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Sex trafficking on Native American reservations in the United States began in the 18th century, as the American Revolution with its patterns of relocation, chaos, and conquest of Native American populations, inspired periods of instability for years to come. This instability would then cause cycles of generational trauma which created increased vulnerability to substance abuse, violence, poverty, and child neglect, therefore, increasing their susceptibility to sex trafficking. During the United States's periods of rapid modernization in the 19th–20th centuries, this vulnerability to sexual violence and trafficking heightened as Native populations were being pushed into the sex trade by traffickers from neighboring cities who preyed on these vulnerabilities and would promise a better future to their victims. During the modern era, attempts to decrease the rate at which Indigenous women and girls were sold into the sex trade were stagnant due to the lack of reporting and unclear jurisdiction regarding prosecuting sex traffickers.
During the late 18th century the American Revolution inspired a period of conquest, colonization, ongoing warfare, enslavement, and relocation of Indigenous populations. [1] Ravishing through Native land colonizers would often buy and sell Indigenous women and children for sex. Many soldiers demanded sexual favors from the Native women, sexually assaulted them, and sold them for sex. [2] In the eyes of the colonizers, they were seen as "prostitutes that existed to be sexually used". [1] When enslaved, these Indigenous women were sold into the sex trade and trapped into a cycle of non-consensual sexual activities.
Following the period of rapid colonization, Indigenous populations were forced to relocate to isolated locations. [1] This forced relocation disrupted the daily lives of the Native populations and caused widespread instability among them including increased poverty and homelessness. As a result, many Indigenous parents were unable to properly house, feed, clothe, and support their children, causing a further cycle of instability across generations. [1]
Intergenerational trauma is defined as "a traumatic event that began years prior to the current generation and has impacted in ways in which individuals within a family understand, cope with, and heal from the trauma". [3] Due to patterns of forced relocation, racism, and sexual violence towards Indigenous populations, remnants of those misfortunes have transcribed into further vulnerabilities. Following colonization, the lives of Indigenous individuals were disrupted, causing instability that would be felt for generations to come. The systematic racism and disruption caused stress among Native families that lead to dysfunctional circumstances in their home lives. [4] Some of these dysfunctions included increased drug and alcohol use, domestic violence, depression, PTSD, and neglect of children. These patterns of dysfunction traveled across generations as cycles of abuse, neglect, and overall struggles became commonplace. [4]
As a result of these dysfunctions, Native teens and women were at high risk for sexual violence and sex trafficking. With increasing levels of substance abuse, poverty, and trauma, Indigenous parents would often neglect their parental duties, pushing many teens into the sex industry and increasing their vulnerability of being trafficked due to financial struggle and overall lack of guidance. [4] This lack of guidance also caused teens to be unaware and caused teens to be easily manipulated by traffickers, who would often make promises of financial stability and a better life, knowing the dysfunctional home lives of the Indigenous teens. [3] [5]
Through the emergence of modernization, increased infrastructure, and urbanization of once-rural areas, in the late 19th through 21st centuries the vulnerability of Indigenous populations in situations of sexual violence and sex trafficking heightened. Oftentimes, large cities and companies would be placed near already established reservations, exposing Natives to the mainstream Western societies that they were once isolated from. Urban areas and cities placed near reservations were are often filled with a large surplus of unmarried men who were now in have proximity to Indigenous women and girls. [6] As a result, this created a huge market for sex as these men would often not have any other access to a large supply of women. These men would frequently gamble, drink, and attend bars and casinos, while the Native women, who often lived in impoverished circumstances, would offer sexual services to these men at the local bars, gas stations, and casinos to survive and purchase basic necessities. [7]
This blend of two once separated worlds also involved the forced removal of Native American women and girls out of their homes on reservations, and into the sex trade. [8] With such a large market of sex buyers that the neighboring cities provided, sex traffickers saw an opportunity to make a large income off of the surplus of vulnerable women and girls on these reservations. Men from the cities would enter the reservations, purchase young girls, and sell them into the sex trade. Due to the high levels of poverty on these reservations, the parents of these girls were forced to cooperate because they needed the money for survival. [9]
Patterns of sex trafficking are common in Midwest states such as North and South Dakota that have large fracking camps and oil companies placed near reservations. These large labor forces of often unmarried men, bring in a large demand for sex work as well as a high rate of sexual violence against Native women and girls. Oftentimes, men from these camps would enter the neighboring reservations and sexually assault and rape the women on them. Traffickers also began to see the large market that these camps provided and an incentive to lure Native women off of reservations and into the sex market to be sold to these men for profit. [3] This pattern of sexual violence and sex trafficking of Native women and girls disrupted the entire dynamic of these reservations. Exposure to the outside, modernized world caused increased drug and alcohol consumption of these Native populations, especially since a common tactic for these traffickers was to get their victims addicted to hard substances, making it nearly impossible for them to escape. [8] This increased addiction added more instability to the already fragile Native population. Neighboring cities also exposed the Native populations to technology that was once foreign to them. Often the women on the reservations would use websites such as escort dating sites and Backpage to find dates for sex, as well as pimps using those sites to further victimize the Native women they put into the sex trade. [6] Initially, the idea of sex trafficking was foreign to the Native populations, as they had never seen such a practice before encountering the modernization of the neighboring cities, so they often did not recognize that what was being done to them was wrong. To them, they saw it as women selling sex, rather than women being forced into a dangerous trade. [8]
The high levels of poverty, homelessness, substance abuse, and unstable home lives made Native populations vulnerable to the advances of sex traffickers. They became easy targets of the sex trade. [10] Oftentimes, the pimps will recognize an Indigenous person in an unstable home life such as extreme poverty or an abusive family and will promise safety and a stable income, using words such as a "modeling career" or the "entertainment industry" to hide the sexual nature of the sex trade. [2] Pimps will also seduce Native girls into the sex trade by pretending to be their love interest and grooming them into the full trust of their trafficker, trapping them into the sex trade. [9] They will target particularly vulnerable girls with unstable home lives, as they are much easier to manipulate and more desperate to escape their home situations. [10] The traffickers will then drug and habitually rape and beat their victims, while also stealing their personal identification so that escaping the sex trade becomes nearly impossible. [10] Oftentimes, these women will not even recognize that they have been trafficked due to manipulation by their pimps, lessening the chances of them ever becoming free.
