Can Education Help?

When I was told that sex trafficking happened in the United States, I was definitely shocked. I know I personally haven’t seen many headlines about trafficking and if I did, they were about another country. However, according to the FBI, there are about 100,000 women and children in America. The FBI wants to stop trafficking not only because its unethical but because “it facilitates the illegal movement of immigrants across borders and provides a ready source of income for organized crime groups and even terrorists.” I feel that maybe such an agenda might distract from the issue at hand since sex trafficking does not necessarily happen across borders. Although the FBI claims to have helped lower the number of incidents, “since our human trafficking initiative began in 2004, the number of human trafficking investigations we have opened has doubled, from 86 in 2004 to 167 in 2009,” trafficking is still a global issue and “over the same time period, the number of prosecutions and convictions engaged in human trafficking has more than quadrupled.”

Based on what I’ve found, I think a large part of trafficking is related to the lack of education. An article on ABC News states that “more often, young girls are unwittingly lured in to unwilling prostitution with promises of jobs, money, clothing and modeling.” Even in other countries, “predators” promise better opportunities in other countries such as marriage. I feel that many believe these promises and less cautious because of the lack of education about trafficking, at least in the U.S. According to the Polaris Project website, “human trafficking is a crime that often goes underreported due to its covert nature, various misconceptions about its definition, and a lack of awareness about its indicators on the local level.” The more education and awareness there is about sex trafficking, the more cautious people will be.

Unfortunately, in other countries, I feel that the issue is connected to the fact that families choose to sell their daughters to sex traffickers. Half The Sky talks about a grass-roots approach to problems instead of a top-down method. A few nights ago we read the chapter about giving women jobs to create a better society. I feel that the two issues are connected in that if families and women have a source of income, then it would actually be a poor financial choice to sell the girl since she could have a source of income. While the bottom-up approach can prevent women from returning to brothels, there needs to be governmental enforcement as well. Like the FGC, there needs to be change on both sides.