By Eduardo Sagastume and Nohel Pineda
There are 600 to 800 thousand individuals who are either kidnapped, lurded, or otherwise forced into the modern form of slavery known as sex trafficking crossed over international borders annually. That is according dosomething.org. Most cases are not reported, but one of the most profound stories ever is the Cyntoia Brown case.
Cyntoia Brown was a sex trafficking victim that was sent to life in prison at age 16. However, Brown received clemency and only has to serve 51 years before she’s eligible for parole. The reason behind Browns sentencing was for the murder of a man she had been sold to by her pimp, “Kutthroat”. This wasn’t Browns first sex trafficking incident; she had been drugged, raped, and sold to by countless other men before being sold to Johnny Allen, the man that bought her from Kutthroat.
The issue of sex and human trafficking is nothing new. As stated before, there are many victims of sex slavery a year. This branches out into many form of human trafficking such as child labor, domestic servitude, bonded labor, and most common of all, sexual exploitation.
It goes on locally as well. In an interview I conducted with Jennifer Pastran I asked a series of questions on the topic of sex trafficking. I asked why it was such a big issue, she said “It’s such a big issue because it’s something so underground and not well monitored.”
I then proceeded to ask her how many kids she had worked with that had gone through sex trafficking, she told me, “Overall, I probably worked with 7 women from the ages of 15-22 that would be solicited by their ‘boyfriends’ that were actually their pimps.”
Females aren’t the only ones who get caught in human trafficking. Men and young boys also get caught in Human Trafficking but get less attention than women do. In fact, approximately 51% of the people who get caught in human trafficking are, 21% men, 20% girls, 8% boys reported by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s (the UNODC) report on ‘Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2016’.
In Florida, two teenage boys were were caught in sex trafficking because of the controversial video game Grand Theft Auto 5, a video game by 6 people (5 being men and 1 being a women ages 29-56). The 17 year old boy was persuaded in leaving home for a “better life” through a gaming app called Discord. This gaming app Discord is used to chat with other gamers while playing the game. The 16 year old had already been reported missing for about a year and was held captive by the sex offender and was forced to live in a small mattress surrounded by animals in cages. Unfortunately, the 16 year old boy had been sexually battered by the sex offenders and is now receiving treatment. However, the 17 year old boy wasn’t sexually battered and was eventually returned back home according to the police. Information Provided by www.foxnew.com.
Sex trafficking is a catastrophic ongoing problem that should be taken a lot more seriously. However, there are many sanctuaries and communities being made to help victims of this new form of slavery such as Safe Horizon, Polaris, and the national hotline for human trafficking and the number is 1 (888) 373-7888. If you or anyone you know sense that any kind of human trafficking please call the police or hotline to try and prevent another case of invisible slavery.
There are 600 to 800 thousand individuals who are either kidnapped, lurded, or otherwise forced into the modern form of slavery known as sex trafficking crossed over international borders annually. That is according dosomething.org. Most cases are not reported, but one of the most profound stories ever is the Cyntoia Brown case.
Cyntoia Brown was a sex trafficking victim that was sent to life in prison at age 16. However, Brown received clemency and only has to serve 51 years before she’s eligible for parole. The reason behind Browns sentencing was for the murder of a man she had been sold to by her pimp, “Kutthroat”. This wasn’t Browns first sex trafficking incident; she had been drugged, raped, and sold to by countless other men before being sold to Johnny Allen, the man that bought her from Kutthroat.
The issue of sex and human trafficking is nothing new. As stated before, there are many victims of sex slavery a year. This branches out into many form of human trafficking such as child labor, domestic servitude, bonded labor, and most common of all, sexual exploitation.
It goes on locally as well. In an interview I conducted with Jennifer Pastran I asked a series of questions on the topic of sex trafficking. I asked why it was such a big issue, she said “It’s such a big issue because it’s something so underground and not well monitored.”
I then proceeded to ask her how many kids she had worked with that had gone through sex trafficking, she told me, “Overall, I probably worked with 7 women from the ages of 15-22 that would be solicited by their ‘boyfriends’ that were actually their pimps.”
Females aren’t the only ones who get caught in human trafficking. Men and young boys also get caught in Human Trafficking but get less attention than women do. In fact, approximately 51% of the people who get caught in human trafficking are, 21% men, 20% girls, 8% boys reported by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s (the UNODC) report on ‘Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2016’.
In Florida, two teenage boys were were caught in sex trafficking because of the controversial video game Grand Theft Auto 5, a video game by 6 people (5 being men and 1 being a women ages 29-56). The 17 year old boy was persuaded in leaving home for a “better life” through a gaming app called Discord. This gaming app Discord is used to chat with other gamers while playing the game. The 16 year old had already been reported missing for about a year and was held captive by the sex offender and was forced to live in a small mattress surrounded by animals in cages. Unfortunately, the 16 year old boy had been sexually battered by the sex offenders and is now receiving treatment. However, the 17 year old boy wasn’t sexually battered and was eventually returned back home according to the police. Information Provided by www.foxnew.com.
Sex trafficking is a catastrophic ongoing problem that should be taken a lot more seriously. However, there are many sanctuaries and communities being made to help victims of this new form of slavery such as Safe Horizon, Polaris, and the national hotline for human trafficking and the number is 1 (888) 373-7888. If you or anyone you know sense that any kind of human trafficking please call the police or hotline to try and prevent another case of invisible slavery.