Paper Example on Human Trafficking: Millions Trafficked Illegally Each Year

Human trafficking is a criminal activity of soliciting and trade on fellow human beings for various inhuman purposes such as commercial sex work, forced labor or involuntary. While anti-human trafficking laws are stricter in some jurisdictions, they are weak in others. In most cases, the places that condone human trafficking coordinate with criminal elements in other destinations to organize, execute and hide human trafficking. Each year, millions of children, men and women are illegally moved from one country to the other across the globe, including the United States of America. Human trafficking is lucrative but unlawful businesses that generate profits worth billions of dollars per year. Human trafficking is also known as the hidden crime since the victims are always unable to seek help due to various factors such as language barrier, fear of law enforcement, or fear of reprisal from the traffickers themselves (Ibanez & Suthers, 2014). In most cases, perpetrators of human trafficking target the vulnerable in society. In this case, vulnerability denotes those who are emotionally or psychologically susceptible, economically disadvantaged, affected by natural disasters, lack social safety, or even victims of political instability. Human trafficking results in unmeasurable trauma among the victims who may perceive themselves as lesser human. Sometimes, this may contribute to tendencies of self-destruction including committing suicide or undergoing a complete depression. Due to the proliferation of the internet, human trafficking has also evolved with it and continues in utmost secrecy and unabated. It is challenging to trace and prosecute human trafficking done through the internet since the perpetrators do not have to travel to the target destination to get their victim but instead coordinate with local agents who then facilitate disguised transit of the often unsuspecting victims. For a long time, the human traffickers have been engaged in different court processes in an attempt to deliver justice to the modern slaves and those who have been illegally moved from one country to the other due to their vulnerability. The paper discusses criminal justice approaches involving human traffickers in the court system. The prosecution of human trafficking committed through the internet

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In most cases, courts serve as the primary avenues where justice is admitted, and disputes are settled. Before being taken to the courts, there is always criminal investigation as well as the activities by the law enforcement agencies to ensure that those who are involved in the drug trafficking are brought before the court with substantive evidence. Concerning human trafficking on the internet, there are different critical people in the court setting. There are those whose cases are ongoing and those who have been imprisoned for taking part in human trafficking in one way or the other. In the year 2015, there was a court process about human traffickers, Andras Janos Vass, and two others, who were accused of human trafficking by the state of Florida (Dubrawski et al., 2015). In the court processes, the state of Florida sought to attain justice for the victims who were illegally brought to the United States with the promise of getting a job but later turned to be commercial sex workers. The above mentioned human traffickers successfully convinced Hungarian men between the age of twenty and twenty-two to come to the United States to get well-paying and lucrative jobs. The defendants imported the young men to Miami, Florida. Without clearly understanding the working environment in the state of Florida, the young men were forced to engage in the commercial sex with the entire profits made in the process entirely going to the defendants. Additionally, the young men, after reaching the United States, were forced to work for over twenty hours in a day. The process of human trafficking was done over the internet whereby the victims were convinced of better opportunities through the social media platforms. In the process of trafficking, the defendants separated the victims from each other, impounded their identification and travel documents, confined them in an apartment and at the same time, used the financial manipulation to prevent the victims from seeking help or leaving the apartments where they were kept. At the same time, the traffickers monitored their communication with other people and with the family members. Through justice system, Vass, one of the defendants was found guilty of human trafficking of an adult, deriving assistance from racketeering conspiracy, prostitution, and racketeering. Through the court processes, Vass was sentenced to eleven years in the state prison.

Before the judgment on the case was made, according to the authorities, the defendants met the two men in Hungary through a website which was later proved to be GayRomeo.com Additionally, the two victims were contacted through the Facebook, the platform where they were contacted, and more information was obtained from them (Hughes, 2014). When the victim flew to the United States, they did not realize that they were going to be the victims of human trafficking and that somebody else would use them in immoral or illegal business. They know that they would only be in the United States for a few months to work legally and make thousands of dollars before returning to their homeland. Acs, Vass, and Berki, the defendants took advantage of the development in technology, and through the internet, they ran a company called "Never Sleep Inc." Through the engagement of law enforcement agencies and criminal investigators, the procedures for human trafficking and how they lure people from different countries through the use of social media and other platforms were discovered. While in Florida, the victims of human trafficking mentioned above were forced to live in a cramped one-bedroom house in an apartment while engaging in sex throughout the day and sometimes on a live web camera.

