Sex trafficking must be stopped - now!
BY The FINAL CALL NEWS
"Google “sex trafficking” and you should be highly disturbed and upset by what you will find. We need to separate myth from horrible reality—and end it right now. We don’t have time for denial, Black girls are under assault.
"According to Chioma Adaku, of the non-profit advocacy group Traffik Stops, sex trafficking victims are not commonly kidnapped but are manipulated by “friends,” often are runaways due to sex abuse and are preyed upon by family, peers, international third-party recruiters, and employers. Organized crime groups and organizations are involved. Many are lured into sex trafficking through strip clubs, massage parlors, intimate partners, neighbors or sex buyers. Some are physically kidnapped.
“What is not commonly acknowledged is 85 percent are people of color. We need to unambiguously identify the connections between trafficking, poverty, immigration, gender, and racism to effectively end human trafficking in the U.S.,” said Ms. Adaku.
“There are no other economic development opportunities where you can buy and sell the same product or service over and over without paying taxes, work with no or low payment or on terms which are highly exploitative to a $152 billion industry when the benefits outweigh the harm and cost.”
According to the Justice Dept., about 13 percent of confirmed sex trafficking victims are 25 or older and sex trafficking victims are more likely to be Black (40 percent) or White (26 percent).
A recent study found nearly one-fifth of homeless teens surveyed reported being victims of human trafficking, including those trafficked for sex, labor, or both. The Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice & Research at the University of Pennsylvania and Loyola University Modern Slavery Research Project in New Orleans, interviewed 911 homeless youth in 13 cities between February 2014 and March 2017.
“The researchers found that 19.4 percent of the interviewed youth were victims of human trafficking,” said the report. “Though they accounted for just 19.2 percent of the respondents interviewed, LGBTQ youth accounted for 33.8 percent of the sex trafficking victims, and 31.8 percent of those who engaged in the sex trade,” said the study, whose participants were aged 17 to 25. “Ninety-five percent of youth who were sex trafficked reported a history of child maltreatment, with 49 percent reporting a history of childhood sexual abuse,” the report added.
citation: finalcallnewspaper
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