Last week, I defined human trafficking and discussed where it's happening. This week we will talk about WHY human trafficking exists, some of which is revealed in
LEGACY OF EVIL.
Push Factors of Human
Trafficking
Poverty,
low educational levels, patriarchy;
High
birth rates ->Low value human life;
Street
children unsupervised by parents
Destabilization
of governments (esp. former Soviet Union, Latin America and Africa);
Rise
of organized crime from former soldiers and enforcers (Russian mob, MS-13);
Wake
of natural disasters leave women and children unprotected .
Pull Factors of Human
Trafficking
Demand
for sex in areas with large numbers of unmarried men (mining, agricultural);
Sex
tourism, demand for children both male and female;
Demand
for compliant soldiers (<age 12);
Demand
for cheap labor (global competition), domestic servants, agricultural workers;
Criminal
demand for children for begging;
Demand
for babies and body parts.
Facilitating Factors
$32
Billion Industry: money is good and the consequences are minor.
Politicians,
police and security apparatus are
corrupt and profit from trafficking.
Border
patrols often complicit in crime.
Higher
levels of poverty predict great levels of human trafficking.
Born
into brothels, remain in brothels.
Why Does It Persist?
Patriarchy,
lower education for women and lower status of women predicts greater levels of
trafficking.
One
exception—some clients want smart women with education so they can feel they
have a “high class call girl.”
Value
of trafficked person depends on part of the world, treatment of person is poor--most die within 5-7 years of being trafficked from violence or drug overdoses.
Higher
mortality rate among trafficked women & children; survivors continue to
have mental health issues.
In Your Back Yard
Many
organized crime rings have diversified from drug and gun trafficking to human
trafficking;
Can
only sell a drug or gun once, but you can resell a human many times over.
The
I-95 corridor from Florida to Boston is a main artery for trafficking; it is
literally happening in our back yard.
You may be wondering why a ROMANCE author would be so interested in this dark topic. After all, aren't we supposed to be writing about hearts and flowers? This is the stuff of thrillers and mysteries, not romance. Or is it? Why do you think romance authors write about human trafficking?
Put a comment below about why you think it's a topic for romance authors to be eligible for an ecopy of my award-winning romantic suspense novel, LEGACY OF EVIL.
