The Strong Arm of the Law Is Weak: How the Trafficking Victims Protection Act Fails to Assist Effectively Victims of the Sex Trade

• Jurisdiction: United States,Federal
• Citation: Vol. 45
• Publication year: 2022

45 Creighton L. Rev. 563. THE STRONG ARM OF THE LAW IS WEAK: HOW THE TRAFFICKING VICTIMS PROTECTION ACT FAILS TO ASSIST EFFECTIVELY VICTIMS OF THE SEX TRADE

THE STRONG ARM OF THE LAW IS WEAK: HOW THE TRAFFICKING VICTIMS PROTECTION ACT FAILS TO ASSIST EFFECTIVELY VICTIMS OF THE SEX TRADE

Shelly George(fn*)

I. INTRODUCTION

Acts that occur in the underbelly of our global community can be shocking to many, but they occur every night and day right in our own neighborhoods. Sex trafficking, a derivative of human trafficking, is occurring in epidemic proportions on a global scale while the victims are suffering in silence. Sexual exploitation has taken the media forefront in recent years.(fn1) Much legislation has been passed to try to curb this illegal marketing of innocent women and children. Laws in various countries have been evaluated, studied, and researched and lead to the sad conclusion that these laws alone are insufficient in adequately providing the protection and relief so desperately needed by those victimized.(fn2) Trafficking in persons is

the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.(fn3)

Sex trafficking "is the demand for prostitution and commercial sexual services that is a central cause of trafficking for sexual exploitation."(fn4) Experts agree that trafficking patterns flow with "the global supply of and demand for trafficked women."(fn5) Just "like any other capitalist industry," the sex industry is subject "to the natural pulls of supply and demand."(fn6) Scholars such as Siddharth Kara have focused on the economic aspects of sex trafficking.(fn7) Kara espouses the belief that the demand structure and the supply aspect of the worldwide economy make trafficking a profitable business that will be extremely difficult to eradicate.(fn8)

Too often, however, "the customer's role in sex trafficking [is] invisible" because the demand side of the equation is never addressed.(fn9) Since the mid-1970s, approximately thirty million women and young girls have been subjected to the worldwide trade of sex trafficking.(fn10)

Trafficking victims traditionally came from Latin America and Southeast Asia; now, however, victims originate in Eastern and Central Europe.(fn11) Experts note that "trafficking generally originates in impoverished areas that lack viable economic opportunities for wo-men."(fn12) Studies also indicate that wealthier countries are the main sources of exploitation and demand.(fn13) According to a study released on December 5, 2007, "California is a top destination for human traffickers who coerce people into the sex trade or hard labor through force or fraud."(fn14) Apparently, California is vulnerable to trafficking due to its nature as an international border of various ports and airports and a popular destination for immigrants.(fn15)

The United Nations estimates that "2.5 million people are in forced labor (including sexual exploitation) at any given time as a result of trafficking."(fn16) The Polaris Project estimates that the sex trafficking industry generates approximately $32 billion a year.(fn17) This industry has turned into a sexually derived industry encompassed by the exploitation of women through pornography, mail-order brides, sex tourism, and forced prostitution.(fn18)

In 2003, the United States government estimated that the number of people annually trafficked was between 800,000 and 900,000.(fn19) Even more harrowing, it is estimated that 50,000 women and children from all around the world are annually trafficked into the United States "specifically for the sex trade."(fn20) A 2007 study estimated the number of people trafficking within the United States every year is anywhere between 14,500 and 17,500.(fn21)

[S]ex trafficking [is] a "special evil," a multi-billion dollar "underground of brutality and lonely fear," . . . "[T]hose who create these victims and profit from their suffering must be severely punished and . . . those who patronize this industry debase themselves and deepen the misery of others. And governments that tolerate this trade are tolerating a form of slavery."(fn22)

