Sex Trafficking

In the United States, illegal human trafficking for sexual purposes accounts for a profit of over $9 billion according to the FBI. I found this number extremely astonishing because the women would have no purpose to be used as sexual slaves if there weren’t so many men willing to pay for a prostitute even if she was a helpless victim. Also, considering that most of the women trafficked into the United States are young women who range between the ages of adolescence and young adulthood, the men who pay for these women should in a way be considered pedophiles in my opinion. I also find it so surprising that the United States government hasn’t done as much as it should in dealing with the situation considering they have such modern and developed equipment used on its borders. I would understand how inanimate objects like drugs could be smuggled into the U.S but I would assume that a human being would be much more difficult to smuggle in. However, in my research, I learned that most women smuggled into the U.S are brought in legally from third world or developing countries with the promise of a job and then upon arrival are stripped of their documents and then forced to become a variety of sexual slaves.
SEX TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN
IN THE UNITED STATES
INTERNATIONAL AND DOMESTIC TRENDS
Co
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Principal Investigators
Janice G. Raymond, PhD
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Donna M. Hughes, PhD
University of Rhode Island
Project Coordinator
Carol J. Gomez, BA
March 2001

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Within the last decade, the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation has become a major concern for governments, NGOs and the media. Although, the United States has been less visible as a site of transnational and domestic trafficking in