Melissa Woodward described what she felt like as a young teenager stating, “It’s like being an animal, in a cage, at zoo, and everybody comes and looks at you and does what they want to do… and then you go back to your cage. – It’s worse than any horror movie you could watch” (For the Sake of One). Melissa, a victim of human trafficking, had been an ordinary girl, sharing dreams and ambitions. But, at a young age, she was forced into a life that no one should wish upon anyone (For the Sake of One). According to For the Sake of One’s video, Melissa was like a puppet as her traffickers took advantage of her, controlling every move she made. She was simply property, not a person. Melissa had to comply to sexual acts and face abuse, always being tortured (For the Sake of One). In one circumstance, Melissa, to fulfill a costumer’s wish, was burned alive against her will, completely immersed in flames, only an object to her owners (For the Sake of One). Melissa did not want to be a prostitute, but she had no chance of escaping her grim life. This daily routine repeated over and over again, as it does for many across the United States of America (U.S). Children, like Melissa, are imprisoned in a life equivalent to a slave. Juvenile human trafficking is constantly overlooked, but in truth, according to the U.S. Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons: U.S. Policy and Issues for Congress, it is believed that every year more than 100,000 children are victims brought into human trafficking in the United States. Therefore it is important to understand that human trafficking, specifically the sex trade of minors is a harsh reality in the U.S., and this illicit trade occurs more often than anyone could possibly believe, but most importantly, it needs to be stopped.

The concept of human trafficking is a grey area to countless people. Many are ignorant to its truths and frequency. While the varieties of child human trafficking are endless, the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) defines human trafficking as, “sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud or coercion.” This demonstrates that human trafficking pertains to varieties of crimes. In this trade, many victims are forced to carry out sexual acts as stated, but are also restricted to give everything they have including the money they earn and their very own body to their trafficker. These victims are trapped in a world where freedom does not exist, and a life of justice is only a dream (ICE). For all the civil advances we have accomplished throughout history, how could such a horrible, animalistic thing such as the sex trade still exist?

This ideological question may be nearly impossible to answer, yet it may be even harder to fathom why it exists in one of the most advanced countries in the world, the United States. Typically, when picturing the horrible idea of prostitution, innumerable people think of the sex trade existing in far off countries, but truly, this modern-day slavery is extremely prominent right here at home in the U.S. After the abolition of slavery under the thirteenth amendment to the constitution, how can the elimination of human trafficking be so rare in the U.S. (Human Trafficking Clinical Program)? An answer to this question simply may be the fact that traffickers are very good at keeping their business secretive. Due to this, it is actually uncertain as to how many victims of human trafficking there are. In fact, the U.S. Department of State’s Human Trafficking Report actually estimates that there are currently 45,000 to 50,000 women and children trafficked in the U.S. alone. Think of how many children this could possibly be. In 2006, Shared Hope International began research to find specifically how many domestic minors are trafficked in the U.S. They found that in every city such as Dallas, Kansas City, and New Orleans there are about one-hundred trafficked victims. In Las Vegas alone, there are most likely about 5,000 trafficked children. These cities alone only make up a small portion of the U.S., conceptualize how many other children are trafficked throughout the rest of America (Human Trafficking Report).

When thinking of all of these children, people assume that they chose the life of a prostitute, but this is false, the majority of victims were forced into human trafficking (For the Sake of One). For example, For the Sake of One states that the majority of victims are runaways from abusive homes; they believe that life on the streets would be better than what they are facing and end up in a circumstance much worse. Also, a lot of victims are from foreign countries, also in search of a better life. So, they are smuggled in to the U.S. by traffickers who deceitfully promise them a better life, unaware of what they will face (ICE). Finally, another horrible fact about these victims is that twenty-five percent of them were sold into the business by their very own family (For the Sake of One). Therefore, in truth, the great numbers of trafficked victims were forced into the life of a victim.

