Social Justice 12 | Exploring what it means to "act justly ...



Myths and Misperceptions about TraffickingWe know how many people are enslaved today.Frankly, no one knows exactly how many people trafficking affects. In 2012, the International Labor Organization estimated that 20.9 million were enslaved. But these are estimates—not facts. Trafficking is an illegal underground issue; it is incredibly complex and underreported. Most child trafficking is for sex.While child sex trafficking happens to be what Love146 has the most experience and expertise with, children are exploited more for forced labor than any form of trafficking. Labor trafficking in children is a huge problem. In 2012, the International Labor Organization estimated that there were more than four times as many children trafficked for labor than for sex.Only girls are trafficked for sex.Children are inherently vulnerable, but often when we look at boys we don’t see this. While it’s true that the majority of children trafficked for sex are girls, boys are not immune to abuse and commercial exploitation. During a rescue operation, children are always happy to be helped.Not always, but sometimes. However, “rescue” can be an incredibly disorienting experience for a victim. Many youth caught up in commercial sex live in fear of law enforcement and do not readily trust strangers. One girl was told by rescuers, “We have a safe place for you with help and services,” to which she responded “Last time someone said that it didn’t turn out so well.” Repeatedly (and understandably) we hear from survivors that when they were rescued, they didn’t know they were being helped until much later. For a victim, to be removed from a situation of trafficking may mean being taken away from what has become familiar and predictable and placed into an unknown future. The anxiety that can be generated by a “rescue” experience is compounded if the child doesn’t yet understand their experience as trafficking. People who are trafficked know that they are being victimized and usually ask for help before being rescued. People who are trafficked are often indoctrinated by their traffickers to believe that they are responsible for their own fates. They are also taught that they are “ruined”–no one cares about them any more, including their families. And, they are warned that if they turn themselves in they will not be believed, or they will be arrested.? Further, they are often “brainwashed” into believing that their traffickers love them, care about them, will protect them, and are the only people who have their best interests at heart.? For these reasons, trafficked people often will not tell the truth about their circumstances, may try to protect their traffickers, and sometimes even run back to their traffickers if given a chance.Victims are usually kidnapped and held under lock and key.While we’ve encountered cases of children who were taken from their communities and kept in a locked room, forceful kidnapping and containment are not the majority of cases in modern-day slavery. Many children are trafficked through empty promises, false job offers, and coercion. While they are not always kept physically bound to their trafficker, they may be scared to seek help or threatened if they leave. Additionally, in some cases they may not know of or have the opportunity to access help and resources. Today’s “chains” are less visible, and the Hollywood version of trafficking and modern-day slavery we may have in our minds (i.e. white vans and chains) don’t represent the majority of cases.Human trafficking must involve a victim being moved.Laws differ globally, but?according to the U.S. State Department, human trafficking can occur when a victim is recruited or harbored. Recruitment and harboring can occur through the same means as transporting, such as threats, fraud, coercion, or deceit. Trafficking can occur without a victim ever leaving his or her own neighborhood.If a person under 18 is used in commercial sex, he or she is being trafficked—no travel is necessary. In fact, minors are sometimes trafficked from their own homes by family members.These children are prostitutes and criminals.The UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol acknowledges that a child (that is, a person under the age of 18) cannot in any way give a valid consent for a commercial sexual act. Therefore, any child who is involved in commercial sex is victim of exploitation. Legally and ethically, the term “child prostitute” itself is a misnomer. If a trafficking victim consented (or agreed) to be trafficked one time, he or she is not a victim, because he or she made that choice and should have known better.??? Minors under the age of 18, cannot legally agree to be sexually trafficked—even if they are not forced or tricked, and even if they are paid. Anyone who is trafficked is a victim–usually the choices made are based in false hope, misunderstanding, and misplaced trust.Those who hurt children like this look creepy and menacing.In many cases, those buying, selling, and abusing children appear to live ordinary, respectable lives. In fact, perpetrators often seek out positions of trust and power in order to gain access and maintain exploitative situations. Too often the stories we hear involve pastors, diplomats, youth leaders, law enforcement, and educators—perpetrating unspeakable crimes against children, using their power and connections as protection and facade. They come from various walks of life.Only pedophiles have sex with minors.Demonizing those who buy sex from teens as pedophiles is technically incorrect and problematic. Pedophilia is the condition of being sexually attracted to young children who have not yet begun puberty. Rings of pedophiles exist, and people do?buy and sell young children for sex—we’ve received girls in our own survivor care programs as young as 7 years old. However, to think that all those who buy sex from children are affected by this abnormal psychological condition prevents us from seeing that it is often “normal” folks in our communities who buy sex from trafficked youth.Women and children who are being prostituted, can usually be found on the street in “certain” parts of town. Reality:?Women and children are most often prostituted on the Internet on web pages devoted to “Adult Services.”? Their traffickers often use code words in their advertisements to denote children–and usually post pictures of the women and children in suggestive poses.? This is a multi-million dollar/year industry, but except for a few civil lawsuits against these sites, as of August 2013 there have been no successful prosecutions of this kind of business. ................
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