I recently watched a documentary called Tricked on Netflix. For those who haven’t seen this (I highly recommend you watch it), it is a documentary on human trafficking in the United States. Honestly, prior to watching it, I didn’t know much about human trafficking. I knew, of course, that it is horrible and that people are forced to do terrible things against their will, but I was not aware of how prominent of an issue it is. After watching the documentary, though, I immediately wanted to learn more and find out what I could do to help put an end to this hideous crime.
Human trafficking is defined as “a form of modern-day slavery in which traffickers use force, fraud, or coercion to control victims for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex acts or labor services against his/her will.” It affects every state in our country and every country in the world. 20.9 million people worldwide are victims of this devastating crime, which means that more people are enslaved today than there ever have been in history.
The most common form of this modern-day slavery is sex trafficking. In the United States, the largest markets for this sickening business are in California and Texas. Thankfully, in Utah the numbers are considerably lower than in most states, however this does not mean that we are in the clear. There have been 118 cases of human trafficking in Utah since 2007, which, compared to the 29,868 national cases, is low, however, it is still 118 too many.
According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, over 90% of sex slaves in the United States are women and over 30% are minors. These numbers are appalling and the worst part is they keep growing. Right now, approximately 300,000 underage girls are being sold as sex slaves and every 30 seconds another human being becomes a victim of human trafficking.
In the documentary Tricked, Danielle Douglas, a former sex slave, details her experiences in the world of human trafficking. At 17, she had just recently moved from New Jersey to attend college at Northeastern University. One night, she went to what she thought would be a party. Instead, she only found a man who looked to be in his mid-40s. He apologized for the “misunderstanding” and offered to take her to dinner. They kept in touch casually for the next couple weeks. After that, though, things suddenly changed.
“I was hanging out with him, we were going to get something to eat, so I thought, and I ended up in Chinatown where he basically shoved me out of the car and told me to make money for him,” Douglass said. She then went on to tell of how she tried to hide in an alley to figure out what to do, but was found by the pimp, who then beat her and told her that if she didn’t make him money, she would die.
Over the next two years, the conditions only worsened. Douglas was always under the supervision of the pimp, unless she was with a “john” (a client that pays for sex), and she was repeatedly beaten. She was brainwashed into submission, as all other sex slaves are. The pimp drilled into her brain the thoughts “no one else could ever love her” and “he would take care of her” until she believed them, leaving her mentally, emotionally, and physically tied to her pimp.
This both saddens and infuriates me. Not only are these innocent people forced to work against their will, but they are also exposed to such adverse and hostile conditions that have detrimental effects on their physical and psychological wellbeing. Many victims of sex trafficking are at high risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases and are also often abused and tortured. Not only that, but the mental and emotional abuse caused from being in that situation causes incredible amounts of psychological damage. Anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder are all common among these victims.
The first step to putting an end to modern-day slavery is to raise awareness. Too many people are unaware of and uneducated about human trafficking, which makes it easy for the traffickers to get away with this crime. If you want to get involved, The END IT Movement is an excellent way to start. It was created in 2013 to help raise awareness and raise money to end human trafficking. If you’re looking for something in Salt Lake City, you can volunteer at the Utah Domestic Violence Coalition.
If you or someone you know is a victim of human trafficking or if you would like to report a trafficking tip, please call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, 1-888-373-7888.