The amount of trafficked children in America is not only a number, but consists of thousands of individuals, each with their own unpromising story. For instance, a known victim of human trafficking, called Maria, in a raw manner simply puts her life as a child prostitute stating, “Do you know how many times I got raped? Do you know how many guns I got put to my temples? How many knives to my throat? How many times I got beaten” (Sher 1)? Maria had been a normal girl living in a simple home in a small neighborhood as a child that was a brief distance from Atlantic City, New Jersey, but the simple decision to run away from home turned her life up-side-down as she was victimized to the sex trade at the age of fourteen. She became a prostitute, working for “Tracy”, exploiting herself for money, facing abuse, constantly going to jail, and living in a frightening, humiliating world that she wished would go away like many others (Sher 26). While Maria eventually found her way out of prostitution, many girls like Roberta do not. As a teenage victim of human trafficking, Roberta, “her body wasted of drugs” died (Sher 9). Roberta’s horrible story is similar to many other victims of the sex trade, which is completely unacceptable. Many children throughout the U.S. stand the chance of abuse, HIV/AIDS, and hardly any opportunity to escape the life that leads to the death of many (Trafficking in Persons Report). Sadly enough, the stories of these girls’ lives are a reality for many children in the United States.

Only recently have some began to realize the cruelty and injustice in human trafficking. Certain organizations, such as Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS), Breaking Free, DIGNITY, Children of the Night, and many others are working to stop human trafficking in the U.S. Also, the U.S. is starting to address that this hideous crime needs to be stopped. President Barrack Obama recently addressed human trafficking in the United States as well:

It ought to concern every person, because it’s a debasement of our common humanity. It ought to concern every community, because it tears at the social fabric. It ought to concern every business, because it distorts markets. It ought to concern every nation, because it endangers public health and fuels violence and organized crime. I’m talking about the injustice, the outrage, of human trafficking, which must be called by its true name—modern slavery (Factsheet).

Slavery surrounds us; infinite numbers participate in it, limitless victims are hurt, scarred, and dead, and humanity has let this crime go on for far too long. In fact, there are more slaves in the world today than there ever before with an estimate of twenty-seven million victims (The Basics).

As the government works to end human trafficking, it is important to note what an individual can do too. It would be impossible to end human trafficking, no matter what laws are enforced and how regulated they are, a crime will always be committed, for we do not live in a utopian society. Yet, everyone can make a difference, by applying themselves with effort as an individual or as a group to save a victim. Therefore, we need to educate ourselves on the topic of human trafficking and educate others of what we learn as well (Individual Action). We can also support the organizations that are fighting the sex trade in the U.S. and by volunteering, we can give these organizations even more support (Individual Action). By bringing awareness to the crime and fighting for the end of trafficking, anyone can make a difference “and together we will bring forth a world where people can enjoy the full blessings of their God-Given Liberty” (Trafficking in Persons Report).
At this very moment, there are children in the United States facing human trafficking. They are hurt, sexually abused and emotionally scarred, and there are thousands of them. Our world’s very own children carry burdens on their shoulders as they endure the pain of inescapable abuse and constant fear of death. They have been forced into a life they wish they were not a part of. This trade is a reality. Do not let them be forgotten. Stand up against modern-day slavery; save a life from helplessness, prostitution, sexual abuse, and death. Human trafficking is a sin against humanity and it is our job to end it.


Works Cited
"The Basics." Traffick Free. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Dec. 2012.
Fact Sheet: The Obama Administration Announces Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking at Home and Abroad. The White House, 25 Sept. 2012. Web. 17 Nov. 2012.
For the Sake of One. Sex Trafficking in America: A Former Sex Slave's Story of Hope & Forgiveness:"FortheSakeofOne.Org". YouTube. N.p., 18 Apr. 2012. Web. 9 Dec. 2012.
Human Trafficking Clinical Program. University of Michigan, 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
Individual Action- The Project to End Human Trafficking. The Project to End Human Trafficking, 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
Sher, Julian. Somebody's Daughter: The Hidden Story of America's Prostituted Children and the Battle to save Them. Chicago: Chicago Review, 2011. Print.
Trafficking in Persons Report. U.S. Department of State, June 2007. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
Trafficking in Persons: U.S. Policy and Issues. U.S. Department of State, 23 Dec. 2010. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.