While you might think that human trafficking is an international problem, the 11 worst states for human trafficking in America would beg to differ. Human trafficking is the vilest of crimes. What makes it even worse is the fact that many of the victims are generally poor and underaged. After all, almost half of the victims in this crime industry are below the age of 18. Another damning statistic shows that 25 percent of the children sampled (children who had run away) had dealt with sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. And yes, most of the human trafficking victims in the world are used for sexual purposes, which strips away their youth and innocence and leaves them with memories that no person, let alone a child, should ever have to experience.
While the 11 Countries with the Highest Rates of Human Trafficking in the World indicate that the major problem lies in developing countries where law and order are poorly maintained, that does not mean that other countries are exempt from this issue. And the United States does have a major problem on its hands, one which shows no signs of abating but rather is increasing at an alarming rate.
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The victims of the human trafficking are used in various industries such as sex, forced labor, and agriculture, to name a few. In the United States, the main industry which utilizes these victims is the sex industry, as the victims are often sent to brothels, massage houses disguised as brothels and even in street prostitution. Many have argued that maybe legalizing prostitution would lead to an end to this, but Germany has legalized the industry and there are still sex trafficking victims and instigators present in the country.
Furthermore, as if the horrors of having to face such experiences aren’t enough to completely scar the victim for life, our society generally treats the victims as criminals, which further leads to many victims refusing to identify themselves as such. This is one of the primary problems that needs to be dealt with in order to convince more victims to come forward, which for me is the first step to getting rid of this problem.
Of course, this issue isn’t spread uniformly throughout the states in the country. Many states have little problems pertaining to human trafficking, while other states are hubs of such criminals, who earn billions from their criminal enterprises. We gathered our data from the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, which is responsible for ascertaining the number of victims of human trafficking in each US state. We also determined another criterion by dividing the number of victims with the total population to determine the number of victims per 100,000 people in the state, which would provide a more accurate reflection of the issue in each state. While the United States has done a lot to counter human trafficking, the list of 11 worst states for human trafficking in America shows that there is a long way to go.
