Anyone can become a victim of human trafficking. That’s a scary declaration to make, but it’s unfortunately true. It can happen in any community, to any age, any race, any gender, and any nationality.
Every year, millions of men, women, and children are trafficked worldwide — including right under our noses in the United States. According to Homeland Security, human trafficking is the second largest profitable transnational crime, involving adults using coercion and forcing someone into prostitution, labor, or even forced marriage. Annually, human trafficking produces billions of dollars in profit.
Many people think that human trafficking means a person has been forcefully taken from one country to another. However, human trafficking also occurs here in the United States from state to state. People may be considered trafficking victims regardless of whether they were born into a state of servitude, were exploited in their home town, were transported to an abusive situation, previously consented to work for a trafficker, or participated in a crime as a direct result of being trafficked.
Just as there is no one type of trafficking victim, perpetrators of this crime also differ. Traffickers can be family members, partners, acquaintances, and strangers. Traffickers can be pimps, gang members, business owners, foreign nationals, and even celebrities. They can act alone or as part of a well-organized criminal operation. Many people often assume that all traffickers are men; however, the United States has prosecuted cases against women traffickers.
It’s difficult coming to terms with the fact that slavery is not a thing of the past. Slavery today may look different from slavery of the Transatlantic slave trade, but modern slavery — as a term — takes many forms, including human trafficking and people being born into slavery. Slavery of the past was an accepted economic practice, but today, human trafficking is criminal activity. Slavery in history systematically exploited specific groups of people. Today, anyone can become a victim.
Modern slavery is oftentimes hidden in plain sight. People can become enslaved making our clothes, serving our food, working in factories, or working in houses as cooks and nannies. Victims of modern slavery can face violence or threats, be forced into inescapable debt, or have their passport taken away and face being threatened with deportation. There are many who have fallen into this trap because they were trying to escape poverty and improve their lives to support their families. Now, they can’t get out.
Black women, girls, and gender nonconforming people are disproportionately affected as victims/survivors of trafficking. They are often not acknowledged as victims at all, even though Black women make up 40 percent of people who have survived sex trafficking. Black youth comprise 51 percent of all prostitution arrests for those under age 18 — more than any other racial group.
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this situation by causing more people into debt while putting workers at greater health risk. At the same time, there was an urgent demand for face masks and gloves, which led some companies to adopt coercive labor practices to rush manufacturing. The painful truth is that when there is a crisis such as a global pandemic, the first thing to go is the rights of the people who are most vulnerable and least visible.
In contrast to the slavery we know, today’s slaveholders mainly exploit people of their own race. But as in the past, they use violence and threats to force people to labor for no pay. What also hasn’t changed is that, all too often, enslaved people are seen as disposable.
The truth is, the United States severely lacks adequate criminal punishments for people who traffic human beings. If that weren’t the case, Cyntonia Brown wouldn’t have gone to prison for more than decade. She was initially sentenced to life in prison for killing a man who bought her for sex when she was just 16 years old. Chrystul Kizer, a child trafficking victim, wouldn’t have been arrested and charged for killing her attacker. Teenager Pieper Lewis was repeatedly abused by multiple men and fatally stabbed one of them in 2020. An Iowa court sentenced her to probation and she was ordered to pay $150,000 to her abuser’s family.
These cases represent victims — Black teenage girls — being punished rather than protected. There are only 28 states and the District of Columbia that have full or partial safe harbor laws, which are designed to reduce the criminalization of child and youth sex trafficking victims. They are supposed to prevent children from being arrested, detained, charged, and prosecuted, but only in a state that recognizes the laws. In my opinion, these laws fail because most children are still piped through the juvenile justice system, which just adds to their trauma.
For Pieper Lewis, Iowa is not among the states with a so-called safe harbor law. The decision to prosecute a child sends a clear message to Black women, girls, and gender nonconforming people that the law does not protect them — and if they try to protect themselves, they will pay a severe price. It’s a pattern that punishes the victims rather than the perpetrators.
I believe the first step is actually educating people about human trafficking and what modern slavery looks like, including what victims have to do in order to survive. It should be a given for every state to have laws that actually protect victims and not punish them. Judges have to possess greater understanding and empathy; these are victims that need help not punishment.
What can you do to help stop human trafficking? Start where you are by volunteering and supporting anti-trafficking efforts in your community. Also, businesses can provide jobs, internships, skills training, and other opportunities to trafficking survivors. College students can take action on campus by joining or establishing a university club to raise awareness about human trafficking and initiate action.
Behind every trafficking victim and survivor is a human being. They are not a bad person, they are not the perpetrator, they are not a delinquent. They are not someone who has chosen this life. Ending human trafficking means investing completely in the lives of human beings.
