Human Trafficking Prevention 1

Sarah Dunn
ENC 1102
Professor Wolcott
06 April 15

Literature Review

Human trafficking is a direct infringement on ones basic human rights. Human

trafficking also referred to as Modern-Day Slavery, is the usage of people as
property for the benefit of profit or personal gains by the person trafficking.
According to GlobalSlaveryIndex.org, there are approximately thirty-five million
and eight hundred thousand men, women, and children being held as slaves today.
This inhumane act has gone on since the beginning of humanity and is a
prominent industry that seems to only be expanding within our global economy
today. The topic of conversation is the prevention and strategies in place or those
that need to be implemented to combat this issue once and for all. Members of
this discourse community include scholars, government officials, non-profit
organizations, researchers, and members of the community that have involved
themselves in this conversation. Several topics were found to be repetitive within
the conversation that helped to understand the overall lack of prevention progress
thats been made. These topics include TVPA, law reforms that penalize
traffickers, people are uneducated or unaware about the subject, a lack of

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monitoring within systems in place and a lack of rehabilitation programs and
counseling for trafficked victims (GAO 2007: Grubb D Bennet K, 2012; 13:
Lederer L 2011). In this present paper, the overall prevention of human trafficking
is inspected. The following four-literature review serves to analyze and prove
whether or not the current laws and regulations held in place execute their role of
prevention.
Key Words:
A key word that must be denoted as a part of this literature review as it is
commonly used throughout the discussion of prevention in the legal aspect of the
conversation. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act also known as the TVPA, is
an act put in place by the U.S. government to combat human trafficking. The act
seeks to win the war on human slavery with the three Ps policy: prosecution,
protection, and prevention. The act defines human trafficking and the
repercussions for violators of the offense. The act has since been reauthorized
three times since President Bill Clinton first introduced it in 2000.

In a research article by the Government Accountability Office, GAO, the article

analyzes the current provisions set in place to reduce human slavery are evaluated
and evaluated and supervised with suggestions of improvement given by experts.
The article provides an explanation for the study, which is to find more effective
strategies to combat this war on modern day slavery. The article examines how
governments and non-governmental institutions have collaborated or worked
independently to seek change in this field of study. However, the GAO also
reported that an underlying issue is the lack of authority and capacity given to

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these organizations to effectively reduce human trafficking. The article also
discusses the lack of monitoring and key elements necessary on ending the war on
human slavery. The focus of this particular discussion was to find ways in which
to improve the current mandates set in place as of now. There is clearly a flaw in
the system if this industry continues to grow when laws and campaigns have been
made to combat this issue.

The results in this study clearly support the hypothesis of a general lacking and
misunderstanding of just how serious the issue is. The government has a
tremendous amount of power that can be used ultimately any way they choose.
The choice of seriously finding ways to prevent and reduce the number of people
imprisoned in slavery today has not yet been made by the government. The article
discusses key elements that have yet to be made but are necessary to end the war
once and for all. Governments, NGOs, and international organizations have
existing issues that have affected their involvement and cooperation with one
another. These issues they have must first be resolved before the true goal of
prevention can be solved or discussed. Many institutions that arent ran by the
government have little capacity or power to seek out the necessary steps for
prevention. Overall goals for achieving prevention may be thoroughly described
and planned whereas the execution and monitoring of the steps to get there are
often omitted.

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In this research article, authors Deborah Grubb of the Department of criminal
justice, Social & political science and Katherine Bennett, from Armstrong Atlantic
State University assess the readiness of law enforcement to get involved in the
prevention of Human trafficking throughout the United States and, especially in
Georgia. The article uses the Palermo Protocol (Protocol to Prevent, Suppress
and Punish Trafficking in Per- sons, 2000), and by creating federal legislation
known as the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 [TVPA 2000]. The
author also explains that individual states, including Georgia joined the war in
combating human trafficking in 2010 by signing the (Polaris Project, 2010),
which allows for prosecution at the state level by local, county, and state law
enforcement agencies. However, the author explains that although these laws are
in place it doesnt mean that the correct training and education of human
trafficking standards have been instilled. Georgia, along with several other states,
are among the only states that have made attempts beyond the Polaris Project and
TVPA to ensure that this crime is reduced by ensuring that law enforcers receive
some sort of training on the issue. The author also includes a survey that
represented an effort to assess the levels of law enforcement practitioners
abilities within the State of Georgia to identify, investigate, and prosecute human
trafficking crimes when no mandatory training initiatives were yet in place. The
study was conducted online through the administration of a 13-question survey.
The purpose was to ascertain law enforcement perceptions of human trafficking
issues, opportunities, and resources for training, and the extent and range of
investigative incidents regarding these issues. Given that eighty-three percent of

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the agencies failed to respond to the survey, the surveys results also showed how
uninformed law enforcers are about the topic.