In 2000, the U.S. Congress determined that sex trafficking is a form of modern slavery, affecting nearly 700,000 women and children yearly.(fn23) Accordingly, the profits of the trafficking industry are estimated to be around $9.5 billion, with at least $4 billion attributed to the brothel and prostitution industries.(fn24) In 2004, one scholar predicted that human trafficking, which ballooned after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, would become the most profitable criminal activity in the world, surpassing narcotics and weapons trafficking.(fn25) According to research completed in 2008 and sponsored by the U.S. government, "approximately 800,000 people are trafficked across national borders," and this staggering figure is not including those trafficked within their own countries.(fn26)

In 2011, the State Department released a report showing numerous countries that were not doing enough to combat trafficking in their countries.(fn27) Some of the countries on the list are Algeria, Cambodia, Bolivia, Curacao, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.(fn28) In some countries trafficking has led to governmental corruption and organized crime.(fn29) This corruption of politicians and law enforcement officials is crucial for mass trafficking of women and children to be successful.(fn30)

One might think that our global community would be outraged over the atrocious acts being committed against children, but as a whole, our global community has remained silent. And as such, children continue to be brutalized, beaten, dehumanized, raped, and trafficked across country lines. There are many reasons that this happens. Two common sources of sexual exploitation of children are exploitation by a family member or exploitation by the country itself through a corrupt government.(fn31) one of the main reasons that children are the chosen targets of trafficking is that there is no consensus of the definition of "child" among the countries.(fn32) If countries are not able to determine or verify victims' ages, it is even more difficult to protect children from trafficking because their consent becomes an issue.(fn33)

Another reason trafficking occurs is poverty within a country. The lack of resources within a country harbors vulnerability of persons and the people are not adequately protected.(fn34) Those victims who lack monetary resources to escape their situations are ultimately "stuck" and easy "prey" for the traffickers.(fn35) Poverty is not the only reason for being easy prey. often times trafficking gangs take advantage of women and children who are traveling by arranging for travel documents, such as passports and visas, to be confiscated.(fn36) The victims are then left stranded in a foreign country without money or proper travel documentation and are forced into prostitution to work off their debt.(fn37) This, many times, is a debt so inflated and fabricated, that it may take years to work off.

Asian countries are particularly popular in the sexual tourism category; countries such as China and Japan are at the top of the sex trafficking lists for markets for women. Around 225,000 people are trafficked out of South Asia each year.(fn38)

Japan provides the largest market for the trafficking of Asian women for sexual purposes.(fn39) Approximately 150,000 non-Japanese women work as prostitutes in Japan.(fn40) Accordingly, "[t]he Japanese government disseminated 500,000 copies of a brochure in many languages for trafficking victims seeking help and 25,000 that describe the link between prostitution and sex trafficking."(fn41)

Thailand is another country that has a high rate of women being forced into the sex industry. The difference between Thailand and other Asian countries is the amount of children forced to become prostitutes. Many men, women, and children are trafficked from Cambodia, Laos, and Burma to Thailand for both sexual and labor exploitation.(fn42) The Thai government enacted the Prostitution Prevention and Suppression Act(fn43) in 1996 in order to arrest the scourge of forced prostitution and trafficking.(fn44) This law criminalized those involved in the sexual exploitation of men, women, and children.(fn45) Penalties for trafficking in children ranged according to the victims' ages.(fn46) As of 2008, if a child is fifteen to eighteen years old, the penalty ranges from six to twelve years plus a fine.(fn47) If the victim is less than fifteen years of age, the offender runs the risk of being jailed for eight to fifteen years plus a fine.(fn48) Between September 2005 and February 2007, the Thai government reported eighty-eight arrests in cases against traffickers.(fn49) The Thai government provides shelters for trafficking victims in which the victims can receive board, food, counseling, and medical care.(fn50)

One of the many positives of the Trafficking in Persons Report, which is produced yearly by the United States government, is the information that it makes available regarding trafficking in various...