Question One: Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is a global crime that impacts practically every nation (Europol, 2005) and has been linked to multinational criminal enterprises, minor criminal organizations, and criminal groups, employment and migration law breaches, and corrupt government (U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2006). Generally, human trafficking was most often characterized as the trade in women and children for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation or other unethical objectives (Davy, 2015). Recent definitions of trafficking have expanded beyond sexual abuse to include those forms of violence, fraud, or compulsion. Additionally, it is often said that people do not have to be carried across global or other borders for trafficking to occur. In 2000, the world community settled on a concept of human trafficking, which is included in Article 3 of the United Nations Protocol to Prohibit, Repress, and Combat Human trafficking, Particularly Women and Children (Smith & Smith, 2011). While seeking to understand the concept of trafficking, the main aim in this paper is to give special attention to sex trafficking in the United States.
Human trafficking has been one of the world’s most serious humanitarian crises of our generation. The International Labor Organization estimates that around 21 million individuals were victims of trafficking in 2012. (ILO, 2013). Trafficking is the fastest growing global criminal sector and the ranks second and most lucrative after the drug business; analysts predict that it will surpass narcotics and weapons transportation in ten years (Hodge, 2008). Often referred to as modern slavery, it is distinguished from human smuggling by the fact that it entails cruelty and lack of liberty. Additionally, human trafficking involves the exchange of labor, the coercion of victims into prostitution, and the collection of crucial organs (Butler, 2015). Women and kids are proportionally the most trafficked in the United States. Hispanic girls and women, in particular, are the victims of sex trafficking throughout Central and Latin American borders (Hodge, 2008). The majority of victims are then abused via sexual exploitation. Indeed, commercialized sex and human trafficking are inextricably linked since females are transported in the path of sexual demand.
Numerous factors contribute to a person to become a victim of trafficking. Various factors, including poverty, a lack of knowledge, and even a decline in literacy, might render persons vulnerable to human trafficking. Both nationally and internationally governments have struggled to combat human trafficking. Medical practitioners contribute to ongoing education about human trafficking consciousness. Education is critical for the public in order to avoid being victims and to limit the occurrence of human trafficking.
People can be trafficked both domestically and abroad. They are more frequently sent inadvertently to other nations as a result of being offered false sense of hope. The two most common forced behaviors are difficult work and sexual advances. Additionally, they are exposed to live in deplorable circumstances. Numerous instances of human smuggling are difficult to identify, and the majority go unreported.
Human trafficking is a significant form of corruption, generating an estimated ten million dollars every year. There are several degrees of this crime, but it is critical to distinguish people trafficking from human smuggling. Once a person is transported over the border, smuggling begins. To make human smuggling operate, two parties must be engaged and agree on the parameters of the human exchange. Once an agreement transaction has been completed, no additional communication is required until the following transaction. According to Wheaton, Schauer& Galli (2010), “trafficking victims have not consented to or accepted to the futures envisioned for them by traffickers.”
The trafficking in persons sector is dominated by gangs and rich people. Partnership with fraudulent authorities is often used to fabricate fake papers and engage in other unlawful conduct. Men, women, and youngsters may all be victims of human trafficking. Whenever somebody engages in human trafficking, they seek for, transfer, and assault victims.
Sex Trafficking in the US
Sex trafficking is a worldwide issue that has a direct effect on the United States. There seem to be three basic strategies to avoid it. The first is to recognize the indicators, the second is to raise awareness, and the third is to take action by getting more active. According to Deshpande & Nour (2013), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime defines human and sex slavery is any kind of recruitment that includes transporting, abducting, or deceiving a person. Abuse and exploitation and bonded labor are two of the most typical goals of sex trafficking. Sexual exploitation occurs when males pay for underage sex and early adulthood. Forced labor is the means by which they may profit from these young girls and women lured to be trafficked. Americans are major victims of human trafficking. Sex trafficking is on the rise in the twenty-first century. According to Women’s Funding Network (2005), when people seem to think of sexual exploitation, they generally think of women and children being taken beyond borders, but seldom of individuals being kidnapped and coerced into sexual services here in the United States. Sex trafficking is a kind of human abuse that violates victims’ human rights. Human rights are our equal rights regardless of our ethnicity, sex, religion, or location of residence (United States Human Rights, 2017).
