Theresa Flores’s “The Slave Across the Street,” is a personal anecdote whose main purpose is to make Americans aware of the reality of human trafficking being in the U.S. and in our neighborhoods. The book shows how even in seemingly good life situations, traffickers are able to pick out and victimize those that are vulnerable. This does not only happen in third world countries, or in inner city, low income housing. Human trafficking is apparent throughout the U.S., in all levels of socio-economic classes. By Flores telling her story, she achieves the purpose in showing a different side of human trafficking that most people do not realize it has. Flores begins the book by talking about her life prior to Detroit. This sets up the story well …show more content…
In the previous paragraph, we understand that the psychological problems trafficking causes can be just as devastating as the physical problems. When people discuss human trafficking, they often are confused as to why the victim didn’t just leave or tell someone. It is an accepted notion that majority of sexually exploited women have a degree of freedom; they are allowed to walk about the streets, allowed to contact “John’s”, and communicate with other women in the same business. However, what people often lack to understand the serious psychological grip that many traffickers have on their victims. In Theresa’s case, she had legitimate reason to believe that her family’s well-being would be in jeopardy if she refused to work or left the Chaldeans. While these treats from traffickers could very well be empty, the psychological torment victims go through cause them to believe they have no way out. This is why Theresa keeps continues to work for the Chaldeans, rips up the police officer’s business, and doesn’t tell anyone what is going on.
“The Slave Across the Street” is a heart-wrenching story that truly tells the personal battle of going through, and surviving human trafficking. It was interesting to analyze the differences between Theresa’s story to the common idea of human trafficking. It shows that human trafficking is not just an international problem, that it is here in the U.S. It happens in the city, and it also happens in white-collar neighborhoods. Flores’s story is imperative for Americans to understand that they must be aware of the dangers and must “sharpen your claws against wrong doing, against human suffering.” (Flores,
Many people living in democratic societies often believe thralldom is of the past, but others, domestically and around the world, find themselves victims of slavery or serfdom. Today, many people find themselves enslaved for a variety of reasons, including to push a political agenda or to make a profit. Both, Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano have written enlightening narratives regarding their experiences in captivity. Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano’s captivity narratives can be compared and contrasted through their experiences of both kind and unkind treatment by captors, conditions under captivity, as well as their faith. Rowlandson and Equiano’s treatment by their captors differed greatly, for Mary was treated better as her time
Travis T Alston Jr. Professor Mr. Joshua N. James English 111 8 June 2015 Bridgette Carr Comments on Trafficking Victims Protection Act: A Rhetorical Analysis Bridgette Carr composed the Article “Trafficking Victims Protection Act needs to be more supportive of child victims”. As a clinical assistant professor and director of human trafficking clinic at the University of Michigan Law School she has done much research on this topic. Her article deals with how the government officials, such as U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security, and other government agencies that are responsible for the trafficking of child victims. Professor Carr argues that there should be better ways to avoid the way that child trafficking victims are treated when caught in a sting operation. She does this by explaining
After the cessation of the African slave trade, occurred the phenomenon of “white slavery”, which constitutes the “procurement—by use of force, deceit, or drugs— of a white woman or girl against her will for prostitution.” 4.1.2. Human Trafficking in the 1900s
Once introduced to the sex trade multiple tactics are used in order to forcefully keep their victims from escaping. Some of these tactics include: violence, threats to endanger the victims’ family, forcefully injecting the victim with drugs, debt bondage and confiscating their identification. Once these women can no longer attempt to escape, their journey through sex trafficking
It is really perturbing that when suddenly when driving into a certain neighborhood, or street, and in a specific time of night, you see various women slowly starting to appear walking in the night. While children wonder why those women are out so late, and parents try unsuccessfully to distract them from the situation, no one truly dares to change anything. Most just simple choose to look away, not aware of the horrors these people face. The sole idea of one’s own family members in this industry, would make anyone’s skin crawl. Sex trafficking has stained society’s history, present, and sadly, it’s future.
