THE HIDDEN CRIME

Olivia Corby

The Department of Homeland Security defines human trafficking as a modern-day form

of slavery involving the illegal trade of people for exploitation or commercial gain. Slavery is a

violation of Article 4 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states: No one

shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their

forms. In addition to being traded and exploited for commercial gain, sex traffickers use

violence, threats, lies, debt bondage, and other forms of coercion to compel adults and children

to engage in commercial sex acts against their will (Sex Trafficking). The acts of sex

trafficking involve interaction as such that is a form of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment.

This conduct traffickers take toward victims is prohibited by the 5th Article of the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or

degrading treatment or punishment. Sex slaves are tricked, beaten, threatened and sexually

assaulted to make money for their trafficker. No money goes to the slave working for it. There

are more people steadily enslaved today in the United States than ever before, and the victims are

being treated like criminals by the true perpetrators: the traffickers. Statistics released by the

National Human Trafficking Resource Center show that, in the United States, 31,659 cases of

sex trafficking alone have been reported since 2007. This does not include the victims who are

too stricken with fear to speak up or the despicable traffickers that are not caught. Hitting close

to home, Myrtle Beach is linked to a large sex trafficking ring, and according to The National

Human Trafficking Hotline, 598 cases of human trafficking were reported in 2016 alone.

Almost 150 years after the passage of the 13th Amendment, slavery still exists in

America. Sex trafficking is modern-day slavery, and the day-to-day life of a sex slave consists of
different types of servitude, such as, being bullied into prostitution, forced into pornography, sex

rings, and other sex-related occupations. Trafficking in persons is a grave violation of human

rights happening on United States soil, carried out by hidden criminals; national awareness is the

first step to helping the silenced victims subjected to the hideous reality of sex trafficking on a

daily basis.

Alvarez, Priscilla. "When Sex Trafficking Goes Unnoticed in America." The Atlantic,

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Center

"Sex Trafficking." Polaris, polarisproject.org/sex-trafficking. Accessed 20 March 2017

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2017

"Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf. Accessed 20 March 2017

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www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/what-human-trafficking. Accessed 20 March 2017