The United States is among the top 10 hotspots for human trafficking and is a regular location for perpetrators from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia. There are 12.3 million subjects to forced labor globally, and it generates $44.3 billion U.S. dollars. 43% of involuntary sexual exploitation occurs in the workplace, and 98 percent of those captives are females (Hepburn & Simon 2010). The causes for exploitation are more complicated than one would believe; monetarily, sex trafficking is a market driven enterprise in the viewpoint of criminals and purchasers, and the hurdles victims confront are equally complex (Copley, 2014). Trafficking in human beings in all its manifestations is a type of social oppression and a violation of human rights that matches the Social Work Code of Ethics and needs to be on the social care industry’s radar.
Question 2
Sex trafficking reports keep rising alarmingly in all regions of the nation, affecting Americans of every color, gender, age, and financial status. Researchers and law enforcement officers are battling this subterranean illicit enterprise’s internet expansion. Nonetheless, traffickers’ strategies continue to adapt in order to entice, influence, and coerce an alarming group of young girls into selling their bodies in order to fulfill the rising demand for commercial sex.
Shattered Dreams: Sex Trafficking in America is a showcase film that is the first of its kind to examine the significant psychosocial challenges that captives of sex trafficking endure on a regular schedule at the mercy of pimps and consumers. The extraordinarily complicated nature of this sort of modern-day enslavement is illuminated via first-hand, tragic testimony of assault from 3 victims of the underground sex trade. Detailed interviews with prominent specialists from throughout the nation provide more light on the industry’s motivations, uncovering alarming facts about the culture in which people dwell and the widespread beliefs that enable sex trafficking to flourish. Despite survivors’ immense pain, the video demonstrates how there is no hope for future life after already being trafficked. While there is greater awareness in cities like as San Diego, the video demonstrates how far off we are as a nation in addressing this problem on a national scale.
Bill Wisneski of Palomar College Television wrote and performed “Shattered Dreams: Sex Trafficking in America” during the last year. The 54-minute video — which had its local debut Thursday afternoon at the San Marcos community college campus — tells another often narrative of what has grown into a $810 million clandestine economy in San Diego County through the eyes of three professional sex workers. San Diego County is one of the top 13 sex exploitation hotspots in the country. The majority of victims are adolescent females born in the United States who are persuaded into sex trafficking by gang members as early as 12 years of age, but primarily between the ages of 14 and 16. Some individuals have been sexually abused as children or originate from unstable households, making them more susceptible to grooming. Once cut off from their family and completely reliant on their brothel owners, these girls are sexually involved with ten to fifteen men every night in order to achieve sales targets or face the penalties.
Marjorie Saylor, one of the ladies portrayed in the video, worked as a sex prostitute for 8 years prior to actually fleeing her pimp. She characterized her existence in the documentary as gloomy, miserable, and hazardous. When one client, nude and drugged up, refused his pushy tactics, she got violent. “He said that he could murder me and no one would notice. ‘I paid for two hours of your time. ‘You are my property,’ “In the film, Saylor remembered.
A mare reader can ask the question of what is the essence of making a film about the dark underworld of sex trafficking. Our culture has only recently started to accept survivor narratives of gender-based violence and to modify attitudes toward humanitarian concerns such as sex slavery. After afflicting mankind for centuries, the anti-sex slavery campaign is gaining steam, inspiring more debates than it has ever been as we come to terms with the epidemic’s staggering size.
The purpose of this documentary Shattered Dreams was to enlighten mostly on sheer complexity of sex trafficking with the aim of eliminating widespread misunderstandings. What we have long regarded as the world’s “oldest profession” is really a distressing crime taking place in broad view, continually vilified and misconstrued. With an average recruiting age of 12 to 17, the young are being recruited at unprecedented rates, as kidnappers easily attract them online using means such as social networking sites. Experts believe that huge number of teenage girls are trafficked for sex in the United States each year, with many contracting STDs, falling to overdoses, developing PTSD, committing suicide, or even dying.