The process and considerations in determining cases of human trafficking

In most cases, when it comes to criminal activities involving human trafficking, many myths and misconceptions exist. In the process of investigation, the recognition of critical indicators in human trafficking in the first and most essential step in the identification of the victims and even the protection of their lives. Not every lead are present in the situation of human trafficking done on the internet. However, the absence of one or several signs does not necessarily prove the illegal process of human trafficking. In the court judgment processes, the prosecutor termed the act of human trafficking as absolute criminal terror. From the apartment where the victims were held, there were over eight men who were employed on doing various activities. In the process of investigation, their travel documents were seized.

Human trafficking on any platform, be it the internet or through forced transportation to the foreign land is an illegal act. The prohibition of human trafficking and slavery exists in the United States Code. These are some of the laws that address the involuntary servitude, slavery, forced labor, sex, and labor trafficking. In addition to the above criminal prohibition, there is also legislation by Congress that relates to the victims of human trafficking as well as their protection. While trying to establish justice to the victims of human trafficking, it is necessary for the courts of laws to consider the above legislation and the terms of punishment. The United States laws cite that human trafficking is a criminal act; in other words, they are recognized as the activities related to crime. In the United States, the federal government, therefore, provides for funding, as well as the procedures that are meant to prevent trafficking to the government agencies as well as other organizations concerned with the identification and termination of similar crimes. Human trafficking is an international crime in nature and affects countries in different ways across the world. Therefore, to enhance the mitigation processes, there is a need for strict policies that would ensure the arrest and prosecution of those found culpable (Ryazantsev et al., 2015). There is a need for universal laws that protects the victims and equally punish the criminals involved in the act to reduce criminal activities involving human trafficking. For instance, in the United States, there is the need to prevent sex trafficking through the strengthening of Families Act of 2014, a legislation which aims at reducing sex trafficking among the youths and in adults from the disadvantaged backgrounds.

In the case of Acs, Vass, and Berki, the presiding jury preferred seven years jail terms on the perpetrators considering the evidence that was tabled before the court. However, in many other cases, the penalty for human trafficking are often severe. In many other cases that involve human trafficking, a conviction for keeping an individual or people in peonage comes with potential fines as well as the maximum imprisonment of over twenty years in the federal prison. In some other cases, if the victims of human trafficking die or if the violation included sexual abuse, kidnapping or other aggravating factors, the maximum punishment should be life imprisonment. Therefore, going by the above levels of punishment, the judicial process in the case of Acs, Vass, and Berki was lenient. The sex trafficking of children through the use of force, fraud or coercion usually carry enhanced penalties. In many cases, the prison sentences for similar offenses carry a possible life sentence as well as the minimum of ten years imprisonment depending on the evidence and the details of the offense and the victims. In the court processes, there are laws that punish and prohibits conspiracies and attempts that relate to human trafficking. In the Acs, Vass, and Berki human trafficking case, there were diverse investigative processes involving the law enforcement agencies as well as the detectives. The process led to the acquisition of several pieces of evidence that were used in the court. The laws often order the forfeit of properties involved in the violation of the law (Heil & Nichols, 2014). In addition, the court ordered the investigation and confiscation of the proceeds gained by the human traffickers mentioned above. In the process of judgment, the court applied judgment according to the clauses for the mandatory payment of restitution to the victims. In the judgment of the above case, the victims were to receive back full amount for their losses following the ruling.

Legal interventions for human trafficking and further remedies

Human trafficking is a criminal act that goes against human rights. Also, it manipulates individual social status. And even though there are legal processes that seem to punish those involved in the activity of human trafficking, the business continues to thrive especially with the increased use of the internet (Gong, 2015). Therefore, there is a need to introduce other punishment methods that can scare away the individuals involved in the business. There are some countries that propose the death penalty mainly if the act of human trafficking have been found to grossly violate human rights. The punishment is ideal specifically if the state wants to eliminate the process of human trafficking. However, with the societal perspectives and with the development of advanced technologies, the court systems of the prosecutor may not find enough evidence to convince the court to grand capital punishment or the death penalty. Therefore, the best solution to reduce or even end human trafficking is to teach the public to be aware of the signs of human trafficking both from the c...