in profits ($29,210 per slave) (Kara, 2009). Even though so much profit is made by trafficking, there are chances that trafficked children can still be saved. If sexual slavery was to cease, the global economy would lose billions of dollars, which is to nobody’s benefit, financially. However, these children can contribute to the different economies if they are brought up without slavery and instead are educated. As much as each slave is worth for traffickers, more money would be produced if each child gets a college education and works. Since college is not for everybody, children should also be given more opportunities to find blue collar jobs or jobs that do not require a collegiate education.
However, the definition of human trafficking has complicated laws against trafficking and exploitation. According to Intercountry adoption as child trafficking, "trafficking appears to be a derivative of long-standing legal condemnations of slavery and ‘slavery-like’ practices" (Smolin 2005). In other words, laws surrounding trafficking only address the illegal transportation of humans instead of also including the resulting exploitation. Therefore, many children become victims of human
monstrosities and the perpetrators are left free. In other cases, laws that do target trafficking and address exploitation and slavery are simply not enforced.
For instance, Osita Agbu (2003) states, "In Bosnia, Human Rights Watch found evidence of visa and immigration officials visiting brothels for free sexual services in exchange for ignoring the doctored documents produced by traffickers to facilitate transport through the country." However, other countries have shown efforts in order to decrease trafficking. On January 1, 1999, Sweden passed, "the Law that Prohibits the Purchase of Sexual...This Law recognizes that it is the man who buys women (or men) for sexual purposes who should be criminalized, and not the woman" (Ekberg 2004). Similar laws bring hope to trafficked and enslaved children.