Although this article was very specific in its location of where human trafficking
is, whereas the conversation discusses prevention strategies for the current issue
rather than location, the article proves that there is a serious lack of training and
monitoring when it comes to law enforcement worldwide. If more states and
governments were to take in account that proper training must be given to those
who must detect whether or not someone is a victim of this inhumane act, then
more prevention and saving could be done. There seems to be a lack of
involvement and a lack of care, which is imperative to combating such a fastgrowing and dangerous business.

In this academic journal produced by author Laura Lederer, Founder and CEO of
Global Centurion, Former Senior Advisor on Trafficking in Persons with the U.S.
State Department discusses the recurring Trafficking Victims Protection Act of
20002 in the United States as well as the U.N. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and
Punish Trafficking in Persons analyzes the attempts made to prevent human
trafficking. Lederer provides the reader with a model of the sex trafficking market
today. The triangle is provided to see the place in which the TVPA lacks the
proper involvement needed to reduce this issue. The act only focuses on one side
of the triangle, which is the supply side, which are the women, men, and children
who are trapped in slavery today. However, the TVPA fails to address the root of

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the issue, which is the distribution end of the triangle, the traffickers. The author
provides us with her own set of provisions against the demand side of the triangle.
These strategies include (1) drafting laws that penalize patronizing and target
customers and consumers of commercial sex; (2) creating first-offender programs,
colloquially known as "John's Schools," to educate first offenders about the
deleterious effects of commercial sexual exploitation; (3) creating sting and
reverse-sting operations to assist law enforcement in identifying, arresting, and
prosecuting buyers; and (4) developing social marketing campaigns that not only
target exploiters, but also impress upon the general public the message of "no
tolerance" for their actions. The author then goes into details on each of the four
strategies for addressing demand reduction.

The results of this study coincide with the hypothesis that there is a serious
disconnection in associating that victims have been stripped of their basic human
rights and along with that they have faced a great deal of emotional and physical
trauma. They cannot function within the world after being a victim without some
guidance and overall protection of their wellbeing. The provisions proposed by
the researcher would greatly help to combat and prevent human slavery compared
to the laws readily in place.

Taken altogether, the results indicate that there is a serious revision that must be
done to existing acts held in place, as well as, new ones that must be produced to
help to fully prevent and eradicate this ongoing war against human slavery. The

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lack of overall monitoring must be addressed if any positive change wants to be
seen. It is clear that the most popular law against human trafficking is the TVPA,
which demands some major transformations. The concern with traffickers must be
shifted to a violation of basic human rights rather than a criminal act. Alterations
must also be made to the TVPA and any other government-regulated act against
human trafficking. More people must be educated and informed about the
seriousness of this topic.
Project Proposal
Future research that should take place within this topic is the overall
improvements of current and upcoming laws to prevent modern-day slavery. The
research should focus primarily on the U.S. governments overall lack of
monitoring and general understanding of the way in which human slavery serves
as an injustice of human rights and not as a criminal offense has prohibited it
from primarily achieving its goal of prosecution, protection, and prevention.
Surveys would be distributed to government officials, NGOs, and other
institutions inquiring their knowledge on the topic as well as their knowledge on
the behavior of victims of human trafficking, as well as their knowledge on how
traffickers behave. The quiz would also pose the question of whether or not they
believe that modern-day slavery is an infringement on a persons basic human
rights. This information would then be gathered and analyzed to see ways in
which the knowledge people have about this topic is ultimately the reason why a
solution cannot be found. This information could then be shared so that the proper

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knowledge could be instilled within the people making reforms and laws against
human trafficking.

Grubb D, Bennett K. The readiness of local law enforcement to engage in US antitrafficking efforts: an assessment of human trafficking training and awareness of local,
county, and state law enforcement agencies in the State of Georgia. Police Practice &
Research [serial online]. December 2012;13(6):487-500. Available from: Academic
Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed February 28, 2015.

Human Trafficking. [Electronic Resource] : Monitoring And Evaluation Of International

Projects Are Limited, But Experts Suggest Improvements : Report To Congressional
Requesters [e-book]. [Washington, D.C.] : U.S. Govt. Accountability Office, [2007].;
2007. Available from: UCF Libraries Catalog, Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 16, 2015.

Lederer L. ADDRESSING DEMAND: WHY AND HOW POLICYMAKERS SHOULD

UTILIZE LAW AND LAW ENFORCEMENT TO TARGET CUSTOMERS OF
COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION. Regent University Law Review [serial
online]. July 2011;23(2):297. Available from: Publisher Provided Full Text Searching
File, Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 16, 2015.