Literature Review

Let’s backtrack a bit to discuss what exactly sex trafficking is. Human Trafficking is defined as a modernized version of slavery where people are constantly being illegally traded and sold with the intention to force labor or sexual exploitation. According to Judith Farbey in Human Trafficking, Modern Day Slavery, the term itself is defined as, “a form of modern day slavery in which individuals perform commercial sex through the use of force, fraud or coercion. However, minors under the age of 18 engaging in commercial sex are considered to be victims of human trafficking, regardless of the use of force, fraud, or coercion.” Even though that definition is extremely wordy and contains a multitude of different meanings, it does a great job at covering virtually every reason why and every method used to sell people for the purpose of exploitation. In recent times, the biggest contributor to coercing women into sex trafficking is through social media and other forms of electronic communication. According to social media outlets such as Instagram and Twitter, more times than not, their users have been warned or alerted that their images can be used to lure others into the ring of sex trafficking.

This may sound a bit confusing at first, but if you were to really think about it, it makes sense. Traffickers will use accounts or images of other accounts to lure younger women and children in. This is because, if a social media user is being approached by a person that is closer to their age and is the same sex, the victim might be more willing to accept the friend request or respond to the direct message.

        Typically, when people hear the term “sex trafficking” they may not associate it with something that happens in the United States. Unfortunately, this could not be further from the truth, and it is too easily overlooked.  Essentially, since the dawn of time humans have been sold and bought legally or illegally. Over time, it has been decided that humans are more than just property, meaning that any exchange of humans for money or other forms of payment is illegal. Despite the illegality of human trafficking, it still occurs daily predominantly amongst women and children across the country.

In fact, it is estimated that between 14,500 to 17,500 people are sex trafficked solely into the United States every single year. Compare that to the global number of 57,000 a year, and that makes almost 30% of people who are trafficked arrive to or leave from the United States. People who are trafficked in America are usually taken to brothels, transported through escort services, massage parlors, strip clubs, or hotels (End Slavery Now). More specifically, however, young children and women are trafficked at astounding rates and more women on average are trafficked yearly than men.

        The way in which these women are coerced into sex trafficking can occur in many different ways where pimps use a multitude of techniques to attract women. Pimps will use the Internet to offer false employment opportunities to women, such as modeling gigs, nanny services, or waitressing jobs to make them believe they will be paid a decent amount of cash for their work. Unfortunately, when these women fall for the trap, they are taken by men or other individuals and are immediately threatened and placed in the sex industry.

        The worst part for some of these women is that they aren’t even able to escape. When talking about sex trafficking, the Los Angeles Times said, “Often, traffickers keep victims under their control by saying that they’ll be free after they pay their debt. The ‘debt’ is supposedly incurred from the victims’ recruitment, transportation, upkeep, or even their crude ‘sale,’” (13-year-old Girl Rescued, Los Angeles Times).  Unfortunately, these women feel trapped and are unable to escape their pimp. When they are put out on the street to prostitute or perform explicit actions and are caught by authorities, they are the ones that are detained and prosecuted for their actions. They are charged with criminal intent or criminal activity depending on when they get caught. This affects the victims physically and mentally because they obtain a criminal record, and they are unable to leave because their pimps threaten them with different forms of violence.

Even though social media plays an important role in sex trafficking today, obviously that wasn’t always the case. Human trafficking has actually been around for several centuries, practically since the creation of controlled civilizations. Europe started a slave trade campaign in the early 1500s between Africa and Portugal and by the end of the 1600s, seven more countries joined this campaign, one being North America (Schinasi 82). Women have always been seen as inferior to men; therefore they have been the primary targets for trafficking. In the past, human trading, or slave trading, was seen as normal and in some cultures even traditional because of the role that women play in society. Women were viewed as property, which meant they had no control over where they would end up.

This proved true in many societies where women were sold and traded without question; they never had a choice, therefore they never felt like they were stripped of having choice. They were simply just told what to do so there was no need for methods of coercion to be used. The difference between then and now is that as time has progressed, women have been given more freedom to do what they want and make their own choices. Unfortunately however, the reason women are generally more targeted than men is because of accessibility. According to  Because of this, society has collectively agreed that sex trafficking and human trade is illegal which has forced pimps and other men to use discrete forms of coercion to force women to perform explicit actions for the benefit of the pimp. Unfortunately, the reason women are generally more targeted than men is because of how easy it is. According to The Advocates, a blog that fights for women’s rights said, “ Traffickers primarily target women because they are disproportionately affected by poverty and discrimination, factors that impede their access to employment, educational opportunities, and other resources,” (Stop Violence Against Women). Because women have been easily targeted for so long, society has allowed for this to continue happening.