Why Trust the Helpers?

UN peacekeepers, that are sent out to maintain peace and security, are affecting the rate in sex trafficking tremendously. Peacekeeping in the UN began after World War II when an organization decided it needed to step in and take care of international relationships. Today, the demand for peacekeepers is higher than it was ever before. Due to this high demand, peacekeepers include troops from different countries, selected whether they have experience or not. Troop members are responsible for following their home nation’s rules; therefore they tend to disregard the UN policies. This starts to cause problems when women and children are being sexually abused and sex trafficking is being increased wherever the UN peacekeepers are. In order to reduce sex trafficking, curfews must be set up for the peacekeepers, laws need to be enforced forbidding unauthorized communication with the residents, and more female peacekeepers must be selected.

In the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, members involved in peacekeeping missions have been accused of committing acts of sexual exploitation to the citizens present. This behavior of sexual misconduct caused by peacekeeping missions still continues, even after a bulletin was issued, named ‘Special Measures for Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse’, which was implemented upon UN members following a previous incident involving sex trafficking in West Africa. Peacekeepers involved in these acts visit brothels and support sex trafficking, allowing it to take place by forging documents and helping out with the transport of women from place to place illegally. This sexual abuse and rape is most common where Blue Helmets are deployed. Children are being offered promises of education, money, and food in exchange of having sex with the UN troops. This happens so very often because the incidents are not being reported to officials, neither by the victims nor by the by standing UN troops who are free of committing these heinous acts. According to Sarah W. Spencer, author of Journal of Public and International Affairs, sexual exploitation continues to increase because of the lack of attainment, and not the lack of procedure.

Due to higher sex trafficking rates taking place where UN peacekeepers happen to be located, actions must be taken to stop the guilty peacekeepers and punish them. Raising awareness and speaking out against this abuse would contribute greatly to the issue. With curfews being in order, it will be ensured that none of the peacekeeping members are out doing their own thing. While unauthorized communication is forbidden between the troop members and residents, the residents are in a safer situation and they are less likely to be trafficked. Having more female peacekeepers will allow the women and children of certain areas to have someone to talk and relate to. Female peacekeepers also have a better chance of stopping future acts of sexual violence from occurring.

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Lead By Example

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 10^th 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.

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Should Prostitution Be Legal?

When one hears the word prostitution there are often many negative connotations associated with it. There are child prostitutes, STDs, and just a general image of crime and immorality. If prostitution were legalized many of these negative aspects could be eliminated or reduced. There are many pros and cons to prostitution but the benefits outweigh the potential negative aspects. With the legalization and regulation of prostitution sex workers could be tested regularly for STDs which would do a great deal to combat the spread of these diseases. If there was some type of licensing for prostitutes it would be easy to identify sex workers who are not free of STDs or those who are not of age. This would reduce the amount of underage children being trafficked across borders and forced into prostitution. It would also help combat the spread of STDs because sex workers who are not clean can have there license taken away. There are many dangers associated with prostitution but these dangers can be eliminated or greatly reduced through regulation. Prostitution would have to take place in a brothel or some other type of establishment and there will probably need to be some security present. This would help eliminate the violence that prostitutes are often the victims of. Use of condoms would have to be a requirement if prostitution were legalized and would have to be strictly enforced possibly by undercover police posing as "johns". Also instead of victims being illegally trafficked into other countries and taken advantage of they can legally migrate and reap the benefits of their own labor. This would do a great deal to end human trafficking since many victims of human trafficking are trafficked for the purpose of forced prostitution. Prostitution is not going to end so it should at least be regulated to reduce the dangers associated with it and help combat human trafficking.

Running Away Into Slavery

Two hundred years ago in this country, the only way for slaves to escape was to run away from the men who would seek to exploit them. Today, most of the girls who are enslaved as prostitutes in the United States are not shipped here from overseas by international sex merchants, but are “home-grown runaway kids” according to Nicholas Kristof in a July 14th article of The New York Times. He claims that of the 100-600 thousand children engaged in prostitution in the United States, many are girls in their early teens who are attempting to escape from a particularly stressful or volatile family situation, such as a mother’s boyfriend making unwanted advances. These rebellious girls, often as young as 13, do not trust police and as they aimlessly wander the streets without any direction other than away from home, are approached by the only type of people on the look-out for such a girl, pimps. These pimps buy the girls dinner, give them shelter in the form of a motel room, tell them they love them, often being their first of many unwanted sexual partners. Then they force the girls at the point of a knife or gun to have sex with multiple men a night, for free because the “boyfriend”, as these pimps refer to themselves, collects all the proceeds. Customers are met either on the street or, increasingly, on the internet and are often unaware that it is against the girls’ wills, but then again would a grown man having sex with a 13 year old prostitute care? Probably not, perhaps along with the Federal Government because as Kristof agrees, sex slavery and human trafficking does receive nearly the amount of attention it should compared with other major crimes due to the fact that the victims, prostitutes, don’t make good “poster children” and are even considered criminals in the eyes of the state. This is wrong because of the three involved parties in these transactions, being the broker (pimp), the product (prostitute) and the consumer ("john"), only two should be punished, the first and the last. The person caught in the middle should be rehabilitated and receive benefits for going through such a terrible experience as Sweden has made efforts to do. We should follow Sweden’s model, adopted in 1999 as well as policies that benefit our system specifically such as improving the domestic situations in the homes that lead to these girls running away,  but especially providing resources for runaway girls to turn use instead of pimps.