Sex trafficking of women and girls in a southern Ontario region: Police file review exploring victim characteristics, trafficking experiences, and the intersection with child welfare Actions reviews the current sex trafficking in Southern Ontario. The police file review on sex trafficking has reported an increase in women and girls trafficking to up to 65% within the last five years. The study shows that these women and girls are recruited at 18. Moreover, it provides the criteria and means the traffickers used to recruit the victims. However, the review has not fully explored the best possible ways to combat this vice and hence many unanswered questions regarding sex trafficking in Southern Ontario.
Sex trafficking of women and girls can be domestic where the victims are from within t the country or foreign and include women and girls from across the country’s borders. In the Southern Ontario region within the Canadian boundaries, the majority of such victims of sex trafficking are youths. The youths are seemingly more vulnerable to falling victim to this cruel vice. This integrated further research on Child Welfare in Canada to try and evaluate the depths of this encroaching issue of concern. The police review aimed to explore the young victims’ various traits and experiences, relating them to Child Welfare (Baird et al., 2019). According to this review, most victims were drug abusers and had previously experienced childhood traumas and maltreatment that drove them to their current desperate states.
According to the Human Trafficking book, falling victim to trafficking is caused by various factors. The police review conducted in Southern Ontario depicts that majority of the victims of sex trafficking are indeed the youth. With most sex trafficking victims being youths, several leading factors make them more vulnerable than the other population. These youths are recruited from all over the country, with the traffickers targeting areas where they are vulnerable and likely to spend most of their time. Recruitment of youths into the sex trafficking industry also involved the internet. The traffickers used emails and other social media platforms to prompt teenagers and lure them into sex trafficking. This is an easy means to reach the youth audience, who are more likely to be users of these social platforms.
The youth drafted into sex trafficking were also mostly struggling with drug addiction. According to the Human Trafficking book, drug and substance abuse among the youth is a crucial factor in sex trafficking. Substance abuse impairs the judgment of these young people, making them more likely to be victimized. Further, there is a need to meet the drug demand created by addiction, which means the need to earn money for drugs. The teenagers resort to vices like sex trafficking as an option. Drug and substance abuse in Southern Ontario is a contributing push factor in sex trafficking. Child Welfare (CW) has reported that most victims rescued from this vicious cycle were still struggling with addiction. Drug addiction has been seen as a recruitment criterion used by traffickers in picking their victims. Being a teenage drug addict makes one a likely target for the traffickers. The traffickers will use this weakness and target youths battling addiction as they will most likely give in.
Childhood maltreatment is a developing issue reviewed by the police review of Southern Ontario and a critical causal factor discussed in the Human Trafficking book. The CW victims displayed several childhood mistreatments from the sex trafficked victims of Southern Ontario. The Human Trafficking book explains that most sex trafficking victims were led to this vice following suffrages and mistreatments received during their childhoods. It is mostly those who had abusive parents or guardians, orphans, abandoned children, those born into poverty-ridden families, and others disadvantaged in childhood that will soon fall victim to sex trafficking. The struggles experienced in childhood make them more vulnerable to sex trafficking.
Regarding the gender of those who fall victim to sex trafficking, the police review focused on the young girls and women of Southern Ontario. The Child Welfare (CW) victims were mainly young women and girls. However, according to the Human Trafficking book, sex trafficking is a vice that is not gender-based. Both male and female categories of youths could equally fall victim to sex trafficking (Coppedge, 2016). Boys are also trafficked and face the same suffrages regarding sex trafficking. Recent data though women and girls make the majority of trafficking victims, men and boys, equally likely to be sex trafficking victims. The UNODC reported an increase in the number of males trafficked. Though the female numbers rose to over 75% of the trafficked population, there was also a high rise in the number of boys who were victims of Human Trafficking.
Conclusively, sex trafficking is a form of Human Trafficking. The review on sex trafficking in Southern Ontario has created awareness on the issue of sex trafficking that was previously overlooked. Child Welfare (CW) and other agencies in Canada are extensively involved in fighting sex trafficking among the youth who have proven to be more vulnerable to the issue. The CW victims are recruited following some vulnerabilities displayed by the teenagers. Sex traffickers also use other methods of recruitment. The youth are recruited into sex trafficking through various factors that make them more vulnerable. Sex trafficking affects all gender, and everyone should be protected from this evil act.
References
Baird, K., McDonald, K. P., & Connolly, J. (2019). Sex trafficking of women and girls in a southern Ontario region: Police file review exploring victim characteristics, trafficking experiences, and the intersection with child welfare. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue Canadienne Des Sciences Du Comportement. https://doi.org/10.1037/cbs0000151
Coppedge, S. (2016). Chapter4: The Victims of Human Trafficking. A crucial part of prevention is learning from survivors what has helped them avoid victimization (pgs. 68–91, The Human Trafficking book).
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