Personal accounts of abuse continue to expand from perpetrators of sex trafficking, illuminating the debilitating impact of trauma and the psychological shackles that ensnare victims. However, how can society resolve this dilemma without resolving the problem is actually underlying excessive need for sex? Despite greater awareness in recent years, there are shockingly few resources available to give answers, and many incidents remain unreported. Shattered Dreams empowers survivors by enabling audiences to see experience how teenage women become victims of human trafficking, with the intention of preventing following generations from succumbing to this heinous crime.
Cinematic Techniques
Within the documentary, various cinematic techniques have been utilized. These techniques have helped the audience understand the action and connect deeply with through techniques such as the panning shot, which has been utilized in the film. Panning shots are the vertical counterparts of tilt shots. They may be used merely to display the environment, but one can obtain genuinely excellent effects by maintaining smooth and precise panning, which is particularly important when there is action and a properly constructed final frame involved. Bear in mind that such motions must be well executed to seem extremely natural and practically imperceptible in order to avoid detracting from the plot.
Additionally, mid shots have been greatly used within the film. By providing both the performer and their settings equal screen time, a medium shot emphasizes both. The cinematographer employs a medium shot to convey information about the person’s face and sentiments while also telling the viewer about what is happening in the environment around them. Generally, it is preferable to make the public feel as though they are a part of the narrative. In an action thriller, for instance, the viewers empathize with the protagonist, and thrilling moments pump their energy.
Extreme close-up shots have also been used within the film sparingly. Extreme close-up shots are utilized infrequently and are reserved for instances when the emotional power of a scenario has to be increased. This may be accomplished by focusing intensely on the subject’s face, or perhaps only on the eyes or perhaps even the gestures. It works equally well for things, such as ticking hour hand or brushwork. Whereas these images are mostly devoid of context, they are excellent for creating the atmosphere or infusing the scene with tension and intimacy. Within the film, on the fifteenth minute, the characters eyes are shown to indicate a plan cooking in their brain on how they are planning to deceive the young girl into agreeing to their demands which come inform of opportunities. Through the scene, this technique has been utilized a great deal (16:23) to bring in the tension and enable the viewers connect with the characters and the scenes.
Question Three: The influence which American culture may have on Sex trafficking in the United States and assess the extent of the problem today
Numerous researchers argue that culture is a significant driving force to human and sex trafficking that has been disregarded. While bad economic situations provide the impetus for seeking better employment possibilities, the choice to move from one’s home and, in many instances, one’s family is certainly influenced by a plethora of variables, most of which are cultural in nature. When people contemplate migrating in quest of a better quality of life, they are inclined to examine how the relocation will be received by their society. Are self-improvement choices acknowledged? Is it OK to abandon one’s society and potentially renounce customs? Culture and values are likely to have an impact not just whether a person contemplates migrating, but if a person takes action and leaves his or her community in quest of a better quality of life. According to Goldschmidt (2006, p. 181), “culture should be the primary emphasis for explaining individual behaviors in society and for characterizing economic events,” while Guiso et al. (2006) claim that societal theories may help in understanding economic results. Additionally, Granato et al. (1996, p. 607) argue that “that is not an either/or situation: cultural and economic forces interact.” These findings imply that culture has a major influence on a person’s financial decision, and that neglecting its impact provides an inaccurate view of economic results.
