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Tag Archives: Sex trafficking

Human Trafficking: The Mindset of the Buyer

23 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by amylynnburch in Human Sexuality, Stalking and Predator Behavior

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Human trafficking, prostitution, Sex trafficking, sexual assault, sexual offenders, victimization

Published on March 15, 2013 @ 7pm (PST)

*Following is the elusive and much requested “Part Five” of my four-part series on Human Trafficking as relates to sexual crimes. Yes, you read that correctly and, no, I’m not high. *grin*  I was asked by many readers to include what was considered the overlooked driving force behind the crime of sexual trafficking. First presented on BehindTheYellowTape with Joey Ortega on March 15, 2013, I finally present to you Part Five~ Human Trafficking: The Mindset of the Buyer. As a note to the reader, empirical citations are included for the benefit of the reader wishing to learn more regarding the crime of sex trafficking from verified sources.

The participants in human trafficking are known in detail with the exception of perhaps the most important participant: the buyer. The typical yet erroneous belief as respects sex trafficking and prostitution is generally that the behavior of the women involved is the sole cause of the selling of sex. What is portrayed in the media often enhances this belief with prostitutes portrayed as sexual enticers and not as enslaved victims. Prostitutes are well defined and fleshed out as caricatures within media in contrast of the harsh reality to the exclusion of the buyer who remains faceless, nameless, and poorly defined. To effectively stop the practice of human slavery in the form of sex trafficking we must clearly define, insofar as that is possible, the buyer and what motivates their behavior as relates to sex trafficking. The fact remains that without the buyer, there is no market, and there is no demand.

Examining the mindset of the buyer is critical in addressing the growing problem of sex trafficking. For the consenting adult sex need not be purchased in order to be enjoyed. Let’s face it, sex is free in many respects so why the created market for what could be negotiated outside of monetary coercion? Is it really necessary for anyone to have to pay for sex? The answer is, maybe. Without making anyone entirely uncomfortable, there might be certain sexual preferences to otherwise enjoyed without the benefit of money and I won’t go into those details. But, again, if it were solely an issue of sexual gratification would it be necessary to buy such enjoyment? Probably not, which begs the question: if it’s not about sex, then what is the true issue?

It might be surprising for many to learn that the purchase of sex usually has less to do with the sex act itself and more to do with buying the “right” to temporarily degrade and abuse another human being for ones personal entertainment. When researching the attitudes and behaviors of the typical sex purchaser one trait was uniformly clear; all subjects from which data was collected had the desire to physically abuse and degrade their victims. In short, purchasing sex was less about engaging in sex and more about inflicting harm and the “right” to do so because money had changed hands. Ironically, the issue of violence is the one area all but ignored by traditional research that seeks to explore patterns in prostitution and how to combat the trends in sex trafficking.

As clearly stated in last week’s overview of human trafficking, the majority of data compiled in relation to sex trafficking relies on self report not just in terms of identified  victims who, heretofore, have been referred to as “prostitutes” or ”sex workers” but also as respects purchasers commonly referred to as “johns” making it difficult to pinpoint accurate statistics. Even so, current available research data indicates the violence factor as a primary motivator in the purchase of sex across socioeconomic categories (Hughs, 2004, p. 9). Specifically, current research indicates that the typical purchaser of sex acts engages routinely in beating, slapping, and intimidating with a deadly weapon those persons from whom they purchase sex (Erbe, 1984, p. 623; Hughs, 2004, pp. 9-11). The only potential exception to this trend appears to be teenaged boys taken to a strip club and/or prostitute as a “first time” experience (Hughs, 2004, p. 10).