High rates of sex trafficking and sexual violence against Indigenous women and girls have been an ongoing problem with very little improvement occurring. Historically, Native American women have been left out of the conversation regarding sex trafficking and sexual violence that has disproportionately served minority populations, especially Natives who have come to be extremely isolated by society. [1] As a result, Native women are less likely to report sexual crimes they experience to the police, leading to the low rate of crimes being reported, relative to the large rate of sexual crimes being committed. [1] Their long history of wrongdoings at the hands of the American government and officials has inspired a deep distrust in law enforcement of Native American populations. [5] This in turn, causes more sex trafficking and sex crimes to occur because they are simply not being reported as they are happening. [1] Due to the high vulnerability of these Indigenous populations, victims are also afraid to come forward out of fear of retaliation from their traffickers such as physical abuse, threats, and removal of their basic needs that their pimps often provided. [7]
Reservation law enforcement makes it difficult to prosecute sexual crimes. After the 1978 supreme court case, Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe , it became illegal for non-Natives to be tried under tribal laws, even if the crime occurred on tribal land. This made it very difficult for real justice to be served to these trafficking victims because sex traffickers tended to overwhelmingly be non-native, and even when the perpetrators are Native members, the maximum sentence that tribal law can impose is three years. [10] With such little deterrence, non-Native traffickers could easily recruit Native women and girls into the sex trade. [5] As a result, investigations and prosecutions of trafficking by non-Natives on reservations are handled by the BIA and FBI. However, real justice is rarely ever served. These organizations are severely understaffed and therefore, rarely give direct or through legal assistance. [7] The investigators from these organizations are often less concerned with the case and are not socially or cognitively connected to the community, leading to the increased distrust of Native populations towards law enforcement, and the decreased rate of reporting of sexual crimes. [3]
Child prostitution is prostitution involving a child, and it is a form of commercial sexual exploitation of children. The term normally refers to prostitution of a minor, or person under the legal age of consent. In most jurisdictions, child prostitution is illegal as part of general prohibition on prostitution.
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) defines the “umbrella” of crimes and activities that involve inflicting sexual abuse on to a child as a financial or personal opportunity. Commercial Sexual Exploitation consists of forcing a child into prostitution, sex trafficking, early marriage, child sex tourism and any other venture of exploiting children into sexual activities. According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the lack of reporting the crime and “the difficulties associated with identifying and measuring victims and perpetrators” has made it almost impossible to create a national estimate of the prevalence of Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the United States. There is an estimated one million children that are exploited for commercial sex globally; of the one million children that are exploited, the majority are girls.
Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It has been called a form of modern slavery because of the way victims are forced into sexual acts non-consensually, in a form of sexual slavery. Perpetrators of the crime are called sex traffickers or pimps—people who manipulate victims to engage in various forms of commercial sex with paying customers. Sex traffickers use force, fraud, and coercion as they recruit, transport, and provide their victims as prostitutes. Sometimes victims are brought into a situation of dependency on their trafficker(s), financially or emotionally. Every aspect of sex trafficking is considered a crime, from acquisition to transportation and exploitation of victims. This includes any sexual exploitation of adults or minors, including child sex tourism (CST) and domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST).
Prostitution in Colombia is legal, regulated and limited to brothels in designated "tolerance zones". Sex workers are required to have regular health checks. However, the laws are rarely applied and prostitution is widespread, partly due to poverty and internal displacement.
Prostitution in Ukraine is illegal but widespread and largely ignored by the government. In recent times, Ukraine has become a popular prostitution and sex trafficking destination. Ukraine is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children trafficked transnationally for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. Ukraine's dissolution from the Soviet Union, saw the nation attempt to transition from a planned economy to a market economy. The transition process inflicted economic hardship in the nation, with nearly 80% of the population forced into poverty in the decade that followed its independence. Unemployment in Ukraine was growing at an increasing rate, with female unemployment rising to 64% by 1997. The economic decline in Ukraine made the nation vulnerable and forced many to depend on prostitution and trafficking as a source of income. Sex tourism rose as the country attracted greater numbers of foreign tourists.