From the article by Kristen published in August 5 2021, various actions that have evolved and turned into a way of life have continued to accelerate culture as being a push factor in promoting sexual trafficking. Within the United States, the current culture is a huge factor. There are various social norms and beliefs that contribute to the increase of modern-day slavery. This includes absent fathers. Today, one in every four children in the United States is nurtured without a father. Children growing up without both parents are much more likely to face a variety of psychological, behavioral, intellectual, and social difficulties. To put it another way, 71% dropping out of high school, 85% of teenagers in jail, and 90% of fugitive youngsters are fatherless. 70% of expectant adolescent girls have an absent father (Kristen, 2021). Even toddlers who do not live with the both biological parents have a 40-fold increased risk of sexual assault. Girls, in particular, require their father. Recent research indicates that ladies who grow up with an attentive father build better loving relationships, are much more prosperous, and have reduced incidence of depression as individuals. More significantly, as highlighted in the New York Daily News, girls who have a dedicated father are better equipped to “refuse inappropriate sexual approaches and psychological coercion in their interactions.” This should include human trafficking. Numerous sexual exploitation situations start with a partner who earns the victim’s confidence before coercing her into doing “favors” for their pals. Additionally, kids without dads may seek masculine validation from other sources, including a random guy contacting them on Instagram or perhaps an older gentleman complimenting them they are beautiful, one can picture the men’s true motivations.
Secondly, the prevalence of porn in the pop culture has increasingly promoted sex trafficking among individuals. Pornography is one way that children and women are exploited in the real world for the sake of sex. Real children and women, as well as some males, are hired out to be used in commercial sex to create visual pornography, which accounts for the majority of the industry’s goods. These persons then are transferred and marketed in the resultant materials for a purchaser’s sexual usage. Obscenity laws, which are the conventional legal solution to the problem, are completely unconcerned with these facts (Kotrla, 2010). Their key concern is the decency of what is being said and displayed. What is criminal about indecency has nothing to do with the damage done on real persons to create the materials or since they are utilized.
Porn is regarded as a kind of sexual liberation and harmless amusement in contemporary culture; however, it is hard to separate porn from sex slavery. Conversely, it fuels the requirements of human trafficking. Many of the films depict victims of human trafficking, and that there is no key to understanding whether movies have their permission. Furthermore, Americans are among the leading producers and users of child porn. “Pornography is currently driving culture of rape, embedding the mischaracterization of sexual abuse directly into the cultural consciousness,” argues Jonathon Van Maren in his book The Culture War. Today, approximately 80 percent of porn incorporates violence or aggressiveness (Kotrla, 2010). “Boys were taught that they should never strike girls, but now the society is encouraging them it’s absolutely a turn-on,” Van Maren adds. In this case, it can be said that porn culture has normalized abuse (Kotrla, 2010). From the article by Kristel, Pornography is also influencing young boys as little as eleven to become predators. Medical personnel are witnessing a systemic problem of child sex abuse, and many of the juvenile offenders admit to having to act out what they have seen on television.
Pornography, in my opinion, is a supply-driven industry. Its until they see it that men desire it. They want to utilize it more and more as they use it. The apathy and dependency so thoroughly chronicled in its user places pimps in charge of their libido. (One waits for them to be offended.) Even though it increases their authority, it severely restricts their independence.) Pornography can be attributed like to drinking saline water. It appears to be genuine but is not; the more one drinks, the thirstier they grow. Pornography generates demand for both itself and sex trafficking.
Pornography was the third-most prevalent type of sex trafficking, after female escorts and illicit spa enterprises, according to instances documented to the National Human Trafficking Hotline. When someone is fooled, misled, or compelled into producing porn, that is considered sex trafficking. For instance, if a porn actress arrives on set only to realize that the performance is far more violent or nasty than they had been informed, and their agency warns to terminate the actor’s other engagements if they do not take that route, it’s considered sex trafficking. Some data shows that tolerance to sexual abuse via porn viewing might lead to a greater readiness to pay for sex. As more and more customers buy sex, the market for persons getting trafficked commercial sex rises. Researchers studying persons who battle with undesired porn addictions have discovered a growing inclination to carry out explicitly the activities shown in pornographic content, such as visiting massage parlors (Herrington & McEachern, 2018). In other words, customers who watch porn at homes are frequently the same people who abuse actual people, equipped with porn photos to demonstrate the victim they’re abusing what they would like to do (Herrington & McEachern, 2018).
