Many believe that human trafficking has become a new form of modern slavery in today’s society. The problem of human trafficking is not far from our community, for example, in Maryland and Virginia members of the gang MS-13 were sentenced to life in prison for sex trafficking of minors in the past (Vakulenko, 2012, P. 6). Human trafficking is serious and closer to us than what we could have imagined. Human trafficking is an organized crime that has existed in the U.S. …show more content…
for a long time, although, for some it has been and is still a well-hidden crime. It is considered an organized crime because the victims are not free to choose their destiny. Victims are subject to the command of others who completely control their time and body as a business. This implies that people are voluntary or involuntary controlled under conditions of violence in most cases to perform labor and sex services, especially women and children. Trafficking, especially sex trafficking of young girls, has become a major problem for the United States. The U.S. is one of the main destinations and pathways of human trafficking: according to State Department figures portrayed in the human trafficking website, “14,500 to 17,500 people, primarily women and children, are trafficked to the U.S. annually.” Victims usually come from places like Russia and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the United States, many of the victims are immigrants from Latin American countries who are forced to live under such awful conditions because of their illegal status in the country or do not say anything for fear of being deported. However, these figures are only an estimate, since it is actually impossible to estimate exactly how many people are bought or sold: for each recognized victim it is thought that there may be hundreds who remain unidentified. Human trafficking is fueled mainly by poverty and poor social conditions in which many people live; lack of education and jobs causes …show more content…
This type of damage can undermine their health and mental stability, making them prone to falling back into the networks of traffickers. In the U.S. law enforcement agencies such as the Department of State began monitoring human trafficking since 1994. In 2006, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act was signed into law. The Department of Homeland Security is working with other governments and institutions to raise public awareness about trafficking through campaigns that warn its citizens about this crime. The FBI, meanwhile, conducts research to recognize cases of trafficking and to find potential victims and crime-prone communities. The FBI is trying to combat this serious problem. All people in the United States have rights and are protected by the laws of the country. Freedom is one of the most important rights. Also, stronger penalties are being implemented for those convicted of