Shakyra Jean

Jennifer Byrd

WGST 3050

07 May 2020

Sex Trafficking: The Blind Pandemic

The Problem

According to the article Spatial Patterns of urban Sex Trafficking, sex trafficking is the

third highest organized crime in America today. There are over 40 million people that are

trapped in these schemes. Most victims that are targeted are youth girls from ages 12-17

(Polaris). Traffickers and recruiters often target youth in areas of poverty. Most areas of poverty

have high numbers of runaway youth that have no place to go and get sucked into these

situations. Even though there is lots of evidence and research about these incidents and where

they occur, there isn’t anything being done about the missing girls and boys that are being

trafficked for sex and exploitation. This is so heartbreaking because over 71% of girls are victims

of sex trafficking and it seems as if there is nothing being done to help these girls (Polaris). My

question to this problem is… how can sex trafficking be more visible to the public to prevent

future incidents?

Overall, this problem gets to type of help. I believe that if more while males were

affected from sex trafficking there would be more efforts to help this problem. This is why I

believe this is a feminist problem. Not only is it a feminist problem but it is intersectional

because it affects people of all identities. Often times people from the LGBTQ+ community

along with minorities are exploited and fall victim to this problem and never find the proper help

against it. An article from the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health
states, “LGBT sex trafficking is commonly overlooked and rarely reported by local and national

governments… Lack of reporting limits the ability to protect LGBT youth. If local publications

and news channels do not report on the prevalence of human trafficking and on the

disproportionate number of our homeless and runaway youth that are LGBT, it creates a

perception that LGBT human trafficking and youth homelessness are issues outside the

community or are issues only affecting the “Western world.” Increasing awareness of the

worldwide prevalence of such issues will lead to a productive debate in society that could

potentially tap into the core issues affecting LGBT homeless and LGBT youth at risk of sex

trafficking”.

Target Audience

Youths are often targeted more because they are more likely to be vulnerable and fall into

toxic relationships with traffickers. In the NPR source I found, “California Community Takes

Action Against Sex Trafficking”, many people in this specific community has pretty much

brushed the problem to the side. Instead of trying to get to the bottom of the problem, they just

said, these people could be regular citizens so we wouldn’t be able to pinpoint who was a

predator or not. There aren’t any actions being taken to help these young women and girls get out

of these horrific situations. Abandoned teens are often the first victims to be recruited into

trafficking because of the lack of protection, security, and parenting. “Traffickers often recruit in

communities where victims are most vulnerable such as cities with higher rates of poverty,

homelessness, drug use, and lower literacy rates (Davis, 2006)”. Occurring to trafficking.org,

minors are sold for sex about 15 times a day in some places in America. This is an extremely

high number just for a day. These numbers will continue to increase if there isn’t anything done
to stop this issue. Out of the 40 million people being trafficked around the world, only .04% of

those victims survive sex trafficking. It is absolutely problematic, and change needs to happen.

The Solution

Considering my research and my resources, I have orchestrated two solutions that could

create a lasting impact on my community. My first solution is to have a day set out to spread

awareness of this issue on campus or even in a local place where everyone in surrounding areas

can attend, like somewhere in uptown Charlotte. During this day, we can plan out maybe a 3-4-

hour event where we could show short films about sex trafficking, share stories and explain ways

that we could prevent, stop and decrease sex trafficking in our area. I’m hoping that the start off

of this event could spread to neighboring cities and maybe event states. Another solution that I

came up with is partnering with Not In My City Project, which is a faith-based, local project

created to help college students gain awareness of sex trafficking and spread it through their

communities. We could do a whole week of awareness on our campus, just like we did with Sex

Week. Each day of the week for a whole week we could have different workshops set us to help

influence awareness on our campus. My ideas were…

Monday: Start off the week by watching documentaries and short films on the issues of sex

trafficking in student theater or

Tuesday: Hearing stories from survivors and gaining knowledge on how this issue is presented

globally.

Wednesday: Have volunteers from the Not In My City Project speak about their efforts to

spread awareness and things that can be done.

Thursday: Self protection day. Explaining signs, treats and ways to stop them. Also bringing in

self-defense and some other tips that can be used to defend yourself.
Friday: Volunteer tabling event to donate funds to the victims and survivors that are supported

by the Present Age Ministries and/or other 501©3 nonprofit organizations in the area

Thus the answer to the question of how we can make trafficking more visible to the public eye to

prevent future incidents, we must raise awareness in all aspects and make this issue a priority in

our communities to stop these issues.

Logistics

1) Who will be involved? a) This all could happen a week during

a) Not In My City Project human trafficking prevention month,

b) CAB… Campus Activities Board which is in January

c) Volunteers b) It could be ideal to have events like

2) costs associated with event this where it’s not too cold outside so

a) Cost for previewing movies we could do the events (more

b) Cost for items being sold for tabling concerned with tabling) when it’s

events warmer outside

3) materials needed 5) what promo material may look like

a) access to flyers and posters for a) Social media post

tabling b) Buttons with logos

b) buttons/ merchandise c) Flyers with info

c) items to sell for tabling d) Shirts with logos

4) time/s of year you will want to 6) how you plan to make sure this project

implement project intersectional

a) This isn’t only a female problem.

Men and women of all ages and

demographics fall victim to sex community fall victim to this crime

trafficking and often lots of young as stated in my analysis

members of the LGBTQ+

 Works Cited

“Finding And Stopping Child Sex Trafficking.” NPR, NPR, 1 Aug. 2013,

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=207901614.

Martinez, Omar, and Guadalupe Kelle. “Sex Trafficking of LGBT Individuals: A Call for Service

Provision, Research, and Action.” The international law news vol. 42,4 (2013):

sex_trafficking_lgbt_individuals.

McClain, Natalie M, and Stacy E Garrity. “Sex Trafficking and the Exploitation of Adolescents.”

Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing 40.2 (2011): 243–252. Web.

Mletzko, Deborah, Lucia Summers, and Ashley N Arnio. “Spatial Patterns of Urban Sex Trafficking.”

Journal of Criminal Justice 58 (2018): 87–96. Web.

“Myths, Facts, and Statistics.” Polaris, 17 Jan. 2020, polarisproject.org/myths-facts-and-statistics/.

Tejada, Denise. “Calif. Community Takes Action Against Sex Trafficking.” NPR, NPR, 19 Sept. 2011,

www.npr.org/2011/09/19/140291208/calif-community-takes-action-against-sex-trafficking.