Ending Modern Day Slavery

Essai , 2015 , 7 Pages

Politique - Sujet: Droit international et les droits de l'homme

One of the most underrated crimes in American History, and the least talked about is Human Trafficking. Human Trafficking is a multi-billion dollar business. People have started to take notice of it, but not the kind of notice where it should be talked about on a regular basis. There are simple steps the United States Government could do to help eradicate Human Trafficking, however, it is not being done. Human Trafficking is what we would call today as 'Modern Day Slavery'.

Content

Problem

Significance

Solution

Conclusion

Biblical Worldview

References

Problem

In 1865, under the Thirteenth Amendment, slavery was abolished in the United States. "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude. . .” such a powerful statement in American History. It is said from 1525 to 1866 there were a total of 12.5 million slaves sent to the free world, this was called the era of the slave trade (Gates, 2014). That equates to about 36,500 slaves a year, 100 slaves a day, and about 4 slaves an hour. As horrible as that situation was, modern day slavery is going on, and needs to be improved. Every year, 1.39 million slaves are captured every year across the globe (Smith, 2011). That equates to about 3,800 slaves a day, and about 60 slaves every hour. According to the Justice Department, as many as 300,000 children are at a risk of becoming prostitutes (Adams, Owens, & Small , 2010). The average age of the victim falls between 12-14 years of age (Adams, et al., 2010).

What is even more horrifying is the amount of money being made. Human Trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry, and it brings in about 9.3 billion dollars in the United States, and 32 billion dollars around the globe (Costa, 2007). What is even more troubling is the amount of foreign aid going to these countries. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) was one of the first Human Trafficking laws passed in the United States, and it had “Three P’s” of implementation: prevention, protection, and prosecution (Smith, 2011). Under the prevention, the Secretary of State is required to issue a yearly report to Congress about which countries are abiding by the TVPA (Smith, 2011). Under the TVPA it says that the countries that fail to live up to the standards, and fail to make any effort to improve the system will no longer qualify for “nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related foreign assistance” (Smith, 2011). Every year, when the State Department releases its report on Human Trafficking, it splits every country by either one, two, or three tiers with three being the worst. According to the State Department, Algeria is a tier three, and has been since 2011 (Country Narratives, 2014). What is even more troubling is according to the State Department, Algeria was put back on tier three in 2011, that same year the United States sent Algeria 5.4 million dollars (Country Narratives, 2014). According to the foreign assistance website (2014), the United States Government gave Algeria 2.6 million dollars in 2014. Zimbabwe is also considered a tier three, however the United States sent Zimbabwe 115 million dollars in 2014 (Foreign Assistance, 2014). In 2003, the TVPA was amended to include Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) as a part of its fight of Human Trafficking (Smith, 2011). However, the very first time RICO was ever used in a Human Trafficking case was in 2009 (Smith, 2011). RICO needs to be used at every opportunity to stop Human Trafficking.

Significance

According to the TVPA, it defines Human Trafficking as, “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion” (Fisher, 2009). If a country was heavily involved in the slave trade, then the United States, as it should, would not be partnering with that country anymore. The United States may not send that country any kind of monetary aid. However, Human Trafficking is the modern day form of slavery, and does nothing about it. What is even sadder is the United States not doing anything about it. The significance of the problem of Human Trafficking is that there is nothing being done to combat it.

Solution

Full implementation

The TVPA was passed in 2000, and was amended in 2003 (Smith, 2011). The TVPA was one of the first bills passed aimed at combating Human Trafficking (Smith, 2011). When the TVPA was amended in 2003, it called for RICO to be used to combat Human Trafficking (Smith, 2011). RICO was instrumental in the fight against organized crime. The full implementation of this proposal would be to use RICO at every opportunity the FBI can use. Human Trafficking in total makes about 9.3 billion dollars here in the United States (Smith, 2011). This proposal would seek to attack the pimp’s where it hurts, their wallets. This proposal calls on the FBI to use white collar crime methods, but not classifying it as a white collar crime. This proposal also calls for the FBI to not be looking for the prostitute, but the pimp. When a young girl is out on the streets, it is sometimes not what she wants to do, but has to do or else terrible things will happen to her. This proposal would be in the best interest for the prostitute. Every year, the State Department releases a Trafficking Report list on every country, including the United States. What is sad is that countries that are the worse of the worse when it comes to Human Trafficking, according to the State Department, the United States still sends foreign aid to these countries. This proposal also calls for the stopping of all foreign aid to countries that are on the Tier three or the Tier two watch list. If countries are showing improvement and are starting to prosecute cases, then the foreign aid can continue to send. However, if countries refuse to prosecute, protect, and prevent then it is a human rights violation. In simple, this proposal calls on the FBI to implement a Human Trafficking Bureau of the FBI so that its main focus is to combat Human Trafficking, use white collar methods, stop all foreign aid to countries that are on the tier three or tier two watch list.

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• Université: Liberty University
• Cours: Admin of Justice Organizations
• Auteur: Ethan Brown (Auteur)
• Année de publication: 2015
• Pages: 7
• N° de catalogue: V351779
• ISBN (ebook): 9783668383401
• ISBN (Livre): 9783668383418
• Langue: anglais
• mots-clé: Modern Day Slavery, Human Trafficking, American History