Wednesday, September 26, 2007
The Sept. 23 front-page article "Human Trafficking Evokes Outrage, Little Evidence" gave substantial space to the tragic crime of human trafficking, but it left readers without a clear understanding of why the number of prosecuted cases is so low.
Human trafficking crimes are underreported for a variety of reasons. Many police investigators are not aware of the federal anti-trafficking law and how to use it. Many view women involved in the sex industry as deserving of their fate and feel that law enforcement officials have more important crimes to pursue. And how many police officers know that a minor working in the sex industry is by definition a trafficking victim?
Prosecutions are an inaccurate measure of human enslavement and exploitation because the crimes are hidden, the perpetrators decentralized and victims ashamed or afraid to speak out; and building cases is extremely expensive and time-consuming.
Such crimes are about victims whose lives are destroyed. It's not about the numbers.
SALLY W. STOECKER
Washington
The writer was lead researcher and writer, from 2005 to 2007, at Shared Hope International, which works to end sex trafficking.
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Regarding "Human Trafficking Evokes Outrage, Little Evidence":
While any form of slavery or coerced migration, particularly of minors, is morally abhorrent, public policy must be evidence-based.
Moral panic evoked by groups with vested interests has been hijacking government policy around the world, as did the white-slavery crusade of the late 19th century. This not only diverts resources but stifles rational debate about the very real problems regarding the safety, health and welfare of those in the sex industry.
As the article pointed out, there are very few facts to support the astonishing claims of the anti-trafficking movement, which has successfully inflated and conflated very different concepts with a zeal that clouds judgment.
The migration of sex workers has been confused with trafficking, and trafficking has been confused with prostitution. The campaign succeeds by making connections that are simply not there. In the end, by obscuring the real issues, it hurts those it claims to help.
MICHAEL GOODYEAR
Halifax, Canada
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A larger point needs to be made about human trafficking in America:
Domestic sex trafficking involves some of our most vulnerable girls. Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS) of New York asserts that the average age of entry into prostitution is 12 and that 90 percent of young women involved in prostitution were sexually abused as children.
Whether or not these numbers are correct, GEMS does provide services to sexually exploited young women ages 12 to 21. One sexually exploited young girl is one too many.
DAN BROOK
Alexandria
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The real problem with inflated numbers for trafficking victims is that they create pressure for a quick policy fix. But human trafficking is intertwined with larger issues of immigration policy, poverty reduction, access to education, workers' rights (on farms, in restaurants and as domestic help), women's rights, and official corruption. Rather than tackle this briar patch, the tendency has been to call it all "sex trafficking" and stage splashy raids on brothels.
Such "rescues" not only fail to stop human trafficking, they also sweep up and demonize sex workers who have entered the trade on their own, driving them underground and closing off the opportunity to recruit them as allies against trafficking.
SAPNA PATEL
Staff Attorney
Sex Workers Project
Urban Justice Center
New York
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