“I decide to think that it is all a nightmare. Because if what is happening is real, it is unbearable” (). This is merely one of the heart crushing moments in the novel Sold by Patricia McCormick. This is a realistic fiction about the atrocities of human trafficking and the sex trade in third world countries. Some would argue that this is merely a coming-of-age story written to entertain ,however, most agree that McCormick wrote this story to inform young adults about human trafficking of children in other countries.
As previously mentioned, anyone can be the prey of a trafficker, typically those who are in a vulnerable state. At only the age of fourteen, a woman named Holly Austin Smith had been taken into the sex trafficking trade. This was during the time period between the transition from middle school to high school where she found herself struggling to fit in with her friends, while dealing with family problems. Through her description, it was a time where she was waiting and wanting to connect with someone, and stated “I was looking for someone to acknowledge me in some way” (Smith). Although she had been previously sexually abused by a relative, and suffered from depression after this, her new encounter opened other doors.
Sex Trafficking is a form of modern day slavery that exists throughout the United States and globally. It is one of the biggest lies in society (Farley et., 2014). The Vanderbilt Law Review indicates that the majority of prostitutes do not enter the prostitution lifestyle on their own free will choice, but instead becomes a prostitute due to a variety of vulnerabilities that both pimps and traffickers exploit. This explains why young women get blindsided and think they are becoming a prostitute when in reality they are a sex trafficking victim (Elrod 2015). When the United States made prostitution illegal, it did not change the mentality of the johns.
Human trafficking produces billions of dollars in profit every year, it is right behind drug trafficking as the most lucrative form of crime throughout the world. (DHS website). Victims of human trafficking rarely come forward due to the threats of murder, threats of killing their loved ones/friends, as well as having nowhere else to go because they have been ostracized from their own family and their “pimp” is their family. Another issue of why victims do not come forward is that they are afraid of law enforcement so they may go to jail, etc. (DHS website)
Within Sold, Patricia McCormick describes the life of a young girl sold into sex slavery to support her stepfather’s selfish needs. The first example of her family's already being
Human trafficking is one of the largest and most prevalent issues that affects all walks of life both domestically and internationally. Human trafficking is not only a horrendous crime but a major human rights violation, impacting public health. “Human trafficking is a form of modern day slavery” . Human trafficking is the taking of a person with the intent to exploit them through, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery/servitude, or the removal of organs.
As a result, victims become trapped and fear leaving the work cite. The victims do not even have basic control over their daily routine like sleep and eat. The victims may suffer psychological trauma, shame, emotional attachment, or physical threats to themselves or their families’ safety; therefore, the victim is completely controlled and often too afraid to try to escape. The traffickers often told the victims that if they attempt to run away or escape they
Human trafficking, or trafficking in persons (TIP) or modern day slavery, is a heinous and widespread crime occurring around the world in nearly every society. Most people often thought slavery was part of the past; however, human slavery is part of our current society and has been an on-going issue around the world. Human trafficking is a type of slavery that involves forced or bonded labour, sexual servitude, child labour, or involuntary servitude all over the world. It is important to note that sex trafficking contributes to more than half of human trafficking and most of these victims are women and young girls. This modern day slavery can happen to anyone, anywhere, and at anytime (Ton, 2012).This literature review of documents and reports
The term "trafficking" is a convenient euphemism that seeks to eliminate the ethical dimension implied in " slave trade " concept. A more appropriate term is " slave trade " because the word " slave " has retained the burden of infamy that involves lowering man to the category of merchandise. In any case , both terms are presented to us in the XXI century as far as devoid of real meaning . And that is precisely the aim of the graphic dimension : bring us the concept of slavery, seek , where possible through photography, which come alive the institution of slavery . Therefore I thought it convenient to group images into two sections :
“Noy Thrupkaew: Human Trafficking is all Around You: This is how it Works” and “Slavery in the fields” both have a common theme. Both of these stories make the claim that human trafficking is widespread across a spectrum of industries and that consumers are fueling the problem. However, this subject is far more complicated than one can see. The first piece brings attention to the gruesome circumstances of human trafficking victims. The second piece is very loose in what it interprets as human trafficking.