Child trafficking: Difference between revisions
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{{cquote|To speak of child migration is thus to speak of a phenomenon that is highly differentiated in terms of who initiates it, the reasons that prompt it, and its outcomes for individual children. It follows that there are many different stories that could be told about children's movement in the contemporary world. Some are certainly straightforward tales of woe. But others are equally simple tales of joy. Others involve more complicated plot lines and more ambiguous endings. Of all the stories that could be told, however, it is the tale of the trafficked child that has commanded the lion's share of public and policy attention over the past decade.}} | {{cquote|To speak of child migration is thus to speak of a phenomenon that is highly differentiated in terms of who initiates it, the reasons that prompt it, and its outcomes for individual children. It follows that there are many different stories that could be told about children's movement in the contemporary world. Some are certainly straightforward tales of woe. But others are equally simple tales of joy. Others involve more complicated plot lines and more ambiguous endings. Of all the stories that could be told, however, it is the tale of the trafficked child that has commanded the lion's share of public and policy attention over the past decade.}} | ||
==Governmental attitudes toward victims== | ==Governmental attitudes toward "victims"== | ||
According to [[Customs and Border Protection]], "The victim may not realize that he or she is imprisoned, because coercion is psychological (it may not be physical). Victims are typically impoverished and financially dependent on their captors. Often the crime takes place in plain view-e.g. in a restaurant, worksite, or private home-and is not immediately apparent to observers. Victims can be exploited for labor, sex, or both, particularly in private homes."<ref>http://www.cbp.gov/border-security/human-trafficking</ref> Arguably, the predicament of these immigrants is partly an unintended consequence of immigration restrictions that turn millions of immigrants who are not authorized to be in the country into undocumented workers who may have trouble finding employment anywhere but in the underground economy. | According to [[Customs and Border Protection]], "The victim may not realize that he or she is imprisoned, because coercion is psychological (it may not be physical). Victims are typically impoverished and financially dependent on their captors. Often the crime takes place in plain view-e.g. in a restaurant, worksite, or private home-and is not immediately apparent to observers. Victims can be exploited for labor, sex, or both, particularly in private homes."<ref>http://www.cbp.gov/border-security/human-trafficking</ref> Arguably, the predicament of these immigrants is partly an unintended consequence of immigration restrictions that turn millions of immigrants who are not authorized to be in the country into undocumented workers who may have trouble finding employment anywhere but in the underground economy. | ||
Revision as of 01:10, 28 March 2015
Child trafficking, a form of "human trafficking," is a catchall term for illegal commercial acts involving children. This can include illegal forms of child labor such as child prostitution, which is also considered sex trafficking. According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, sex trafficking is the recruitment, enticement, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for a commercial sex act where the sex act is induced by force, fraud, restraint, threats, or coercion or where the person induced to perform the sex act is under age 18.[1] Describing these relationships as a form of chattel slavery gives the government a justification to launch new initiatives to investigate them and to punish the older partners more harshly.
Distinction between child trafficking and child migration
Julia O'Connell Davidson notes that older children, especially teenagers, also have the capacity to make independent decisions about migration and so can be the authors of their own migration:[2]
| “ | To speak of child migration is thus to speak of a phenomenon that is highly differentiated in terms of who initiates it, the reasons that prompt it, and its outcomes for individual children. It follows that there are many different stories that could be told about children's movement in the contemporary world. Some are certainly straightforward tales of woe. But others are equally simple tales of joy. Others involve more complicated plot lines and more ambiguous endings. Of all the stories that could be told, however, it is the tale of the trafficked child that has commanded the lion's share of public and policy attention over the past decade. | ” |
Governmental attitudes toward "victims"
According to Customs and Border Protection, "The victim may not realize that he or she is imprisoned, because coercion is psychological (it may not be physical). Victims are typically impoverished and financially dependent on their captors. Often the crime takes place in plain view-e.g. in a restaurant, worksite, or private home-and is not immediately apparent to observers. Victims can be exploited for labor, sex, or both, particularly in private homes."[3] Arguably, the predicament of these immigrants is partly an unintended consequence of immigration restrictions that turn millions of immigrants who are not authorized to be in the country into undocumented workers who may have trouble finding employment anywhere but in the underground economy.
Very often the so-called "victims of human trafficking" must be forcefully restrained by their "saviors", or they will attempt to escape from their "saviors". It is quite common for those who have been "saved" and repatriated, to immediately turn around and return to either the country they were "saved" from, or another, similar country. Where they may very well be "saved" again, only to again be repatriated.[4]
Bill Woolf of the Fairfax County Police Department and a member of the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force, "notes that victims can be rude, argumentative, and fail to self-identify as a victim. 'People then blame the youth, but you can't blame her. The reactions are due to PTSD and are a direct result of being victimized,' he continues."[5] In other words, the opinions and preferences of the "victims" are being dismissed as merely a coping strategy or defense mechanism that arises in response to their "victimization".
References
- ↑
- ↑ "Telling Tales: Child Migration and Child Trafficking: Stories of trafficking obscure the realities for migrant children". Child Abuse & Neglect (University of Nottingham) 37 (12): 1069–1079. 20 November 2013.
- ↑ http://www.cbp.gov/border-security/human-trafficking
- ↑ "Commonly, without the right road to rehabilitation, trafficking victims frequently find themselves going back to the very industry that enslaved them." http://inpublicsafety.com/2014/07/human-trafficking-tackling-a-main-street-america-problem/
- ↑ "The National Plan to Prevent the Sexual Exploitation of Children". Virginia Child Protection Newsletter (Child Protective Services Unit). Spring 2015. http://psychweb.cisat.jmu.edu/graysojh/pdfs/Volume102.pdf.
