Human Trafficking: What a Perfected Business!
A lot of us think that success had come in the beginning of
the 1800’s with the demise of the transatlantic slave trade, but
pretty tragically, the incidence of slavery is more pervasive now,
than ever before. There are an estimated 27 mm. slaves in the world
today, more than at any other time in history. It is predicted that
most of these slaves are women, and that 50% are children. The
iinstitution of slavery has penetrated every part of the earth.
Slavery has a face in the child sweating over a loom in Mexico, the
little boy brandishing a machine gun in Uganda, the young girl forced
to have sex with ten men a night in Thailand, and the domestic servant
down your street. While slavery is a far-reaching criminal
institution, it is not one with homogenous criminal actions. Some
victims are forcibly kidnapped. but the majorities are trapped into
entering the industry.
Through years of experience study, and practice, traffickers
in this criminal industry have perfected the deceptive and coercive
act of enslaving free individuals. Common techniques for securing
potential slaves include: offering lucrative jobs such as
housekeeping, bartending, or modeling, offering job opportunities in
desirable locations such as America, or claiming to provide an
opportunity for a child to pull his or her family out of poverty. But
the actions and rhetoric used to gain the trust of victims is not
uniform across the world. The facade varies based on culture,
socio-economic circumstance, and context of the targeted individual.
There is a large misconception that women independently
choose to enter the sex trade. How then does a person allow him or
herself to become a slave? What factors are taken into account when
attempting to coerce someone into slavery. How do culture,
socio-economic circumstance, and context influence the persuasive
rhetoric used by human traffickers? And then, once lured into this
industry, how do traffickers keep their victims under control? There
is a need to address these questions by focusing on the sex trade
industry. Scholarship must further explore the rhetoric used to entice
victims into the sex trade and then the guises used to keep them
there. Gaining a better understanding of the techniques used to
ensnare victims is crucial in order to most effectively combat this
criminal institution.
Modern day slavery is not a homogenous business operating
with the same tactics in every area of the world. Sex traffickers
have perfected the art of coercive rhetoric based on culture,
socio-economic circumstances, and context of their targeted victims.
In order for the modern-day abolitionst movement to succeed, we must
also be used to these differences, and keep them in the forefront when
planning preventative measures and aftercare programs. Many leaders
have taken steps to address cultural, circumstantial, and contextual
disparities in Europe and in Asia. In Europe, commercials and radio
advertisements are aired to caution women of deceptively appealing job
off ers as models, housekeepers, and bartenders, and to also be leery
of any job offer in America. In Asia, different strategies are at
work. In Asia, corrupt governments and a very different culture makes
public ads ineffective. As a result, leaders addressing sex slavery
in Asia focus their attention on preventively lifting up the image of
women in society and then attempt to aggressively rehabilitate their
victims in the face of their forced actions that Asian culture and
family may find shameful. There is still much room for improved
methods of prevention, and more effective systems of aftercare.
Traffickers have had much time to perfect their deceptive and coercive
rhetoric to enslave millions of women and children. It is time that
we do the same to come to their rescue.
© 2010, Arihant Jain. All rights reserved.