Human Trafficking in The United States?

By: Gabie Hart

Human trafficking (referred to by many as a form of modern-day slavery), usually involves at least one of the following—forced labor or sexual exploitation of individuals. Human trafficking is a human rights abuse that is not limited to any region of the world, as it occurs worldwide.

Nations, including the United States, along with international governmental organizations as well as non-governmental organizations have in recent years attempted to bring attention and awareness to this inhumane and horrific abuse with the purpose of stopping and preventing it from occurring. The United States has estimated that between 600,000 and 800,000 persons are trafficked across international borders each year.1

Most recently a Washington Post article has chronicled the United States most recent attempts to combat human trafficking on U.S. soil. Apparently, in 1999 a CIA analyst estimated that approximately 50,000 victims a year were entering the United States.2

Human trafficking turned out to be an issue both Democrats and Republicans believed warranted action. In 2000 Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act which broadened the scope of the definition of trafficking to include victims of not only physical violence or restraints, but also psychological abuse.3

Since 2000, the United States Government has spent $150 million to combat the trafficking of humans.4 It would be fair to estimate that if the 1999 estimate were correct then from 2000 through 2007 some 350,000 victims should have entered the United States. However, despite millions of dollars and relentless efforts by activists and administration efforts, including the hiring of a public relations firm (which was hired because the Bush administration viewed the human trafficking issue in the United States as urgent), only 1,362 victims have been identified since 2000.5

In 2004, the numbers were re-analyzed and the estimate was lowered to approximately 14,500-17,500 trafficking victims being brought into the United States annually.6

Ronald Weitzer, a criminologist at George Washington University and an expert on sex trafficking explained that some of the disparity in the numbers may be attributable to victims’ fear of coming forward, but that would only account for a small amount of the disparity.7

The vast disparity in numbers combined with the extensive effort by the United States government to identify the victims begs the question of whether human trafficking on United States soil was an overstated problem or are the victims really that hard to find—maybe it’s a combination of the two?

If the disparity is due to the United States overstating the problem, then that would be cause for other nations to worry about how many people are being trafficked on their own soil. The United States is supposed to be a technologically advanced country and if the Untied States is unable to accurately estimate the amount of human trafficking that occurs in their country, how are other countries who might have equal technology or less sophisticated technology supposed to accurately assess the human trafficking problem, and further do other countries have millions of dollars available to expend toward a problem that may or may not be overstated.

If the disparity is due to victims being too afraid to come forward, then that would mean that victims of human trafficking are often lost to the abusive trade—never surfacing again having been left with no way out. Since the United States is fairly advanced technologically, and is unable to find these victims—what hope do victims have in other regions of the world where resources might not be available and technology might not be as advanced.

Overall, the problem of human trafficking remains a global issue. The United States, however, clearly needs to re-evaluate the situation in their country, determine how these disparities occurred, what the money was spent on, and how best to identify victims in the United States.

Sources:

1. United States Joins U.N. Anti-Trafficking Protocol: Action coincides with International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, Dec 1, 2005, available at http://usinfo.state.gov/gi/Archive/2005/Dec/02-14621.html.
2. Jerry Markon, Human Trafficking Evokes Outrage, Little Evidence: U.S. Estimates Thousands of Victims, But Efforts to Find Them Fall Short, Wash. Post., Sept. 23, 2007, available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/22/AR2007092201401.html.
3. Id.
4. Id.
5. Id.
6. Id.
7. Id.