Human trafficking has been much in the news, as my native state debates whether or not buying a 16yo/17yo for sex should be a felony. I understand the position taken by those of good will who say that it is quite possible for someone in that age group to present themselves as over 18. You’re right, it is. And yes, the ‘oldest profession’ is called that for a reason.
But we are not talking about people who have freely chosen this path – or even allowed this to happen because their lives are in such dark places. This is not the person who got addicted to drugs or got desperate or … no. We’re talking about children. And even adults who are trafficked are very seldom free to choose to leave. They’re slaves. They are bought and sold by gangs. They’re beaten, controlled through fear, controlled through emotional manipulation, addicted to drugs against their will, and kept from the resources that would allow them to make a life for themselves. (I will be using gender neutral terms as boys are also trafficked, and their slavery is usually overlooked. All slavery is evil).
I was part of an anti-trafficking group for a few years (on the prayer team) and we had the opportunity to meet a pregnant young lady just out of prison. She was about to pop, and had just turned 18. Her face was marked with a large, dark tattoo. She didn’t have a high school education (I’m not sure that she had a Jr HS education). She didn’t have a driver’s license. And her family network was broken and dysfunctional in the extreme. I weep that she later returned to her slaveholder – but how surprising is it, even without having Stockholm syndrome?
- A victim of sex trafficking is, on average, raped 6000 times. (Source)
- In 2019, one in six children reported missing in the U.S. was likely a victim of sex trafficking and most were in the welfare system when they disappeared. (Source)
- The average victim of sex trafficking has a life expectancy of 7 years. (Source)
- Sex Trafficking accounts for 77% of human trafficking cases. (Source)
- California and Texas consistently have the highest numbers for reports of Human Trafficking Cases. (Source)
- The odds of escaping a human trafficking situation are 1%. (Source)
- 95% of girls born in a red light district will be sex trafficked, and die in captivity.
- Out of 40 million slaves in the world, 1 in 4 of those is a child. (Source)1
- Human trafficking is a $150 billion industry. (UNICEF)
- Human trafficking is the second most profitable illegal industry in the U.S. (UNICEF) 2
I understand, if you think of it as “but it will ruin his life” and “it’s no big deal”, that making buying a teenager a felony is a hard pill to swallow. But if buying sex costs the trafficked victim her life over the course of seven hard years… can we not agree that it’s time to stop? Reduce the demand and the supply will slowly dwindle. Will the oldest profession ever disappear? Not until the Lord comes to reign. But we could do *something*. 150 billion dollars/year is *not* an industry working through hardships. I think some hardship is in order – for someone other than the victims.
We know that thousands, perhaps millions, of children are being trafficked for sex within the United States. We know that most of them will die in those situations, not in freedom. We know… well, we know a lot of things. But apparently what we don’t know is how to stand up and say, “enough!”
Vulnerable teens and tweens are separated from their families (or guardians – both the foster care system and the “border” are easy targets) and acquired by pimps, owned by gangs and cartels. They’re property, and far too easy to come by. Smaller children are, revoltingly, mostly sold by their own parents. Millstones are too good for such as these. Lots of factors can go into making someone vulnerable.
Once upon a time, I was a lonely junior high outcast. Another girl my age invited me to befriend her, having already befriended the person who would become my BFF. The girl (J) would regale BFF and I about all her boyfriends… men in the military, gangbangers, she had a list a mile long. She was out all the time, hanging out with her ‘boyfriends’.
At 13, terribly lonely and naive, I thought that sounded glamorous. So much so that for Christmas, I made her a T-Shirt that said, “my boyfriend is a …” and I was telling my English teacher about it one day, and he got the oddest expression on his face. It wasn’t much longer that she wanted to meet me one Saturday at the pier to hang out. My parents said no, and I didn’t have her phone number, so I ghosted her. The next Monday, she wasn’t in school. And I didn’t hear from her again until a few years later…… she’d suddenly moved to another state. We wrote a bit, then she disappeared again. I don’t know what happened to her.
When I was naive and 13, it was just weird and sad to lose a friend. Once I learned about how one goes about acquiring new trafficking victims, I saw things through a different pair of eyes. It may well be that she was being trafficked, and required to recruit others. We were loners, and odd – and convinced that her life of being out every night with lots of boyfriends was exciting. Do I blame her? Hardly. She was a 13yo girl. The point of this is that vulnerability doesn’t mean, “on drugs and already have a ruined life”. “Vulnerable” can just mean, “life sucks right now” or “I’m lonely and feel unloved”.
Do we really want to live with ourselves, consigning thousands of children to an early grave when we could – even just PERHAPS – reduce the demand by increasing the punishments?
Slavery is evil. Maybe it’s time we remind ourselves of that truth.