According to Van Wormer & Bartollas (2014), sex trafficking, “encompasses the organized movement of people, usually women, between countries and within countries for sex work” (p. 289). Sex trafficking is also a very lucrative business, it is estimated to make $31. 6 billion annually. This amount is estimated from the 2.
5 million people who a trafficked each year. The exact number of people who are victims of the sex industry cannot be predicted accurately for all over the world. In the United States alone there is about 14,500-17,500 people trafficked each year. Human trafficking it the third biggest organized crime after drug and arms trafficking (Hodge, 2014). Young men make up about 44% of people being trafficked, while women and girls make up about 56% of people who are trafficked. Children in the sex trafficking industry makes up about half of the victims of sex trafficking (Hepburn & Simon, 2010).
Sex trafficking victims do not just come from the United States. Sex trafficking is also known as domestic human trafficking in the United States, and people are trafficked into all 50 states. A large majority if the people in the United States, are trafficked from another country. These women and children are often brought from some of the poorest nations in the world. According to Dess (2013), “human trafficking is a “modern form of slavery” that poses significant risk to human rights, labor standards, public health, and commerce” (p. 3).
The United States is the ultimate destination to bring people who will be trafficked, and the United States is the second largest country to receive human sex slaves. Adolescents and women are often the target of a large majority of sex crimes. Because of these abuses women could either bec. .ons for people who are caught trafficking others. The Uniform Act also gives victims a chance to start their lives over, instead of treating them as criminals due to their situation.
This can be accomplished through various government and non-government organizations to help the victims. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000, brought the United States and the United Nations together to prevent, to punish traffickers, and to and how to protect victims of sex trafficking. This act also implements: anyone who is under the age of 18 in the sex industry, should be treated like a victim and not a criminal. States needs to also have laws that back of the federal government laws against trafficking, so that more people can be prosecuted for sex trafficking. This act continues to be updated by Congress, just about every year to help more victims (Hall, 2014).
