Human Trafficking. Social Sciences Research Paper.

Human Trafficking
Name
Institutional affiliate
Human Trafficking
Introduction
Human trafficking is an act of crime that affects individuals from across the gender and age divide as men, women, and children may fall victim to the heinous criminal activity. The human traffickers also tend to take advantage of the vulnerable individuals within the community that is exposed to adverse socio-economic factors such as poverty and high rates of criminal activities in their immediate environments or host nations at large. Political instabilities such as extrajudicial killings and persecutions as well as wars also function to create vulnerabilities among men, women, and children and thus exposing them to human traffickers as they seek to escape the political insecurities. The outlined factors account for the increasing rate of immigration across the southern border in the United States, which further leads to an equally increasing rate of human trafficking from the South American countries through the U.S.-Mexico border. The underlying factors contributing to the perpetuation of human trafficking across the southern border coupled with the effects of the same makes for an area of concern that attracts the attention of scholars across different disciplines. Provided herein is thus a comprehensive evaluation and analysis of some of the research studies and materials on human trafficking that function to enhance the understating of its underlying features and effects on both the victims and the countries involved.
Literature Review
Research on human trafficking makes detailed revelations on the extent of the crime in the United States and the underlying factors perpetuating its proliferation in the United States and around the world. Most of the research studies on the crime across the Southern border of the United States function to provide the scope of human trafficking as defined by the international and national laws of the involved countries. The United States and its neighboring countries in the South strive to develop and implement effective interventional measures against the criminal act of human trafficking that equally enhances its elusiveness against the apprehension by law enforcement agencies.
A research study conducted by Lara Talsma, an Advocacy Officer for Amnesty International in Mexico, provides an effective framework for the analysis of such interventional measures as taken by Mexico and its neighboring countries. The researcher recognizes the fact that the crime of human trafficking is gaining tract across the world with the United States as the preferred destination for the perpetrators. The author suggests that most of the victims of human trafficking are individuals who are in search of greener pastures in the form of financial independence and economic empowerment in safer environments than offered in their home countries. Lara (2012) further highlights the fact that the high rate of border crossing across the U.S.-Mexico border makes it the most used route for human trafficking. The fact the border is used by a majority of the migrants to cross over to the United States in search of employment and economic stability facilitates its utilization by human traffickers to perpetuate their criminal activity. Another factor that facilitates or rather promotes human trafficking is the migrants’ use of smugglers to gain entry into the United States. According to the researcher, a majority of the interventional measures adopted by the U.S., Mexico, and their southern neighbors function to prevent human trafficking, protect its victims, and prosecute the perpetrators of the crime against humanity. A recent enhancement to the strategy entails forming partnerships among the states in the fight against human trafficking. The fact that the article provides an elaborate definition of human trafficking creates an excellent basis for evaluation and analysis of the criminal act.
Alexandra Still (2017) reiterates the heinous nature of the crime of human trafficking as it depraves the victims of their basic human rights and freedoms. In the research article, Solving Human Trafficking Between Mexico and the United States, the author argues that the advancing technology in telecommunication technology and globalization functions as the primary factor contributing to the equally increasing complexity in dealing with human trafficking across the U.S.- Mexico border CITATION Sti17 \l 1033 (Still, 2017). The author concurs with Lara Talsma in stating that vulnerabilities such as poverty and harsh living conditions in their home countries expose the victims of the crime to its perpetrators. The vulnerable individuals are subjected to various exploitations including sex trafficking, child labor, and pornography, as well as forced labor. Like Lara Talsma, Alexandra makes use of the international or United Nations’ definition of human trafficking as being the recruitment, transfer, transportation, harboring, and receipt of people, persons, or individuals by use of force, coercion, fraud, and abduction for exploitation CITATION Sti17 \l 1033 (Still, 2017). The article focuses on unveiling the influence of human trafficking in sexual exploitation between the United States and Mexico and the underlying factors contributing to the perpetuation of the exploitation across borders. The author, for instance, reveals that the perpetuation of high rates of crime in Mexico through organized crime and criminal gangs are the primary factors contributing to the coercion, abduction, and blackmailing individuals into being trafficked for sexual exploitation. The author goes ahead to identify the 2007 legislation in Mexico’s Law to Prevent and Sanction Trafficking in Persons and the United States Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) as some of the interventional measures in place to reduce human trafficking across the southern border. The author identifies the inadequacies of the policies towards curbing the rapid rise in human trafficking across the U.S.-Mexico border and offers recommendations for enhancing the efficacy of the same and enactment of stringent puniti...