Human trafficking and sex trafficking doesn’t only happen in poor third world countries, it also happens right here in the United States of America. Infants sold by their parents to traffickers who have nothing but sinister plans for these innocents. Young boys and girls who trust the adults in their lives, only to be abused and forsaken. Young women promised decent jobs, only to find out they are trapped in the sex industry and are often beaten and threatened if they dare to attempt leaving.
These disturbing lines are ripped straight from newspapers and televisions across the country:
“Hollywood is in the midst of a massive sexual abuse scandal, which can be compared to that of Jimmy Savile in Britain”, child star turned adult actor Elijah Wood has claimed.
“The Number one problem in Hollywood was and always will be pedophilia.” -Corey Feldman, During interview with ABC News
Two Lima <Ohio> men were convicted of human trafficking charges for their roles in forcing two teenage girls into sexual acts for hire, Lima Police Chief Kevin Martin and federal officials said Thursday. –-Toledo, OH. May 2017
“She worked at the local mall selling sunglasses when she was lured into prostitution after being told she would be modeling.” –Phoenix, AZ
“A middle-class fifteen-year-old girl abducted from her driveway, gang-raped, threatened with death, and sold into prostitution”.–Phoenix, AZ (Teen Girls’ Stories of Sex Trafficking in the U.S. ABC News. February 2006)
“I was four when my dad started trafficking me”–Dee Dee, Texas
“I thought he loved me”--Brittany, DFW area, Texas (Shreveport Times, Part of the USA Today Network. May 2016)
“The Keepers”--Netflix (a true documentary about pedophilia and its coverup in a Catholic school in Baltimore, Maryland)
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President Donald J. Trump Proclaimed January 2018 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Law & Justice. Issued on: December 29, 2017. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-proclaims-january-2018-national-slavery-human-trafficking-prevention-month/
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The statistics are heartwrenching. Lives forever changed. People broken. Innocence lost. Let these statistics sink in. I know it is overwhelming, but we cannot look away.
Global Trafficking:
Over 20 million victims worldwide (Polaris Project)
Total market value of over 32 billion US dollars (UN)
Over 1.2 million children trafficked each year (UNICEF)
Affects at least 161 countries worldwide (Polaris Project)
Domestic Trafficking:
Between 100,000 and 300,000 underage girls are sold for sex in the U.S. every year (US State Department)
Girls are sold for $400 an hour (Shared Hope, Int’l)
Reported trafficking cases in all 50 States (US State Department)
1 out of 5 pornographic images is of a child (US Department of Justice)
Statistics found at Women At Risk International (WAR) https://warinternational.org/understand-the-risks/
An unknown number of U.S. citizens and legal residents are trafficked within the country for sexual servitude and forced labor. Contrary to a common assumption, human trafficking is not just a problem in other countries. Cases of human trafficking have been reported in all 50 states, Washington D.C., and the U.S. territories. Victims of human trafficking can be children or adults, U.S. citizens or foreign nationals, male or female.
How Do I Identify a Victim of Human Trafficking? How Do I Report a Suspected Incidence of Human Trafficking? Click on the link below for signs and what to look for.
(Office of Safe and Healthy Students. U.S. Department of Education. https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oese/oshs/factsheet.html)
Be aware of what is going on. Don’t look away. These hurting people are everywhere. They might even be in your own hometown.
It Just Dawned On Me 