Additionally, the social media culture within America and globally has been on the rise over the past century. Online sex trafficking has grown dramatically in the last twenty years and is now on the increase much more as a result of the worldwide epidemic. Russ Tuttle, the director of the “Stop Trafficking Project,” previously has spoken about the difficulties and motivations why several individuals, particularly children, are becoming victims of internet abuse. He stated that even the most hazardous susceptibility for younger generations would be when they say and think, “I’m a lonely child.” Being isolated from peers and schools, as occurred during COVID-19, may have far-reaching implications.
Furthermore, sexually exploited victims account for the greater part of captives across all kinds of trafficking. The advancement of technology has opened a new arena for criminal organizations to sexually assault their victims. Technology serves a variety of objectives around the globe and in contemporary culture: connectivity, monitoring, financial services, and cooperation. While they are not illicit aims or even of themselves, a trafficker’s use of technology is often unlawful and exploitative in character. Traffickers employ notepads, computers, and cellphones since they are portable, compact, and easy to use; they perform various activities; and they may aid persons in eluding law police detection.
Consequently, technologies have aided in the online sex trafficking. Websites that support human trafficking are becoming more commonplace as the world becomes more digital. Some criminals have adapted their techniques for use in internet by exploiting new technologies and online platforms to promote, enroll, and control individuals in cyberspace. On a daily basis, human traffickers use the internet to sell their bogus services to unsuspecting customers. By using the anonymity of internet forums and public information, sex traffickers are able to target their victims. Webcams and webcasts have made it possible for new kinds of abuse to be perpetrated without the victim having to be transported and transferred, which has changed traditional forms of exploitation. With the assistance of the internet, drug dealers have adapted their methodologies to more efficaciously identify particular victims, either by assertively ‘hunting’ the many they perceive to be susceptible to abuse or by complacently ‘fishing’ for possible victims by placing online advertisements and expecting the potential victims to reply. Traffickers may quickly obtain access to a larger pool of consumers, especially sex purchasers, via the web. Online technologies are rapidly being used by traffickers to market the services that come from their captives’ exploitation. Advertisements targeting individuals comprise those who are on classified listing websites such as Backpage347 and related websites, as well as those on social networking sites and services (apps).
Online sex abuse is described as “the real or alleged misuse of a vulnerable position, authority, or confidence for sexual reasons, particularly, but still not restricted to, benefitting economically, culturally, or ideologically from some other person’s sexual exploitation.” This indicates that abuse and exploitation occur when someone tries to manipulate or pushes another individual to perform anything sexual. Forcing anybody to do anything sexual, extorting someone else into giving naked or explicit pictures and videos, or doing sexual actions through a webcam are all examples of this. It makes no difference if there is a barrier between the criminal and the victims. It is a continual cycle of mental and behavioral abuse when victims frequently believe they are really being harassed and abused repetitively because their photographs or videos are being viewed on the dark web on a regular basis. Online sexual assault and harassment are also criminal, regardless of whether the victim is conversing with somebody else older or somebody their possess age.
The most popular means of trafficking is social media. It’s been dubbed the “digital hunting field” by some. Predators nowadays have quick access to thousands and thousands of youngsters in their immediate vicinity. They have the ability to locate, manage, and approach the females personally. They can extort a female after trying to coerce her to submit them obscene images by threatening to release the pictures on social media. Furthermore, too much predatory material is unreported or uncensored.
Conclusion
From the analysis, Human trafficking appears to be on the rise, while traffickers continually adapt new mechanisms and techniques to keep up with the changing world. It is clear that within the United States human trafficking is the most rampant, where there are various contributory factors to this activity. Primarily, human trafficking can be linked to factors such as poverty, and poor economic standards. It has been evidenced that the greater number of trafficked individuals are out on the run for better quality of their lives. This highly explains why culture within the United States and other states globally has highly promoted human trafficking which mostly results to sex trafficking and exploitation.
Also, the porn culture has been explained to highly contribute to sex trafficking. Pornographic content contributes to sexual abuse, and also leads to a demand of sexual content within the society. Researchers studying persons who battle with undesired porn addictions have discovered a growing inclination to carry out explicitly the activities shown in pornographic content, such as visiting massage parlors.
References
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