Human Trafficking in California Essay Example

How are you? I hope you are well. My name is [] and I am an 18-year-old student from California State University San Marcos. I come from a family of five; two sisters and both parents. My area of residency is Diamond Bar, Los Angeles County, California. I am writing this letter to raise my concerns about increased human trafficking in the state of California. California is widely renowned as a land of opportunities across the globe. However, in most cases, what seems like an opportunity to attain the American dream turns out to be a nightmare. People from poor backgrounds, for instance, young people coming from difficult circumstances, immigrant women and children are at risk of exploitation by traffickers. I chose human trafficking because in my area around summer time there had been an increase of human traffickers in what looked like regular people hanging out in regular areas like school campuses.

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Human trafficking is an illegal business that derives profits from enslaving people for forced labor and sexual servitude. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, human trafficking is the second largest criminal industry in the world and is growing at a fast pace (Page & Piatt, 2016). It is tied with illegal arms trade and second after drug trafficking. The trafficking of human beings exists in the entire continental United States but it California is a hot spot for international and domestic trafficking due to the various ports of entry. Since human trafficking is insidious and widespread, traffickers prey on the vulnerable in the society. Domestically, trafficking victims are runaway girls and boys with the experience of sexual abuse as children. As such, the average age of minors in the US is between 12 and 14 years (Page & Piatt, 2016). Notably, these children come from broken foster care and families and run away to find love and acceptance. On the other hand, foreigners are also brought into the US for enslaved labor or commercial sex via fraud or force. The anonymity and prevalence of the internet have promoted the rapid growth of human trafficking simplifying the trade of women and children than before while at the same time making it hard for law enforcement officers to track and arrest traffickers.

Los Angeles County is one of the areas affected by human trafficking in California. In 2017, 200 human trafficking cases reported by the Los Angeles County district attorney's office (Bermudez & Mejia, 2018). According to Jackie Lacey, the District Attorney, human trafficking is not confined to Los Angeles County but the victims are shuffled from county to county. Human trafficking denies individuals their basic human right and should be condemned and perpetrators arrested and charged for their criminal activities. Once women and children fall victims to trafficking, the criminals manage what they eat, where to sleep and what to wear. Some victims are also drugged so that they can participate in commercial sex. For example, traffickers with a stable of five girls can earn up to $800, 000 a year (Bermudez & Mejia, 2018). With this note, individuals should not amass illegal wealth at the expense of others. It saddens me to read about human trafficking cases and to see suspicious individuals in my community preying for vulnerable victims.

Traffickers exploit or take advantage of the broken environment of victims to promise them false promises of attaining the American dream. Foreigners are groomed but once they are victims, they are subjected to sexual and physical abuse to make them submit. The most brutal aspect of human trafficking is the commercial exploitation of children for sex. Sadists believe that sexual encounters with virgins can cure them of STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) (Sanchez, 2017). These are ruthless people who do not value human life. Teenage girls are exploited to the extent of damaging their reproductive system depriving them of their natural rights to motherhood. Children are tomorrow's future and should be given an opportunity to explore their talents, gain knowledge through education and participate in the development of the community. However, sex trafficking of minors denies them the experience of childhood. Therefore, the community should work together with the police to report suspicious activities and individuals in society.

The California government passed two laws that require workers from the hotel, hospitality and transit industries to undergo training to equip them with the knowledge to identify human trafficking. The laws are scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2019 (Constante, 2018). Human trafficking has a pervasive nature that limits the law enforcement agencies from timely intervention. Therefore, including reporting from the ground is a valuable addition to the fight against trafficking. Hotel and transit workers have a unique position of identifying human trafficking activities and training them will help California fight the crime from a federal, state, county and local level (Constante, 2018). Besides this measure, police in California created bots that translated the coding script to warn traffickers that their activities are illegal because online platforms create an opportunity to sell human beings like commodities. However, these measures have not been effective in tackling the challenge of trafficking in California and the country at large. Innocent people still fall victims to the heinous crimes of trafficking. All counties in California should work hand in hand in a collaborative model to eliminate human trafficking.

Human trafficking is fueled by factors such as poverty, commercial demand for sex, social norms that indiscriminate women, globalization and the rise of the internet. Nevertheless, poverty and broken environments where victims come increases their vulnerability. On the other hand, the community has failed in reintegrating human trafficking survivors into society due to the social stigma attached to their previous lifestyle. In my opinion, the California Gov. Jerry Brown should implement community policies that fund rehabilitation of human trafficking survivors. Social isolation is one of the reasons that drive victims back to commercial sex (Sanchez, 2017). Therefore, prostitution brothels should be crossed down in California to combat sexual exploitation. Most importantly, the governor should focus on the education sector by encouraging education stakeholders to include modern slavery in their curriculum since traffickers target school children.

I hope this letter finds you well and would appreciate your Response. Thanks.

Sincerely,

[Sender's Name]

References

Bermudez, E., & Mejia, B. (January 30, 2018). Human trafficking crackdown nets more than 500 arrests statewide. Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ln-human-trafficking-20180130-story.html

Constante, A. (October 2, 2018). New California laws target human trafficking with transit, workers. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/new-california-laws-target-human-trafficking-transit-hotel-workers-n915796

Page, C. T., & Piatt, B. (2016). Human Trafficking. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.

Sanchez, S. K. (2017). Sex trafficking in the United States: Theory, research, policy and practice. Journal of Human Trafficking, 4(2), 188-189. Doi:10.1080/23322705.2017.1293463