Policy Against Human Trafficking and Slavery

The definition of human trafficking has changed since the first reports in 1994. The U.S department of state began to collect reports on trafficking across borders as a severe violation of human rights. Its’ office to monitor and combat trafficking in persons originally focused on the sexual exploitation of women and girls smuggled by international prostitution. Over the years the definition has broadened to cover anyone recruited, transported, transferred, harbored, and compelled to work in prostitution, domestic service, agriculture, construction work or factory sweat shops, by means of coercion, force, abduction, fraud or deception. Any commercial sex act performed by a person under age 18 is considered human trafficking, regardless of whether force, fraud, or coercion is involved. (Karmen, 2012) Characteristics are fraudulent recruitment, exorbitant travel and recruitment fees, the withholding of the victim’s visas and other identifying documentation, controlling and limiting the victim’s movements, threatening deportation, threatening to harm the victim or his/her family, and physically harming the victim. These frequent traits of the trafficking experience can be seen in any nation regardless of geographical location or whether the nation is considered first, second, or third world. Women and girls make up 56% of persons trafficked for the purposes of forced labor while men and boys make up 44%. In terms of those trafficked for the purposes of forced commercial sexual exploitation, women and girls make up 98% and men and boys comprise 2%. Lastly, children constitute 40–50% of the overall forced labor population. (http://search.proquest)

include homeless individuals, runaway teens, displaced homemakers, refugees, job seekers, tourists, kidnap victims and drug addicts and children. After drug dealing, human trafficking is tied with arms dealing as the second largest criminal industry in the world, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human