Human trafficking can be termed as the contemporary form of slavery constituting the unlawful exchange of individuals for economic earnings (Merrill, 2013). Over the years, adults and children have been trafficked in vast numbers around the United States. Human trafficking is deemed a concealed crime, with the individuals who fall victims seldom reporting the cases.
The victims, on numerous occasions, are hindered from reporting to the police by language, the trepidation of the traffickers and law enforcement. Traffickers use coercion, deception or force to compel victims into profitable sexual mistreatment or work. The targets of human trafficking are disadvantaged in various ways, such as economic difficulties, calamities or political instability. The psychological effects of being disadvantaged are intense to the extent that these individuals ask for help from anybody including in the public context. One of the leading causes of human trafficking is poverty. This paper examines how poverty contributes to human trafficking.
Poverty’s contribution to human trafficking
Poverty, in this case, is viewed in the sense that Utah is characterized by unequal resource distribution and inadequate or lack of feasible springs of earnings (Mollema, 2015). In this regard, households lack resources parallel to having inadequate incomes. Consequently, women are forced to add more household incomes than they have previously. As the revenue going into a family reduces, the pressure placed on women and children increases.
With women and children being required to contribute to the family earnings, they will get desperate and will likely be taken advantage of by human traffickers in the disguise of jobs. On the other hand, poor individuals tend to rely on social security schemes. Nonetheless, these systems are, in most cases, inadequate while they do not get to the most disadvantaged in society. Additionally, there has been an increased lack of waged jobs, specifically for non-skilled individuals. The lack of employment for the youths also has been on the rise.
On the other hand, compared young men to young women, young men have relatively high chances of getting a job than women. This is because men are considered to be better in numerous positions such as sales, agriculture, housework and other service jobs. Men will generally be capable of working long hours while being compensated poorly. Young women, in this case, become more vulnerable to human trafficking than men.
Nonetheless, even the young men are not contented with the poor pay making the vulnerable to human traffickers (Vijeyarasa, 2015). In the hope that they will get better opportunities, the young men and women will be lured by human traffickers. Individuals undertaking housework or numerous other service works cannot be unionized.
Also, without proper jobs, it becomes tough to access credit. Movement from one state to another or one country to another has been made stringent due to the increased insecurity levels. To efficiently process the travel documents, an individual must be well endowed with resources which will not be the case for poor persons.
In conclusion, poverty in Utah contributes to human trafficking. This contribution can be viewed by looking at the increased levels of unemployment, especially among the youths. Unemployment leads to people taking up jobs that are not well paying and have poor working conditions. People will typically leave such employments in the hope of getting better terms individuals with no jobs also cannot get access to credit facilities.
Poverty will make people vulnerable as they are continually finding better opportunities. In the search for better prospects, human traffickers take advantage.
References
Merrill, B. (2013). Human trafficking and the criminal justice system in Utah: An overview of prevention protection, prosecution and partnership efforts. Thesis (Master of Arts in Community Leadership) Westminster College.
Mollema, N. (2015). Follow the leader: best practices to combat human trafficking in the United States. Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa, 48, 1, 1-41.
Vijeyarasa, R. (2015). Sex, slavery and the trafficked woman: Myths and misconceptions about trafficking and its victims. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate.