What impact does sex trafficking have on our society and how deeply are we affected?
To answer my inquiry question for this semester I must first answer another question. How many people are currently victims of sex trafficking and where is sex trafficking most evident in the world? To know how deeply our society is affected, it is important to know the shocking and disturbing number of people being trafficked.
How many people are currently victims of sex trafficking and where is sex trafficking most evident in the world?
- ~24.9 million victims worldwide, at any given time (1)
- Hard to get numbers of victims
- They’re often isolated and hidden
- ~30 000 people die yearly in trafficking (2)
- from neglect, abuse, disease, and torture
- Half of trafficking victims are children (3)
- average age of these children is 12
- In Canada 2021-2022 we have had 63 cases of sex trafficking (4)
- 46 women
- 2 men
- 14 young girls
- 115 potential victims among foreign workers
- People at high risk are
- Women/children from Indigenous communities
- immigrants
- People with disabilities
- Runaway youths
- LGBTQ+
- Children in the welfare system
- 91% of victims who reported the crime, knew their trafficker beforehand (5)
- Convicted traffickers are mainly men
- 82% of trafficking reports were in metropolitan areas (6)
- East Asian victims were found in many different countries (7)
- East Asia’s trafficking system is very complex
- There are many countries that do not have clear legislations about trafficking
- Easier for trafficking to exist because of the lack of clear laws
- Mainly in Africa, Asia, and South America
Human and sex trafficking are such well hidden and secretive systems that there is very little information about numbers of victims and the places where it happens. In my next post I will talk more about the kinds of people targeted and why. I will also talk about how people are lured into the trafficking world.
- https://www.state.gov/humantrafficking-about-human-trafficking/
- https://www.huffpost.com/entry/disturbing-reality-human-trafficking_b_8831834#:~:text=The%20grip%20of%20slavery%20is,is%20not%20dead%20at%20all.
- https://oag.dc.gov/public-safety/human-trafficking-initiatives/human-trafficking-fact-sheet
- https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-trafficking-in-persons-report/canada/#:~:text=Identified%20victims%20included%2046%20women,in%20the%20previous%20reporting%20period.
- https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/campaigns/human-trafficking.html
- https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/cntrng-crm/hmn-trffckng/abt-hmn-trffckng-en.aspx
- Global_Report_on_TIP
Hello Natalie,
Awesome post! I also really appreciated how you acknowledged that trafficking is so discrete and secretive that there aren’t very many numbers or statistics about it. In fact, so many statistics about human trafficking are inaccurate because it’s one of the hardest crimes to prove, so in reality the numbers are much higher than we think which is honestly terrifying. It was also sad to learn that so many countries have murky laws when it comes to human trafficking, and so many people get away with it as a result of this. In your next post, maybe you could also talk about how hard it is to leave human trafficking? I’ve heard so many people blame victims of human trafficking for not leaving, and many people don’t understand why they don’t just go to the police for help, so I think that could be a great thing to research and tie along to your final research post! Human trafficking is a very relevant topic today, and our age group is the most likely to be trafficked, so it’s important to be aware of this. Here are some resources that may help with your next post:
https://www.canadiancentretoendhumantrafficking.ca/why-victims-and-survivors-of-human-trafficking-may-choose-not-to-report/#:~:text=Victims%20and%20survivors%20of%20human%20trafficking%20may%20not%20trust%20law,again%20a%20report%20to%20police.
https://awakenreno.org/why-we-should-be-concerned-about-human-trafficking/
I’m looking forward to your next post, keep up the great work!
-Shaila
Hello Natalie,
I’m very interested in this topic. I listen to a lot of true crime and unfortunately most missing people’s cases are determined to be human trafficking. I think you should potentially look into some of these cases as there are podcasts and youtube videos on many. Most are a little over an hour long but dive in deeply into each case. I would recommend listening to the Mile Higher podcast! It would be interesting if you looked into similarities in how people are often taken into trafficking. Another thing I suggest looking into is the misconceptions about human trafficking as there are many.
Here are some websites you might find useful:
https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/myths-and-misconceptions
https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/campaigns/human-trafficking/facts-myths.html
https://mosaicservices.org/human-trafficking-misconceptions/
Good- luck with your future blog posts!
Hi natalie,
Great post! you’re writing is spectacular and I love the way you are able to explain your finding through numerical data. This is a great sorue for those who need to visualize it more to be able to completely understand the severity and the importance of understanding this topic.
U was interested in your defining of the difference between East Asia’s trafficking system and elsewhere. Here are some resources I found regarding this complex system you mention.
https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/downloads/9019s349p?locale=en
https://borgenproject.org/causes-of-human-trafficking-in-china/
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3670&context=etd
I found that most of the links that were showing up on my feed when I researched this topic were research papers as opposed to news articles!
Can’t wait to read your next post!
– Sanam Moazed