Sex Trafficking Essay Example

Sex trafficking is a crime that is often ignored by the public. Many people don't want to acknowledge that their community has trafficking issues, allowing the people in it to become easy targets. The fact that so many people choose to look the other way is what makes sex trafficking as detrimental as it is. This is the type of crime that happens underneath our noses every day. Fear of being shunned keeps victims quiet about the horrors that are taking place on them. Someone you know could be getting trafficked out of their own home, and you would never know unless they explicitly told you. The Slave Across the Street by Theresa L. Flores recounts her experience of being trafficked out of her own home as a teenager and its lasting effects on herself as well as her family. Sex trafficking runs on fear, grooming, and people turning a blind eye; however, if we can come together to recognize the signs before it is too late, a great number of victims could be freed from the physical and mental chains that hold them.

Fear is a powerful weapon. It makes you do things that go against your own morals. It makes you lie. It makes you put yourself in danger so that you are not exposed. Fear is a widely used tactic that sex traffickers use to intimidate their victims into staying silent. In an article by Priscilla Alvarez, she writes that “Traffickers also play into the narrative by telling victims, who are exploited for sex, that they are offenders, threatening to call the police and report them for prostitution if they push back.” Though the victims have done nothing wrong, they are led by their abusers to believe that trying to get help will only result in their own punishment. This manifests into other aspects of the victim's lives as well. They are likely to become secluded and reserved to ward off any questions about their well-being. In The Slave Across the Street Theresa L. Flores was blackmailed for months by two boys who had taken photographs of her being raped by a classmate. They threatened to expose the photographs, only agreeing to return them once she had “earned” (Flores 52) them back. This is how her abuse began, one night turned into two, and two turned into weeks. Eventually, she was going off with them almost every night. The fear of disgracing her family was so unbearable that she chose to endure the abuse rather than tell anyone. A way to combat this is for parents to try to be as emotionally available and accepting of their children as possible. Lack of discussion around abuse and sex trafficking leads to victims believing that they are at fault for the things that have happened to them. However, if they had grown up in a more accepting household, they may have been more inclined to open up, despite their fears.

Not every trafficking case is a violent abduction; in many cases, the transition into trafficking is slow and preplanned. The definition of grooming is “the action by a pedophile of preparing a child for a meeting, especially via an internet chat room, with the intention of committing a sexual offense.” Sex traffickers will pretend to be the victim's friend, listening to their problems and offering advice to gain their trust. Hadlie Kelly points this out in her article on human trafficking. “There are different approaches that groomers take depending on the age of the groomer and the age of the targeted person.” Offenders are not a monolithic group; they will likely tailor their performance to each victim. Examples of this tactic would be posing as a photographer, promising to make their victim a supermodel, or simply an older offender waiting until their victim turns eighteen to traffic them. In Theresa L. Flores’ book The Slave Across the Street, she describes having a crush on a boy who later raped her. He apologized multiple times and seemed to be extremely sympathetic; however, later on he tried to have sex with her again. To Theresa, it almost felt like he believed he somehow deserved it for being “one of the good ones” After the first rape, he tried to be there for Theresa, driving her to the destination, and preparing her for what was waiting inside. It is never explicitly stated that he will rape her if she refuses to get with him willingly, but given the circumstances it is heavily implied. After a while, she chose to forget that this had even happened, making herself believe that it really was only consensual. He had groomed her into believing what he was doing to her was okay. Schools and parents alike need to be taught the signs of grooming, so that they can look out for it within their students and children. If they can talk to the victims, and get through to them that they are being coerced, there's a chance that they can stop trafficking before it has even begun.

Human trafficking has been found in every part of the world, no where is “too good” for it to happen. A study conducted by the International Labor Organization determined that there were 20.9 million victims globally. Even with this in mind, there are some who believe trafficking cannot happen within their communities and will go out of their way to ignore signs of it. This is possibly one of the most dangerous aspects of trafficking. A victim could be indirectly crying out for help, but ignorance from others could lead to them being pulled deeper into the abuse. Theresa L. Flores dealt with this as she was being trafficked. School faculty looked the other way when they would notice the Chaldean boys pulling her out of class or threatening her by the lockers. She talks of how one of her teachers looked at her sadly, when the brothers would come up to her, but would ultimately just go back inside the classroom. It's understandable that victims are scared to speak up, but others should not be bystanders. Reporting the situation to law enforcement would have been the best course of action for Theresa and other victims, acting as if the issue does not exist helps no one. In an article written by Hadlie Kelly, she writes “As youth spend the majority of the week in school, schools must understand the factors of human trafficking in order to protect students; to understand what might be coming in through the school doors; and to create a safe space where students can form secure and trusting relationships.” School should be the second place other than home that students feel the safest. When administrators do not make an effort to help students struggling with this issue, it causes schools to be just as dangerous as any other place.

To conclude, the liberation of trafficking victims depends on our ability to work together to overcome problems surrounding the issue, such as fear, grooming, and lack of acknowledgement. There are steps we as a whole can take to finally put an end to this crime and the disturbed individuals who operate it. Always look out for your fellow humans, whether you know each other or not, learn the signs of abuse, and educate yourself on the common practices sex traffickers use. Following these steps can determine the safety of ourselves and the people around us; people cannot keep pretending that trafficking simply does not exist.