Human Trafficking in the United States

Every year an estimated 700,000 to two million women and children are trafficked globally. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) estimates that almost 50,000 of those women and children are brought to the United States. Major cities in the United States have become receiving centers for trafficked women and children, and brothels are formed. The Immigration and Naturalization Service believes that brothels are run incognito as massage parlors, nail salons, or spas. Brothels are also housed in suburban single-family dwellings to avoid suspicion. The women and children that are trafficked are poor and lured to the country under false pretenses. A promise of a good paying job and decent living conditions are found to be a scam, but only after it is too late. Travel documents are confiscated, and the woman and children are threatened with violence upon them or their families. These prisoners are forced into prostitution to pay back their debt to recruiters. Those trafficked suffer from severe mental and physical abuse that include imprisonment, rape, and forced abortions. The United States is still in denial that human trafficking and child prostitution exists.
Sources:

“A Radical Vision for the Council on Girls and Women” Courtney E. Martin, Prospect.org, 3/16/2009 http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=a_radical_vision_for_the_council_on_girls_and_women

“Slavery In Our Times” Emma Thompson, Newsweek.com, 3/8/2008
http://www.newsweek.com/id/120054

“The Trafficking of Asian Women” Lora Jo Foo, ModelMinority.com, 2002
http://www.modelminority.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=461:the-trafficking-of-asian-women-&catid=47:society&Itemid=56

Student Researcher: Christine Streff
Faculty Evaluator: Vicky Brockman, Ph. D.

Faculty Instructor: Teresa B. Henning, Ph.D.

Southwest Minnesota State University