Human trafficking turns a huge profit. According to the latest statistics, human trafficking "now exceeds all illegal enterprises except for illicit drug and weapon smuggling in terms of profits derived, which can be as high as $32 billion annually." It's not just immigrants that are being trafficked either. According to the Rescue and Restore Coalition, 224,000 American youth are trafficked within U.S. borders. Lock your children up and check the intentions of your uncle, babysitter, and mailman.
However lawmakers aren't completely idle about the whole thing. Texas, one of the biggest areas in the U.S. for trafficking immigrants, also has one of the harshest penalties- a person found pimping a child faces a 2nd degree felony charge with up to a 20-year prison sentence. Texas is also now recognizing the children as victims and not criminals, which is a huge step in the direction of human rights.
My question is when will all of the states in the U.S. catch up to Texas? When will we see more progress being made to end trafficking, especially of children? The industry is lucrative and widespread in the U.S. and across the world. They take youth looking for job opportunities in a wealthier, more stabilized country, and they exploit them for their own personal gain. These children are victims, not perpetrators or prostitutes. They have been victimized and exploited by adults whom they trusted. Whether they ran away from home or they were kidnapped and taken, victims of sex trafficking should be given help not treated as offenders of the law. The real criminals are those who are pimping them out, financing the sex trade industry, and those who pay for sex. You never know if those adults are there by choice or by force.
http://www.texastribune.org/texas-courts/texas-supreme-court/lawmakers-take-closer-aim-at-human-trafficking/
1 comment:
Agreed. This is such a huge global problem- even in the USA. It's definitely something leaders should be focusing on more.
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