Reflections and Experiences with the Human Trafficking Awareness Group
Before getting started on this project I had the idea that human trafficking was not a big problem if at all in the U.S. What we stand for as a nation just doesn’t allow for stuff like this to happen in our boarders yet it still happens. I was shocked when I went to a presentation at all the statistics of human trafficked victims that were being given to me. I knew it was big but I never imagined how big it was until I went to the presentation. I was especially shocked to learn that the United States was one of the primary destinations for sex trafficker offenders to send their victims. Listening to their presentations I was wondering why more people don’t know about trafficking in persons. Then I realized that it is because of how they conceal this modern day slavery of people. For some of the victims they are hidden right under our noses. For example hookers are mostly sex trafficked victims. To most people including myself I thought that it was their choice to be in that line of work. I did think they had problems and selling their body was their only choice to survive, but it never accrued to me that they were being forced to have sex against their will.
From what I got from the presentation, what keeps this so well hidden is the fact that people don’t give much thought to hookers in general. In the media and games they appear to be people who love sex and do it for the money to survive instead of working in other places. Reinforcing the idea that it is their choice. When you hear a police report that includes hookers it is usually that they were getting arrested for “helping” spread drugs or for doing other bad things. If they turn up dead nobody really care about them, and are just looked over often with the thought that it was there fault for getting into that line of work. With the government prosecuting them all the time just makes it harder for people to see them as slaves to their pimps. Not only are the cops against them but religious organizations also add to the misconception. They prosecute them whenever they see them instead of helping. With all this put together we get the idea that they are bad people who are going to hell and probably deserves what they get. Without taking a closer look at the situation there is no wonder why people don’t know this is happening in this country.
Before getting started on this project I had the idea that human trafficking was not a big problem if at all in the U.S. What we stand for as a nation just doesn’t allow for stuff like this to happen in our boarders yet it still happens. I was shocked when I went to a presentation at all the statistics of human trafficked victims that were being given to me. I knew it was big but I never imagined how big it was until I went to the presentation. I was especially shocked to learn that the United States was one of the primary destinations for sex trafficker offenders to send their victims. Listening to their presentations I was wondering why more people don’t know about trafficking in persons. Then I realized that it is because of how they conceal this modern day slavery of people. For some of the victims they are hidden right under our noses. For example hookers are mostly sex trafficked victims. To most people including myself I thought that it was their choice to be in that line of work. I did think they had problems and selling their body was their only choice to survive, but it never accrued to me that they were being forced to have sex against their will.
From what I got from the presentation, what keeps this so well hidden is the fact that people don’t give much thought to hookers in general. In the media and games they appear to be people who love sex and do it for the money to survive instead of working in other places. Reinforcing the idea that it is their choice. When you hear a police report that includes hookers it is usually that they were getting arrested for “helping” spread drugs or for doing other bad things. If they turn up dead nobody really care about them, and are just looked over often with the thought that it was there fault for getting into that line of work. With the government prosecuting them all the time just makes it harder for people to see them as slaves to their pimps. Not only are the cops against them but religious organizations also add to the misconception. They prosecute them whenever they see them instead of helping. With all this put together we get the idea that they are bad people who are going to hell and probably deserves what they get. Without taking a closer look at the situation there is no wonder why people don’t know this is happening in this country.