Failing to acknowledge human trafficking helps perpetuate this cycle of exploitation in the United States. Although this form of modern-day slavery is condemned by society, there is little done to stop it.

Out of the $32 billion the human trafficking industry makes every year, about half of that profit is made in industrialized countries like the United States, according to DoSomething.org.

“We have this shameless audacity that trafficking in the U.S. doesn’t happen.” Sean Wrench, founder and CEO of Forsaken Generation, said after a campus screening of “Not My Life” on April 18. Forsaken Generation is an organization that aims to change the lives of children who are victims of child sex trafficking.

According to the U.S. Department of State, 300,000 children become the victims of trafficking in the United States every year — that’s 34 children every hour. More than 70 percent of victims are female and half are children. Most victims are trafficked for sexual exploitation and most of the time, their services are sold to men.

Despite these numbers, that laws that punish the criminals responsible for trafficking humans are unjustly weak.

In New York and a number of other states, it is only a misdemeanor to rape or sell a child, while stealing a car is a Class E felony. The maximum jail sentence for a non-violent Class E felony is four years, compared to the maximum jail sentence for a misdemeanor, which only a year.

It is unthinkable that stealing a car results in a more severe punishment than stealing a child.

To remedy this issue, the legal ramifications of child trafficking must be adjusted.

Victims of trafficking can only hope their captors are brought to justice when enough people realize this is intolerable. By raising awareness about the inefficiencies of the U.S. legal system in regards to punishing traffickers, it might be possible for traffickers to feel the full force of the law for their heinous crimes.

While rescuing victims and punishing perpetrators is necessary, preventing victims from being trafficked in the first place can be more beneficial than simply trying to rescue victims.

Educating children and teenagers about the early signs of exploitation is one way to accomplish this. Forsaken Generation advocates that a human trafficking curriculum be put in place in every American middle school and high school, as many victims enter the exploitative system as teenagers.

Survivors would design the program to help students recognize the signs of exploitation early on. The concept for the curriculum was created with the idea that preventing human trafficking from happening to someone is more effective than rescuing someone who has been trafficked. Wrench predicts the group’s curriculum proposal will be ready in the fall.

Most victims of trafficking are not much younger or older than many of us at Syracuse University. While we pursue an education to help us prepare for a future career, others have been robbed of this opportunity.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reveals that the average victim of child sex trafficking, many of whom are girls, enters the sex trade between 12-17 years of age. They are then forced to stay in the industry — where they are beaten and exploited — for years.

Human trafficking is a global problem that may seem impossible to solve. But by underestimating our significance through complicity and failing to grant this issue the attention it deserves, we actually help perpetuate it.

By putting pressure on government officials to make trafficking a more punishable offense, and by creating educational programs about the signs of trafficking in schools, we can hope to make progress toward ending trafficking in the United States in our lifetime.

Rahimon Nasa is a sophomore newspaper and online journalism and international relations major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @rararahima.

Published on April 22, 2013 at 1:27 am