Because of the otherwise ignored violence factor as a motivator for purchased sex, the typical view of the “john” is one of being a lonely, single, or otherwise sexually dissatisfied male unable to maintain a relationship with opposite sex who must, therefore, purchase sexual gratification. Current research does not support this portrait. In two major studies conducted in Canada and the United States, the portrait of the typical “john” has emerged as much more disturbing (Sawyer, et al., 2002). As respects the Candian study, 70% of sex purchasers were married or in long-term relationships. 43% of the Canadian study participants either had children or planned to have children in the future. As respects the participants of the United States study, 80% of the “johns” reported that they were either married or in a steady relationship that was sexually satisfying. These same study participants shared the view with other males in studies conducted around the globe that sex is commodity associate with the right to perpetrate violence against women  (Sawyer, et al., 2002).

References:

Hughs, D. (2004).  Best Practices to Address the Demand Side of Sex Trafficking. University of Rhode Island, Women’s Studies Program.

Erbe, N. (1984). “Prostitutes: Victims of Men’s Exploitation and Abuse,” Law and Inequality, Vol. 2(2). p. 623.

Sawyer, S., Metz, M., Hinds, J., & Brucker, R.(Winter 2001 – 2002). Attitudes towards Prostitution among Males: A ‘Consumers’ Report,” Current Psychology: Developmental, Learning, Personality, Social, Vol. 20(4), pp 363-376.

© Amy Lynn Burch 2008 – 2013
All Rights Reserved

No part of this work or webpage or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated by the author for stand-alone materials. 

Human Trafficking: Shattered Innocence and Stolen Lives

02 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by amylynnburch in Uncategorized

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Tags

child abuse, Human trafficking, pornography, prostitution, Sex trafficking, Sexual exploitation, spousal abuse

*Part One of a four-part series

 ~by Amy Lynn Burch

Originally published on March 11, 2012 @ 8:42pm

Human trafficking is the intentional exploitation of another human being for profit and is the modern day version of slavery.  Trafficking in humans is a massive problem which transcends socioeconomic boundaries in virtually every community worldwide. According to Frank E. Loy, Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs, the ever increasing trend of modern day slavery commonly referred to as human trafficking began in the very early 1990’s and has escalated to nearly incalculable proportions. According to research, the majority of humans trafficked whether domestically or globally are children between the ages of seven and 17 with a disproportionate number of the victims being female.

Globally, human trafficking is an ever increasing problem, however; in the United States human trafficking has reached epidemic proportions.  Specifically, the sexual exploitation of women, children, and an unspecified number of men who are trafficked within the United States each year has rapidly outpaced other forms of criminality since 1997 with the United States ranked second only to Germany in the trade of “sexploitation”. According to The Polaris Project, the number of trafficking victims in the United States is largely unknown. Even so, hundreds of thousands of United States citizen minors are estimated to be at risk of commercial sexual exploitation.

Trafficking Defined

The term “human trafficking” is somewhat deceptive because it implies the movement of persons.  This is not necessarily the case.  Human trafficking is divided into two parts:  (1) sexual; and (2) labor. The international definition of human trafficking as respects sexual activity adopted by the United States Congress is:

“the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person forced to perform such an act is under the age of eighteen years old or: the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.” (VTVPA, 2000).

Unfortunately, in respect to the sexual element of trafficking, this definition does not include those persons over the age of 18 who are forced into sexual slavery.  The assumption of this definition is that those persons, primarily women, over the age of 18 that are involved in the sex trade are doing so by their own will. Sadly, in most cases this is not reality. Although it is true that children between the ages of seven and 13 years of age are the primary targets of sex traffickers, women between the ages of 21 to 50 are also targets for sexual traffickers at the global level.

Trafficking vs. Smuggling

In the past, law enforcement has used the terms “smuggling” and “trafficking” interchangeably but there are remarkable differences that are important to understand.

SMUGGLING 

  • is VOLUNTARY and usually involves illegally crossing a national border.
  • is ALWAYS international in nature.
  • ENDS after a border has been crossed.
  • is a crime against NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
TRAFFICKING 
  • is NOT voluntary.
  • does NOT require physical movement of a person.
  • can and often DOES occur domestically.
  • involves the DELIBERATE exploitation of a person or persons.
  • is a VIOLATION of the 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution which ensures that all persons are free from involuntary servitude.

