Of vice and men: a new approach to eradicating sex trafficking by reducing male demand through educational programs and abolitionist legislation.

• Author: Yen, Iris

1. INTRODUCTION

   At the age of four, "Andrea" was sold to a child sex-trafficking ring that operated in both Mexico and the United States. She was enslaved for twelve years, servicing mostly American men. To keep the children obedient, her traffickers frequently abused them psychologically and physically. To cater to their customers' preferences, the ring offered children of various ages from toddlers to teens. Permanently traumatized after years of abuse, Andrea sees herself as "way too damaged ... [and] no good." (1)

   There is a thriving modern-day slave trade of shocking magnitude and brutality: every year, over 700,000 people are trafficked across international borders. (2) Human trafficking affects every country in the world. (3) To better understand the pandemic of human trafficking, one must first establish a clear definition of this term. In 2000, 117 nations (including the United States) adopted the United Nations' new anti-trafficking protocol, which defined "trafficking in persons" as the "recruitment, transportation and harboring of another person for the purpose of exploitation." (4) Eighty percent of the trafficked victims are women and up to fifty percent are minors. (5) Impoverished women and girls from developing countries are vulnerable to all forms of human trafficking and exploitation, but they are especially vulnerable to sex trafficking. (6) "Sex trafficking" is the recruitment, transportation, and harboring of persons--primarily women and children--for the purpose of sexual exploitation into prostitution, pornography, sex tourism, and other commercial sex activities. (7)

   Sex trafficking is a complex global problem that has attracted much attention from legal scholars; in particular, the supply side of the problem (namely, the traffickers and the victims of trafficking) has been discussed at length. (8) Until recently, however, one critical aspect of the problem has largely evaded the scrutiny of scholars, anti-trafficking activists, and law enforcement alike: the role of male demand for commercial sexual services in perpetuating and growing the sex trafficking industry. (9) There is now an emerging consensus that strategies which solely address the supply side of sex trafficking are insufficient and ultimately ineffective. (10)

   This Comment assumes that sex trafficking is fundamentally an economic problem, and that appropriate incentives can impact both the supply and the demand drivers. (11) Given this premise, this Comment examines how the male demand for commercial sexual services stimulates and sustains the mushrooming sex trafficking industry. Furthermore, this Comment argues it is both feasible and effective to fight sex trafficking through educational and legislative measures aimed at reducing the male demand for commercial sexual services. These methods include educating the men who use prostitutes, changing misguided male attitudes toward commercial sexual services and prostitutes, and enacting and enforcing legislation that criminalizes the purchase of sex.

   Part II introduces and defines the problem of sex trafficking. Part III discusses the economic incentives underlying, and the human impact of, sex trafficking. Part IV assesses the most recent anti-trafficking protocol and laws adopted by the United Nations and by the United States. Part V analyzes the importance of male demand in perpetuating sex trafficking and reveals some insights on the men who use prostitutes (also known as "johns"). Part VI discusses the efficacy of various educational programs targeted at johns. The next Part compares two different legislative approaches and their impact on curbing prostitution and sex trafficking. The concluding section, Part VIII, recommends a more effective approach to combating sex trafficking: a comprehensive strategy that entails both educational and legislative initiatives to reduce male demand.

2. THE INVISIBLE HAND OF GREED, POVERTY, AND MISERY: UNDERSTANDING THE SUPPLY SIDE DRIVERS AND HUMAN IMPACT OF SEX TRAFFICKING

   1. ONE WAY-TICKET TO HELL: HOW WOMEN BECOME SEX SLAVES

      Sex trafficking is often appropriately described as "sexual slavery." (12) Owned by their pimps, brothel owners, and customers for the "purpose of financial gain, sexual gratification and/or power and domination," (13) trafficked victims are essentially slaves. Trafficked women typically earn little or no money for their services, and they must often acquiesce to any and all of the sexual demands of the customer. (14) Given this grim reality, how and why do so many women and girls end up becoming sex slaves?