Human trafficking in Canada is prohibited by law, and is considered a criminal offence whether it occurs entirely within Canada or involves the "transporting of persons across Canadian borders. Public Safety Canada (PSC) defines human trafficking as "the recruitment, transportation, harbouring and/or exercising control, direction or influence over the movements of a person in order to exploit that person, typically through sexual exploitation or forced labour. It is often described as a modern form of slavery."
Rates of crime in Guatemala are very high. An average of 101 murders per week were reported in 2018. The countries with the highest crime and violence rates in Central America are El Salvador and Honduras. In the 1990s Guatemala had four cities feature in Latin America's top ten cities by murder rate: Escuintla, Izabal (127), Santa Rosa Cuilapa (111) and Guatemala City (101). According to New Yorker magazine, in 2009, "fewer civilians were reported killed in the war zone of Iraq than were shot, stabbed, or beaten to death in Guatemala," and 97% of homicides "remain unsolved." Much of the violent nature of Guatemalan society stems back to a 36-year-long civil war However, not only has violence maintained its presence in the post-war context of the country following the Guatemalan Civil War, but it has extended to broader social and economic forms of violence.
Sex trafficking in Thailand is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Kingdom of Thailand. Thailand is a country of origin, destination, and transit for sex trafficking. The sexual exploitation of children in Thailand is a problem. In Thailand, close to 40,000 children under the age of 16 are believed to be in the sex trade, working in clubs, bars, and brothels.
Prostitution in Kosovo is illegal, and can incur a prison sentence of up to sixty days. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria's HIV Program in Kosovo estimated there to be 5,037 prostitutes in the country. Many women turn to prostitution through poverty.
Human trafficking in Nepal is a growing criminal industry affecting multiple other countries beyond Nepal, primarily across Asia and the Middle East. Nepal is mainly a source country for men, women and children subjected to the forced labor and sex trafficking. U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 2" in 2017.
Human trafficking is the trade of humans, most commonly for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. Mexico is a large source, transit, and destination country for victims of human trafficking.
China is a main source and also a significant transit and destination country for men, women, and children who are subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labour and forced prostitution. Women and children from China are trafficked to Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America, predominantly Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour. Women and children from Myanmar, Vietnam, Mongolia, former USSR, North Korea, Romania, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Ghana are trafficked to China for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour.
Sex trafficking is defined as the transportation of persons by means of coercion, deception and/or forced into exploitative and slavery-like conditions and is commonly associated with organized crime.
Human trafficking in Texas is the illegal trade of human beings as it occurs in the state of Texas. It is a modern-day form of slavery and usually involves commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor, both domestic and agricultural.
Sex trafficking in the United States is a form of human trafficking which involves reproductive slavery or commercial sexual exploitation as it occurs in the United States. Sex trafficking includes the transportation of persons by means of coercion, deception and/or force into exploitative and slavery-like conditions. It is commonly associated with organized crime.
Human Trafficking or "trafficking in persons" is the recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for mainly the purposes of forced labor or prostitution. Other reasons for human trafficking are the removal of organs, forced marriage, and other exploitations. South America is one of the biggest source and destination locations in the world and has struggled with the issue for many years. The ILO estimates that of the 20.9 million victims of human trafficking in 2012, 1.8 million were from Latin America. There are many factors that cause human trafficking, like a high demand for domestic servants, sex laborers, and factory workers, the existence of already established trafficking networks that often take advantage of young women and children, corruption in the governments and local law enforcement agencies, a governmental disinterest in the issue and a lack of opportunity for women in South American regions where trafficking occurs. People exploited in human trafficking are often impoverished, members of indigenous peoples, unemployed, victims of abuse, illiterate, substance users, homeless, or involved in gang activity. Research by the United States Department of State has also found that LGBTQ+ people are vulnerable to human trafficking. By far, sex trafficking is the leading type of human trafficking, making up 79 percent of all human trafficking. This is then followed by forced labor at 18 percent. About 20 percent of trafficking victims are children. Primary destinations for trafficking and illegal immigration are the United States, Spain, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Canada. Globalization, capitalism and societal attitudes facilitate and reduce the barriers to human trafficking.
Violence against women in the United States is the use of domestic abuse, murder, sex-trafficking, rape and assault against women in the United States. It has been recognized as a public health concern. Culture in the United States has led towards the trivialization of violence towards women, with media in the United States possibly contributing to making women-directed violence appear unimportant to the public.
Sex trafficking in China is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the People's Republic of China. It is a country of origin, destination, and transit for sexually trafficked persons.
Sex trafficking in Myanmar is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Myanmar is primarily a source and transit country for sexually trafficked persons.
Sex trafficking in South Korea is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Republic of Korea. South Korea is a country of origin, destination, and transit for sexually trafficked persons. Sex trafficking victims in the country are from South Korea and foreigners.