Courtesy of Spanish National Police
What do we really know about sex trafficking?
In Madrid two prostitution rings were busted this week. When a 19-year-old woman was rescued from enslavement, authorities noticed a tattoo with a barcode on her wrist. Her abductors had branded their victim with an identifying tattoo after she once tried to escape.
Sex trafficking is a modern-day form of slavery. It is defined as a commercial sex act induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act is under the age of 18 years.
Sex traffickers frequently subject their victims to debt-bondage. After abducting young women, the traffickers tell their victims that they owe money (often relating to the victims’ living expenses and transport into the country). They are then coerced to pledge their personal services to repay the debt.
Once under their control, sex traffickers use a variety of methods to “condition” their victims including starvation, confinement, beatings, physical and sexual abuse.
In the United States it is estimated that over 75,000 victims are trafficked into America for sexual servitude and that is not factoring the 100,000-300,000 American children forced into prostitution under our noses.
If you think you have come in contact with a victim of human trafficking, call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1.888.3737.888.
Here are some resource links for more information:
Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force Strategy and Operations E-Guide
Trafficking in Persons Report 2011