Thursday, June 12, 2014

Teen asks about child trafficking



Toni Richmond and Jack

 Dear Jack,

In my high school we began to study what constitutes abuse, whether physical, sexual, emotional, or neglect.  It was all really interesting and gave me and the other students some valuable information.  At the end of school we were just beginning to study child trafficking, but didn’t have enough time. Do you know anything about it?  I would like to know more about this topic.

Josh
 ___________________________________

Dear Josh,

This is something that has been going on for a very long time.  In 2000 the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) first made trafficking in persons a federal crime.  All states have anti-trafficking legislation, but the problem lies in identifying the victims who are commonly hidden and living in fear.  Even if these victims come in contact with law enforcement, they may be re-victimized by being treated like criminals, denying them the support and services that they need.

Many people, when thinking about human trafficking, believe it only happens when people are trafficked into the United States, but many are U.S. citizens.  The Department of Justice has estimated between 14,500 and 127,000 foreign men, women and children are trafficked into the United States each year.  According to “Building Child Welfare Response to Child Trafficking Handbook” these figures fail to take in account the 293,000 children who are United States citizens and who are at risk for being trafficked specifically for sex trade each year.

The federal definition of human trafficking states “Severe forms of human trafficking" are:

1. Sex trafficking (i.e., the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of commercial sex act) in which a commercial sex act is induced by force fraud or coercion;

2. Trafficking in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age;

3. The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor of services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

I hope this information helps a little in understanding the scope of the problem.  If you want more information go to http://www.vera.org.

Jack




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