Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2012

Abstract

Slavery is an institution that many people believe no longer exists. Slavery has not ended and there are millions of innocent victims caught in this system. This is not the slavery that was fought over in the U.S. Civil War. This form of slavery is not very different from colonial slavery-innocent people caught and trapped in this web of sex for service. Today, this form of slavery is better known as human trafficking. This is a brutal, heinous, and damaging situation that many women and children find themselves in as unwilling participants.' Most victims have little to no hope of a life of freedom and dignity. The United States is an active participant in the global sex trade.' As surprising as this may be to most Americans, victims of the global sex trade are trafficked in and out of this country on a daily basis. Most of the individuals victimized in this industry are women and children.' Practically every state in the United States has sex trafficking occurring within its borders." If there are people living in the state, there is the potential for sex trafficking. As was true with the colonial slave trade, the numbers of those enslaved in this twenty-first century slavery have increased over time. And while it is impossible to retrieve accurate figures on the numbers involved (given the clandestine nature of this business, traffickers are not forthcoming with statistics) estimates show that "the numbers of women and children [who] have been trafficked have multiplied so that they are now on par with estimates of the numbers of Africans who were enslaved in the 16th and 17th centuries."

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