* SOURCE: Department of Defense. Trafficking In Persons (TIP).

Truth vs. Myth

Within the United States prostitution is the most common form of human trafficking and is unfortunately accepted by our society as non-combatable. The act of selling sex (prostitution) is an illegal act which is considered “deviant behavior” punishable in most states by fine or jail-time with the exception of Nevada.  What many do not understand is that the majority of those involved in prostitution do so against their will.  The statistics regarding prostitution and those involved by force are truly staggering.  The majority of participants are: children and young teens between the ages of seven and 13; have abusive backgrounds to include some 41% who have experienced an incestuous relationship with their father; are homeless and desperate for basic needs; are mistrustful of authority figures due to repeated abuse; and die on average of 8 years after having been trafficked.

The term prostitute is not only derogatory by implying consent of the victim but it also criminalizes the victim to the exclusion of the client more commonly referred to as a “john” and utterly ignores the role of the trafficker, or “pimp”. From a legal perspective, the weight of criminal punishment has fallen on the shoulders of the victim often attaching to them a long trail of criminal history.  For far too long victims of human trafficking have been marginalized by law enforcement and treated as criminals rather than as victims.  Whether intentional or not, by referring to the trafficked as prostitutes and ignoring how they came to the so-called sex trade, law enforcement often only perpetuate sexual crimes committed against women and children brought to the industry against their will.  For this to change the law must change but first, the issue of human trafficking and what it entails must be clearly identified.

*Don’t miss Part Two: The Mind of the Trafficker to be published next week.

 

Sources:

Bartol, Curt R., & Bartol, Ann M. (2008). Criminal Behavior: A psychological approach (8th ed.). Pearson – Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ

Burch, A. (2012). National Reintegration Center for Human Trafficking Victims. Victimology, University of Maryland.

Department of Defense. Trafficking In Persons (TIP). https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:oHNSkT1L6UYJ:ctip.defense.gov/docs/training-TIP-LE.ppt+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESg6JaJ3DPziU8gqTAA31kyq6box8Z5fT1SO-Yhn_7lZxr2gEc4uukZrkG9tU61msAniABD-OzAQ4sRVI_QTZJ2G5bXR0XbvUfmZIPzsEBxfImoEz95Ei-HlOKyhhMYv90zuNqDh&sig=AHIEtbS1sM0WRpwxpK5xC8lkHcCTvMr_gQ&pli=1.

Doerner, William G., & Lab, Steven P. (2008). Victimology (5th ed.). Anderson Publishing: Newark, NJ

Federal Government Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking. (2006). Washington DC: US

Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families: The Campaign to Rescue and Restore Victims of Human Trafficking, the Texas Office of Immigration and Refugee Affairs; Trafficking in-Persons.

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/rescue_restore/fed_efforts.html.

International Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. http://www.uncjin.org/Documents/Conventions/dcatoc/final_documents_2/convention_%20traff_eng.pdf

Milko, F. T. (2007). International Human Trafficking. Transnational Threats: Smuggling and Trafficking in Arms, Drugs, and Human Life. Praeger Security International: Westport, CT.

Polaris Project. (no date). Domestic Sex Trafficking: The Criminal Operations of the American Pimp. A Condensed Guide for Service Providers and Law Enforcement. http://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/victims/humantrafficking/vs/documents/Domestic_Sex_Trafficking_Guide.pdf

ProCon.org. http://prostitution.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000119 

State Department Annual Trafficking In Persons Report (2004).

Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA).

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

US Department of Health and Human Services. http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/victim_assist.html

Williams, L.M., & Ngo, J.M. (2007). Human Trafficking. In C.M. Renzetti and J.I. Edelson (Eds) Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Violence, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

© Amy Lynn Burch 2012 – 2020
All Rights Reserved

No part of this work or webpage or any of its content(s) may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated by the author for stand-alone materials.

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