Sex trafficking is a major and often overlooked problem of modern societies around the world. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2009), sex exploitation is the primary cause of human slavery, accounting for approximately 79% of all cases. In my opinion, such a crime is fueled by people’s greed, lack of media coverage and governmental attention, and the presence of substantial demand. As for the latter, often not socially acceptable forms of sexual desires and the search for lower prices serve as the sufficient driving force behind the sex slavery market.
However, what is more, important is the lack of attention from the government officials and other institutions to this problem leads to large public unawareness. On the one hand, the real and potential victims do not know how to recognize sex traffickers and behave when they encounter them. On the other hand, the general public has prejudice that most prostitutes have freedom when deciding to sell their bodies due to inability to find another job, drug abuse, or other reasons. However, modern researches and investigations into this topic reveal that it is not true in many cases. Therefore, for a long period of time, women were blamed for selling their bodies rather than men who forced them.
For a similar reason, some of the men who use the prostitutes’ services are unaware that they support the crime. Yet, there are other people who understand that they engage in sexual relationships with underage girls or enslaved women and should be punished similarly to those who traffic women. Nevertheless, I think that the former group still can be blamed for their ignorance because many of the customers of such services consider view prostitutes as an object. This, in turn, leads to the inability to be compassionate towards these women.
In order to address this problem, as was mentioned before, the government, especially in places with high women trafficking, should ensure that women are aware of how to avoid being captured. Additionally, in my opinion, the governments should have full control over a few sexual resorts and often supervise their businesses. Finally, as for trafficking in third-world countries, the U.S. should actively participate in the attempts to halt this activity and urge other countries to join the efforts. In this regard, I think that only by combining the work of all the states can humanity stop sex trafficking.