CLS Christian Lawyer Magazine June 2014_Proofforweb.pdf Jun. 2014 | Page 17

ance, image of God was not the irst thought that came to
mind. But the whole purpose for our visit was to convince
these women that they are.
As we watched these precious souls preening in their mirrors,
waiting for the next customer, we knew these women did not
appreciate their status as image bearers of God (Gen. 9:6),
made in His likeness ( James 3:9). We understood they had
probably never heard of inward beauty (1 Peter 3:3-4) or modest dress, knowing only about elaborate hairstyles, gold and
pearls (cf. 1 Timothy 2:9).
One of the most disheartening questions of the evening was why
more people don’t know (or care) that this activity is happening
right in their own backyard. Many Pohang residents that work at
the school didn’t even know their city had a red light district even
though they had lived there most of their lives. Why not? hat
question is best addressed by examining the widespread misunderstanding of the law of human traicking.

Misidentiied and Misunderstood:
The Law of Human Traicking
he Traicking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) deines “severe forms of traicking in persons’’ as “(A) sex traficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud,
or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such
act has not atained 18 years of age; or (B) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for
labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion
for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.”
he challenge with human traicking cases is the tendency to
blame the victims for their plight. While those of us in the business of prosecuting human traickers recognize the signiicant
distinction between prostitution and victims of human traicking, the perception is oten lost on the outside world.
Like the priest and the Levite in the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-32), most people would cross the street
to avoid having to pa