      The most common factors that promote sex trafficking include: an increase in poverty and unemployment in developing countries, the lack of educational and economic opportunities for women and the consequent feminization of poverty, the rise of globalization and increased mobility, the expansion of transnational organized crime, the widening economic gap between developing and developed countries, and gender-based social inequalities. (15) Armed conflict in the victims' home countries and the subsequent military occupation by peacekeeping troops is another major reason. (16) The combined effect of these factors significantly increases the vulnerability of destitute women and children to the traffickers' sophisticated recruiting techniques. (17) Trafficked children are often sold by their family or abducted, while many naive girls and women also fall prey to deceptive job advertisements placed by cunning traffickers. (18)

      Traffickers primarily target girls and young women who live in economically depressed countries and who are desperate for any employment opportunity. (19) These girls and women are often trafficked into foreign countries because it is much more challenging for trafficked victims living in foreign countries to escape from their traffickers given the significant language, legal, and cultural barriers. (20) In addition, entrepreneurial traffickers have increased their importation of foreign women into affluent, developed countries in order to satisfy the increasing demand for commercial sexual services in those countries. (21) The magnitude of human trafficking is alarming: the United States Department of State estimates that 14,500 to 17,500 people (including men) are trafficked into the United States every year, but other sources estimate the number may be as high as 50,000 to 100,000 women and children alone. (22)

   2. "REUSE, RESELL OR DISPOSE": THE BUSINESS MODEL AND BILLION-DOLLAR PROFITS OF THE SEX TRAFFICKING TRADE

      In the sex trafficking business model, the victims are merely "expendable, reusable, and resalable cheap commodities" (23) to be exploited for the sole profit of their owner. (24) Sex trafficking is the perfect criminal business; unlike drugs or guns, which can only be sold once to any particular party, (25) the sexual services of trafficked victims can be sold again and again. (26) Depending on the demands of the local market and her individual characteristics, a trafficked woman can cost anywhere from $14,000 to $40,000. (27) However, the financial return for purchasing her body is unbelievably lucrative: she can earn $75,000 to $250,000 or more each year for her pimp. (28) One trafficker commented, "You can buy a woman for $10,000 and you can make back your money back in a week if she is pretty and she is young. Then everything else is profit." (29) Indeed, global profits from sex trafficking are estimated to be $7 to $12 billion dollars annually and growing rapidly. (30) In fact, profits from the international sex trade are second only to those from the drug trade. (31)

      Moreover, until the United States passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000 which stiffened criminal penalties for trafficking, (32) the federal penalties for sex trafficking were much lighter than those for drug dealing. Prior to passing the 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the statutory maximum for dealing in ten grams of LSD or a kilo of heroin was a life sentence, while the maximum statutory punishment for forcing someone to engage in involuntary servitude was only ten years. (33) Hence, given its low investment costs, quick returns, very high profit margins, low risk of arrest, and relatively light penalties, sex trafficking has a very high profit-to-cost ratio among comparable criminal activities such as drug trafficking. (34) As a result, sex trafficking has emerged as the new crime of choice for international organized criminal rings. (35)

   3. DEVASTATED LIVES: THE IMMEASURABLE HUMAN COST OF SEX TRAFFICKING

      While the traffickers reap enormous profits, it is the victims who must bear the immeasurable human cost of sex trafficking. (36) To maximize their profits, traffickers typically force their victims to work ten to eighteen hours each day. (37) Traffickers routinely beat, rape, starve, confine, torture, and psychologically and emotionally abuse the women. (38) The buyers, too, are sometimes violent and often force the women to engage in degrading or abusive sexual acts. (39) If the victim does attempt to escape, she bears a high risk of being caught and severely beaten or even killed by her trafficker. (40)

      Not surprisingly, these harsh conditions cause victims to develop severe and often permanent physical, mental, emotional, and psychological trauma. (41) Many victims will contract HIV/AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases. (42) Anxiety, low self-esteem, depression, and severe post-traumatic stress disorder are common psychological manifestations. (43) Most trafficked victims only survive for two to four years before they die as a result of homicide, suicide, HIV/AIDS, or other factors. (44) Even if the victims are rescued by the police, in most countries, they are jailed in detention centers awaiting deportation due to their illegal immigrant status. (45)

      Thus, contrary to the erroneous perception that prostitution is a victimless crime (a belief which is...