Most people are aware of the oppression and cruel and heinous behavior against women that occurs in countries like India but did you know that common third world crimes such human trafficking occur in America as well?
In America, about 80% of all human trafficking involves sexual exploitation, while the other 20% involves hard labor. According to the U.S. State Department, about 18,000 people are trafficked into the United States every year (15% of those people being brought into Texas). Many of the people trafficked in America are young runaway girls, with the average age of American teenage girls in the sex trade being 13 to 14 years old. It is also pertinent to note that the majority of these girls were also sexually abused as young children.
A human trafficker can make 20 times what they paid for a girl. The only stipulation to this is that the girl (or boy) was not physically abused to the point of rendering him/her disabled or unattractive to their captors. The human trafficker could potentially (and most often is the case) sell them again for a greater price, all because they had “trained” them and broken their spirit. According to caught traffickers, this “saves future buyers the hassle of training their captives themselves.” On average, a single sex slave bought at $10,000 can earn their captor at least $250,000 a year. Ludwig Fainberg, a convicted trafficker, said, “You can buy a woman for $10,000 and make your money back in a week if she is pretty and young. Then everything else is profit.”
Globally, human trafficking brings in a profit of about 32 billion dollars every year, with about 16 billion of those dollars (or one half) coming from industrialized countries like America. It is frightening to note that the FBI has stated that California is home to the top 3 highest child sex trafficking areas in the entire nation. These areas are: Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.
It is because of these statistics, that women are never 100% safe. Whether one lives in a third world country like India or an industrialized and “free” country like America, people (young women in particular) must always be vigilant and aware of their surroundings at all times. We live in a society filled with “stranger danger” which is why it is so vitally important to teach our children (boys and girls) strategies such as how and who to ask for help, self defense techniques and what to do if you get lost. We may never be able to stamp out human trafficking completely, but we can raise awareness about it and do whatever we can to help the survivors of this despicable side of humanity.
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