Victimless Crime?

Or Ignorant Perpetrator?

Pornography is a $13 billion industry. The sex trafficking industry is estimated to earn between $5 billion and $9 billion each year. The way we consume sex informs the market demand and the economic gains to be had by those involved in trafficking persons.

(source Guinn, David E., Pornography, Prostitution and International Sex Trafficking: Mapping the Terrain - http://ssrn.com/abstract=885389 and Economic Roots of Trafficking in the UNECE Region - http://www.unece.org/press/pr2004/04gen_n03e.htm)

What is a Voice?

When you cannot rise to speak?

Most of those in sex slavery and forced labor have no way to defend themselves, no means of communicating their plight. Many have been coersed into believing they deserve the way they are treated and are not fit to live free in normal society. Some are forced to take drugs and become addicted so that if they ever try to leave, they will be forced to return. The only way to break these cycles of oppression is from the outside.

(source US Department of Health and Human Services Human Trafficking Fact Sheet http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/fact_human2004.pdf )

What is Freedom?

When you have no way to be free?

The United States is one of the world’s largest destination countries for trafficked persons. Trafficking is not just an international issue. Instead, human trafficking is increasingly becoming a domestic issue. A 2001 report by the University of Pennsylvania estimated that about 293,000 American youth are currently at risk of becoming victims of commercial sexual exploitation.

(source U.S. Department of Education Fact Sheet http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osdfs/factsheet.pdf

and Trafficking and Sex Tourism http://www.justice.gov/criminal/ceos/trafficking.html)

What is Justice?

When you have no laws to protect you?

Human trafficking is a very broad and ill-defined issue often dealing with multiple international borders and legal jurisdictions. The laws that do exist are nearly impossible to fully enforce. As a result, many victims find themselves with no legal recourse or judicial support.

(source U.S. Department of Education http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osdfs/factsheet.pdf)