Lack of freedom. I value the ability to make my own choices more than almost anything else.  Not only are victims robbed of their ability to choose whether or not to have sex with several clients a day, but often cannot choose to say no to violent clients or carrying out their sick demands.

Gender inequality. Sex trafficking disproportionately exploits females.  Though there are many young boys who are also enslaved, it is girls and women who are usually targeted.

Women as objects.  The global over-sexualization of women has created a generation of men who feel entitled to ‘own’ a woman’s body as a commodity.  As Victor Malarek says, “money is the ultimate conscience-pacifier.”

Family breakdown. Many men who create demand for victims of trafficking are married with children. Their decision to pay for sex with prostituted girls and women not only harms their own families (ie. bringing STDs back home to their wives, keeping secrets from their spouses, etc.) but also causes society’s degradation as a whole.  Healthy families build healthy communities.

Organized crime. Trafficking comes in threes.  Drugs, guns, and people. This makes neighbourhoods unsafe.

Physical and emotional trauma.  Once they are rescued, many victims of trafficking can only be treated by professionals who deal with victims of torture.  Several girls suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  Physical trauma from tattoos, electrical shocks, beatings, rape, and re-stitching due to demand for virgins leaves many scarred for life.

Taking advantage of the vulnerable.  Just as a lion goes after the weakest in the herd, human traffickers go after those who are destitute and desperate.  We should protect orphans and widows, not hunt them down to devour them.

Economic inequality.  A sex tourist’s dollars go a long way in developing countries.  Money is power, and lots of guys lord it over their victims.

Outrageous profits.  Sex trafficking would dry up if there was no demand for paid sex.  Imani Nakpangi, Canada’s first convicted sex trafficker, made 400,000 0ff two girls aged 14 and 15 in a 26 month period.

Violation of humanity.  Sex trafficking assumes that some in our global community are not humans but animals.  And we call ourselves an advanced civilization?

I don’t know about you, but these things make my blood boil and my heart ache.

Michelle Brock