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Saturday, February 18, 2012

Slavery Lives On In The United States

September 22, 2012, will mark the 150th anniversary of the emancipation proclamation, President Lincoln's decisive move to abolish slavery nationwide. President Obama echoed this decisive call by declaring January "National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month." In January 1, 2013, the FBI Unified Crime Reports will at last feature a "trafficking" category to allow police departments to begin quantifying the size of the problem.

Yet, while many can agree on the need to wipe out this abhorrent practice, a large proportion of the US population(1) are unaware of the dramatic rise in human trafficking within the US in recent years: trafficking is actually one of the fastest-growing criminal activities in the world, second only to the drug trade. Many people wrongly assume that human trafficking only refers to sex trafficking and is limited to developing countries on the other side of the world, yet The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children estimates that at least 100,000 American children are the victims of commercial sexual trafficking and prostitution each year. This is in addition to the estimated 14,500-17,500 foreign nationals trafficked into the US each year, according to the Washington DC-based Polaris Project.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Joe, Is the "national center for missing and exploited children" required to prove that number of 100,000 children? That number seems impossible. Do they strech the truth like other government agencies to justify their existance? I think so. Yes, trafficing is terrible but lets be honest with the numbers.
P.S. The verification letters are impossible to read

Anonymous said...

It has been said it happens a lot at Disney World/land.

lmclain said...

Great example of their priorities. There isn't much money involved in catching pimps and child prostitution ring leaders. Drug dealers, on the other hand, HAVE tons of money and property that can be confiscated and its much more fun for the cops trying to catch them. You know, running taxi companies, going undercover, hanging out with fun people and living the high life (no pun inntended). Catching people who pimp kids is a boring, investigative process that only results in the arrest of REAL criminals. Where's the fun in THAT? Unless, you're a cop who is also a customer or is taking bribes to look the other way as young teenage girls walk the corner in your patrol area... THATS probably some fun....