The United States wants to be the “power house” of the entire world and with that America must lead by example. That dream isn't completely unreal, but the United States needs to start fixing the problems on our own ground. Child prostitution is alive on the streets of America. It’s a problem that should be addressed immediately by our country, because it will only grow larger if it’s not address soon.
The government has attempted to acknowledge the problem, but things haven’t subsided, as they should. In 2000 the Trafficking Victim Protection Act was passed, but there are still people who find ways around the law. In 2010 there were previsions added to the Act to help American citizens and along with the 10th anniversary of the Act the United States was finally ranked in the Trafficking in Person Report, or TIPS. This report was made to be guidelines for other countries on how to deal with human trafficking. The ironic part of it is America is the country issuing the report, but was not reported upon till 2010.
One change that would help a great deal of the victims of child prostitution would be to have more educated police officers who know what to do when placed in a situation where children have become victims of sex crimes. The government is very busy all the time dealing with anything and everything, so there have been a handful of organizations that have taken matters into their own hands. A few of them are, Children of the Night, GEMs, Courtney’s House, and many others. Lastly, many victims of child prostitution in the United States have found these organizations and completely turned around their life, one of those amazing people being Carissa Phelps.
There are so many people that could use America’s help who actually live in America, our country needs to take strides to helping those here before we go saving the entire world.
photography credit:
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I agree that we need to work internally as well as externally in order to combat the human trafficking industry. Is there certain training police officers can go through to be trained to handle situations involving human trafficking?
ReplyDeleteEducating the police force is a good point, but what about educating the people as a whole? If more people know about what's going on then they will be more aware if they feel someone is in need. Also by educating the people, young boys and girls who are being trafficked will know of organizations they can reach out to for help.
ReplyDeleteHow do you think the United States should address the slave issue within their borders? Should they focus on foreigners being trafficked into the US and sold for sex here, or should they focus on American girls being kidnapped and sold for sex elsewhere? A big problem with the police force getting involved is the extreme corruption, is there any way that this will ever be resolved? Clearly there is a lot of factors that the American government can consider when trying to address slavery at home, but it is still hard to clearly define where "home" is not involved. If we are using products made by slaves, then we are showing other countries how unprepared we are to go up against slavery in or out of our borders.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that Americans (or at least some) are okay with turning their cheek to what is going on in their own country? Also, do you think that if other countries were to criticize the US that things would change?
ReplyDeleteThere should definitely be an increase in knowledge of the horrors of human trafficking among people in the US. Many feel that since we are so "Advanced" that these types of issues can ONLY happen in third-world countries, and that simply is not so. I think that to increase the general knowledge of the public would be to incorporate modern day slavery sections into High School history courses.This way most of the children in the US will grow to be well informed adults who can choose make strides against the sex trafficking industry.
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