Sex Slavery

As known by many, prostitution is the oldest profession in the world. It has progressed from the stone age and is still used today as a ways of making a living for many women, however, it has lead to the event of sex slavery in which women and children are innocently forced against their will to participate in sexual behavior in exchange for money. In some cases these women go innocently thinking that they are going to be a stripper, sometimes they are kidnapped, and many times they are preyed on and psychologically threatened. Throughout the world there are those who believe that this is not a problem and should in fact be legalized, but for every minute that they sit and have this attitude an innocent woman or child is trafficked for sex. (Kara, 2009) This is a 12-billion dollar a year market, with 800,000- 900,000 affected in the U.S. alone. (Masci, 2) Every year millions of women and children are forced into this practice, and not only lose their sexual freedom but their entire life.
Although we may not be directly faced with it everyday, sex slavery is all around us and is taking the lives of young women and children everywhere. It leads to not only sexual exploitation but also the spread of disease, violence and drug use. Through these aspects, it is obvious that sex slavery has a destructing effect on society and is hurting both those directly and indirectly involved. Some have stated that sex slavery is a choice and that many times these women knowingly put themselves in these situations, however, many innocent young women are forced into sex slavery against their will and although there are those that participate for their own agenda, too many of the innocent are effected to let it continue. Something must be done to stop this, whether it is through education or penalization to those involved, we as a people need to take a stand and help the innocent.
In the just recent movie “Taken” it tells the story of two naive young girls that go to Paris for the summer to follow U2 but are instead kidnapped, drugged, and trafficked for sex. This movie shows how many pimps imprison their women by providing them with hard drugs such as cocaine and heroine and then after they are hooked make them have sex with strangers to receive more drugs. Throughout the world pimps use drugs as a way of imprisoning their women to stick with them and not runaway. Once the women are hooked they present addiction both when they are working as a sex slave, and also after they have been released. One girl states, “ Even after I had been released I suffered years and years of drug addiction in which it ruined my body, and my life. I relapsed from rehab twice and after the third time I have been able to remain clean for 3 years,” (May, 2). Other forms of drug use are also common; many pimps force these women to use illegal abortion drugs that can eventually destroy your reproductive system so that the women do not become pregnant. In ‘The Girls Next Door’ the story is told of four girls in a suburban New Jersey home that had been forced for years to be sex slaves. In a way to keep these girls from becoming pregnant the pimps used illegal and legal abortion drugs such as, “Morning after pills, isoprostol, etc.” (Landesman, B12) Due to the nature of these drugs, and the fact that the women were forced to take them everyday, they may never be able to have children themselves. In the article, “Prostitution Debate,” it is stated that, “ More than 90 percent of street walking prostitutes used illegal drugs.” Many girls have stated that these use these drugs to ‘enhance’ their performance, because on certain occasions if they are not ranked well enough by their ‘john’ they will be beaten by their pimp. Girls have also said that they use drugs as a way out. One girl that was lifted by the police in Northern California stated, “ I used drugs so that I wouldn’t remember all that was happening to me. When I woke up I was sick and I didn’t have to think about the terrible abuse that was being done to my body.” (Clemmitt, 2) These are the types of acts that are happening right outside our doors, and these are only the ones that are reported. As it stated above four girls were held in a suburban New Jersey home for years until police were notified of suspicious behavior. This type of behavior is leading to drug abusers and is threatening not only the lives of the women involved, but also the lives all around us. When a person is on drugs they are unaware of their surrounds and many times they participate in lucid or erratic behavior. It is obvious that this is affecting our society, not only is it putting women in danger but the entire community. It is not these women’s fault t hat they are subject to this drug abuse, many of them are innocently addicted to these substances and it is up to us as a society to help stop sex slavery in the first place and therefore diminish drug addiction as well.
To the pimps these women are just a business in which they are an item to be bought and sold; this therefore makes them modern day slaves. This also provides them with reasons to abuse them, because they do not view these women as a ‘human beings’ but rather as an object they feel that they have the right to dominate and control. Many of these women are therefore subject to great violence and abuse and suffer each day. A report from Scotland states that, “Many of the girls are virgins when they arrive and the crooks gang rape them to ‘break them in’… rape is also used as a punishment for those who disobey or do not make enough money for the day.” (Elias, 2) These acts of violence are physically and psychologically hurtful and many times the women are left bruised and sore, and many times internal organs can be damaged. In severe cases women have been subjected to violence so much that they have either been murdered, or committed suicide.