Chapter 5 Learning Objectives:
Traffickers can be absolutely anyone. They can be women or men, school teachers, lawyers, doctors, government officials, policemen, or even your neighbor. A lot of them are seemingly “normal” people who have chosen to commit terrible crimes against others.
Why do people become traffickers?
Some justifications include:
The video below is of a human trafficker explaining how he trafficked women and why:
- Who are traffickers?
- Learn why people become traffickers
- What modes of transportation traffickers use
- Characteristics of traffickers
Traffickers can be absolutely anyone. They can be women or men, school teachers, lawyers, doctors, government officials, policemen, or even your neighbor. A lot of them are seemingly “normal” people who have chosen to commit terrible crimes against others.
Why do people become traffickers?
Some justifications include:
- To earn money
- Felt pressure from family or friends
- Victims were voluntarily involved (in the case of sex trafficking with adult victims)
- Did not know the victims were minors (in the case of sex trafficking with child victims)
- A means of survival
The video below is of a human trafficker explaining how he trafficked women and why:
Modes of transportation traffickers use: cars, metros, planes, public buses, trains, cruise ships, taxis, etc.
Traffickers use a variety of transportation to move around their victims.
In fact, last year in India, a man saved 26 underage girls from being trafficked. The man, Adarsh, had noticed that there was a group of girls who looked very scared and were with two men. Adarsh tweeted the Indian Railways department about it, and after a couple of stops two officers arrested the men. If he had not interfered, then the girls would’ve faced vicious abuse and trauma.Source:https://globalnews.ca/news/4319117/india-girls-rescued-from-human-traffickers-tweet/
Characteristics of Human Traffickers:
Ask Yourself:
Additional Resources:
https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-07-24/woman-says-she-was-trafficked-diplomat-and-it-happens-all-time
https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/resource/who-are-human-traffickers
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html
Traffickers use a variety of transportation to move around their victims.
In fact, last year in India, a man saved 26 underage girls from being trafficked. The man, Adarsh, had noticed that there was a group of girls who looked very scared and were with two men. Adarsh tweeted the Indian Railways department about it, and after a couple of stops two officers arrested the men. If he had not interfered, then the girls would’ve faced vicious abuse and trauma.Source:https://globalnews.ca/news/4319117/india-girls-rescued-from-human-traffickers-tweet/
Characteristics of Human Traffickers:
- 75% of traffickers are citizens of the country of conviction (using 69 countries)
- 65% of traffickers are men, and 35% are women.
- U.S. traffickers are 33 years old on average, but can be any age in any country.
- Little is known about most trafficker’s occupation, but they can work in any type of field
Ask Yourself:
- Do you think survival is an adequate justification for the trafficking of humans?
- How did the video of the interview make you feel?
- Did any of the modes of transportation used surprise you?
- Why do you think a good portion of women traffic others?
- Did this statistic surprise you?
- How easy do you believe it is to identify traffickers?
Additional Resources:
https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-07-24/woman-says-she-was-trafficked-diplomat-and-it-happens-all-time
https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/resource/who-are-human-traffickers
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html