Human Trafficking

Identify the perpetrators of these crimes and explain the reasons for human trafficking

Human trafficking is a human rights violation involving holding another individual in compelled service either by fraud, force, or coercion (Logan, 2009). The perpetrators gain from human trafficking by controlling and exploiting the victims for sex, labor, or both. This practice can involve transnational victim recruitment that is forced to cross borders into a different country in which they are exploited for sex or labor. It can also occur locally where little or no transportation is involved in recruiting or exploiting the victims. Two forms of perpetrators are the exploiters and the enablers.

The Exploiters

Human trafficking exploiters include an array of criminal enterprises or criminals that organize, execute, and gain from the trafficking of people. Often, the traffickers tend to depend on enablers to carry out their business (Belser, 2005): entities and individuals, both illegal and legal, who provide services and goods to the exploiters, making human trafficking practice both possible and profitable.

The Enablers

Enablers can be individuals or entities who unknowingly or knowingly provide services and goods so that trafficking can be conducted. Both illegal and legal practices can enable human trafficking (Belser, 2005). Both the officials who take bribes and actors in the hospitality, transportation, financial, and advertising sectors can facilitate the practice of human trafficking.

Reasons for Human Trafficking

Demand for cheap labor

The service industry, specifically kitchens, and restaurants, are regular human trafficking exploiters. Also, there is a high demand for cheap agricultural and domestic labor (Belser, 2005). Most of the time, employees are promised a safe workspace and steady salary, only to find out later that they are not paid or are paid less than the minimum wage and work overtime. The owners of those businesses keep on practicing these illegal norms since the trafficking victims can barely defend themselves and they possess very few alternatives.

Human trafficking generates a considerable profit.

As stated by the International Labor Organization, the industry of human trafficking can generate a profit of one hundred and fifty billion dollars annually (Gozdziak, 2005). Sixty-seven percent of that money is usually generated from commercial sex exploitation, and the remaining thirty-three percent is made from forced economic exploitation like agricultural and domestic work. This practice has been known to be the fastest growing and comes second in the industry of criminality after drug trafficking.

Poverty, war, natural disasters, and a search for a better life

The perpetrators of human trafficking often look for individuals that are vulnerable to coercion into the industry of human trafficking (Gozdziak, 2005). Those individuals are mostly migrants who flee from their birth countries either due to natural disasters, economic hardships, political instability, or conflict. Population displacement increases the emotional vulnerability of individuals, and they mostly lack the financial means to protect themselves, and due to this, they are subjected to human trafficking.

Summarize who the victims of human trafficking are

According to the ILO, the estimated number of human trafficking victims globally is 40.3 million, with hundreds of thousands in the U.S (Simeunovic-Patic, 2011). Human trafficking victims in the United States are both women and men, children and adults, foreigners and U.S citizens, and the United States law classifies human trafficking victims into three populations:

• Children under eighteen years induced into prostitution
• Adults induced into prostitution through fraud, force, or coercion
• Adults and children induced to perform services or labor through fraud, force, or coercion

There is no identified profile for the victims: It occurs to minors and adults in suburban, rural, or urban communities throughout the country (Simeunovic-Patic, 2011). The victims have varied socio-economic backgrounds and diverse education levels and may be undocumented or documented. The perpetrators target victims by using designed recruitment and control methods that they consider effective. Homeless and runaway youths are also susceptible to trafficking. According to a study conducted in Chicago, fifty-six percent of women forced into commercial sex happened to be runaway youths.

Explain the currently employed methods to combat human trafficking in the United States, and provide examples to support your findings

The Department of Justice is committed fully to fighting against the practice of human trafficking by calling on various entities to contribute to this fight (Chuang, 2005). The efforts of the Department include investigating and prosecuting these crimes, providing services to the victims, and provision of support for local, state, or tribal authorities and outside stakeholders.

Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit (HTPU)

The Department of Justice has prosecuted cases of human trafficking in different forms for over twenty years. With the Trafficking Victims Protection enactment in the year 2000, the Department obtained additional statutory authorities enabling more prosecutions, more severe punishments imposed on the perpetrators, and improved service provisions to the victims (Chuang, 2005). In the year 2007, the Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit was formed in order to consolidate the expertise of human trafficking within a specific prosecution unit and to concentrate on developing novel, multi-jurisdictional, complex, and international cases of human trafficking. The personnel of HTPU includes a senior policy counsel, specialized federal prosecutors, an investigator, a national manager of the program, and a witness-victim specialist. A partnership exists between the Attorney General’s office of the United States, law enforcement agencies, and the HTPU to develop investigations and prosecution of human trafficking of national significance that involves human trafficking in general.

