Introduction
Sex trafficking is a crime that has been on the rise in the United States. Asia Graves is one of the young girls, who survived human trafficking. At the age of sixteen, she was lured into having sex with a man, who paid her two-hundred dollars, on the street of Boston. During that period, she was living has a destitute kid with no home, shelter, food and stability. The man was one of the men that took advantage of her vulnerabilities to exploit her sexually, and thus making her to be a sex prisoner or a prostitute. As a result of poverty she became enticed to become a commercial sex worker, not knowing the consequences of doing so. She used to meet her family occasionally as a schoolgirl during the day, but at night she became the slave to several men pretending to love her. On several occasions, Graves and her girlfriends were raped and abused by their clients while trying to resist them. Despite all these incidences, there is no national statistics that exist to show the number of trafficking victims. The good news is that President Barak Obama announced the introduction of several initiatives is intended to end the human trafficking in the entire nation. On the other hand, by undergoing all the hurdles of life, Graves turn out to be a savior for other victims of sex trafficking, having survived the trafficking herself, and worked with Fair Girls. Similarly, another girl, Katariina Rosenblatt, was sold for five-hundred and five dollars by traffickers at the age of thirteen because she was a virgin (Alcindor n. pag.).
In my point of view, many young girls and boys from poor background have become victims of the traffickers because of their vulnerabilities. Poverty is one factor that contributes to human trafficking, since young children are enticed/seduced using money and food that they need for survival. In the other words, destitute children are exposed to human trafficking because they are vulnerable to the point of accepting enticements and girls to trade in sex. Furthermore, these destitute children fall into sex traps and slavery without prior knowledge of the consequences of their action. The other factor contributing to sex trafficking is the failure of the parents to take care of their children mainly because of poverty, drug abuse, abandonment by parents, or divorce. All these factors contributed a lot to sex and many other human trafficking.
However, there are several ways of ending or reducing human trafficking. First, strict policies should be introduced in order to punish the parents that fail to take care of their children and sending them to the street to look for food. The policy would ensure that all parents are responsible in taking care of their children through provision of good food, clothing and shelter to ensure they are not lured into having sex at young age. Furthermore, the American government is required to trace and bring to book all human traffickers through the use of police officers, Interpol and the FBI. Last, but not least, the American government is required to create public awareness through the use of public campaigns against human trafficking in order to inform the society to be alert and aware of the trafficking activities. However, by creating public awareness, the public can help to trace and point out traffickers involved to the police department, and as a result discouraging them.
Works Cited
Alcindor, Yamiche. Sex trafficking in the USA hits close to home. Atlantic International University, 27 Sep. 2012. Web. 12 Jun. 2014. <http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012/09/27/human-trafficking-in-the-united-states-finds-a-home-in-the-schoolyard/57846054/1>.
