Human Trafficking Research Paper

Human Trafficking: International Crisis

Human trafficking or also known as sex trafficking is an international problem that poses a universal threat to human refuge. For centuries, men, women and children around the globe have been captivated and dehumanized by the inhumanity of society (modern day slavery). Not often is human trafficking discussed or brought to awareness like other global issues such as wars in the Middle East or political institutionalism (prison confinement in the US). Human trafficking is a very sensitive, and vital international issue that must be commutated with the theories of constructivism.

The international relations theory constructivism breaks down human trafficking and allows for the naked eye to understand the

Human/sex trafficking involves the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act or subjection to involuntary servitude. Trafficking usually begins with the victim being misled into debt bondage. According to the US Department of State Trafficking, 600,000-800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year. Approximately 80 per cent are women and girls. While it is difficult to subject information, numbers and patterns on human trafficking, globally the average cost of a slave (trafficked person) is about ninety dollars (“Modern Slavery”). Human trafficking reportedly generates a profit of $32 billion every year and of that number, fifth-teen billion is made in industrialized countries (Germany, Hong Kong, United States etc.). The exploitation of individuals for profit has a long history and international efforts to address it can be drawn back at least a century, long before the birth of the modern human rights system. I can almost assure you that many do not know that human trafficking is the second largest international crime industry in the world (behind illegal drug and arms trafficking). Often, human trafficking is portrayed by the media to only be a foreign crisis for countries like China and the Middle East when in actuality California harbors three of the

As prostitution is a heart breaking reality for women globally, to a woman or young girl who has grown up in a destroyed environment, the pressure to provide for her family or to make “quick money” prostitution quickly becomes an ultimate option. However, fighting human trafficking and reaching out to a prostitute is not the same. Young girls, women and even some boys are physically locked behind doors, terrified for not only their lives, but the lives of their loved ones. Typically human trafficking begins when someone in a family owes another party some sort of debt but cannot afford it. The child or adult becomes a form of collateral. In other cases, human trafficking begins with the luring or preying of an individual. The trafficker notices the vulnerability of the victim and feeds into making them feel loved or special. Selling dreams to the person trafficked is not only manipulation but also mentally