Bilateral Work

Also, the HTPU has coordinated the United States-Mexico Bilateral Human Trafficking Enforcement Initiative and has collaborated with USAOs, DHS, and the law enforcement counterparts of Mexico (Chuang, 2005). Since the year 2009, the law enforcement of Mexico and the United States have been in collaboration to exchange intelligence, leads, and expertise in order to develop high-impact prosecutions and investigations aimed at dismantling networks of human trafficking that operate across the United States-Mexico border, bringing the perpetrators to justice, reuniting the victims with their families, restoration of the dignity and rights of the survivors and the victims.

These tactics have been effective since they have led to successful prosecutions both in the United States and Mexico, including United States federal prosecutions of over fifty defendants in numerous cases across the United States, many Mexican state and federal prosecutions of the perpetrators of sex trafficking, and over one hundred and thirty victims were rescued.

Develop a plan for early detection and proactive response to human trafficking in the United States

A paradigm known as the “3P”—prevention, protection, and prosecution—can serve as a fundamental strategy that can be used in the United States for early detection and proactive response to human trafficking (Cho, 2015).

Prevention

Prevention tactics are an essential component of the movement against human trafficking. Efficient efforts of prevention tackle the human traffickers’ tactics head-on (Cho, 2015). With the distribution of targeted and accurate information, many communities will be more prepared to respond to human trafficking threats. Programs of strategic intervention can reach populations that are at risk before they encounter deceitful practices of recruitment. Effective partnerships between civil society and private and public sectors can leverage expertise, expand awareness, and facilitate creative solutions to human trafficking.

Protection

Protection strategies are critical to the victim-centered approach that can be taken by the international community in the effort to fight modern slavery in the United States (Cho, 2015). Effective protection involves identifying victims, providing referrals for a broader range of services that directly provides or funds Non-Governmental organizations to service provision, and supporting the victims as they rebuild their lives. Identification of victims is vital to ensure they receive the resources and support they need. After identification, the victims’ needs and rights should be prioritized by the government to ascertain that efforts of protection are provided in a way that treats the victims with dignity and that each of them is provided with the opportunity to lead a normal life.

Prosecution

Effective action of law enforcement is an essential component of the government’s efforts to fight against human trafficking (Cho, 2015). The State Department should analyze whether the government criminalizes every form of human trafficking and if the perpetrators are convicted and sentenced with punishments that are sufficiently severe to deter human trafficking and adequately reflect the atrocious of this criminal activity.

References

Belser, P. (2005). Forced labor and human trafficking: Estimating profits.

Cho, S. Y. (2015). Evaluating policies against human trafficking worldwide: An overview and review of the 3P index. Journal of Human Trafficking, 1(1), 86-99.

Chuang, J. (2005). The United States as global sheriff: Using unilateral sanctions to combat human trafficking. Mich. J. Int’l L., 27, 437.

Gozdziak, E. M., & Collett, E. A. (2005). Research on human trafficking in North America: A review of the literature. International Migration, 43(1‐2), 99-128.

Logan, T. K., Walker, R., & Hunt, G. (2009). Understanding human trafficking in the United States. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 10(1), 3-30.

SIMEUNOVIC-PATIC, S. C. B. (2011). Victims of Human Trafficking. Human Trafficking: Exploring the International Nature, Concerns, and Complexities, 265.

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Week 5 – Assignment: Examine Human Trafficking in the United States to Determine if Current Efforts are Effective

Instructions

Recently, you have been assigned to a task force consisting of the local sheriff’s office, state police, and federal law enforcement agencies such as the Coast Guard and ICE.  Your first assignment is to develop an action plan in which you report on the following regarding human trafficking in the United States:

• Identify the perpetrators of these crimes and explain the reasons for human trafficking.
• Summarize who the victims of human trafficking are.
• Explain the current employed methods to combat human trafficking in the United States, and provide examples to support your findings.
• Determine if these tactics to combat trafficking are effective. If during your research you determine efforts are in need of improvement, what are your recommendations?
• Develop a plan for early detection and proactive response to human trafficking in the United States.

Support your plan with at least three scholarly or professional resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including older articles, may be included.

Length: 5-7 pages, not including title and reference pages

Your report should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy.