Are you gearing up for the Super Bowl this Sunday? Millions of people across the world are, and a year ago 108.7 million people watched the game on CBS.
This year’s game is in East Rutherford, N.J., and the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos will meet in Super Bowl XLVIII.
We love football, but what goes on behind the scenes at Super Bowls will make you sick. Human trafficking isn’t the first thing you think of when you think of a Super Bowl, but the numbers CBS doesn’t show you during the pregame show will shock you.
Law enforcement arrested 133 minors for prostitution during the 2011 Super Bowl, and according to Forbes Magazine 10,000 prostitutes were transported to Miami for the Super Bowl in 2010.
Human trafficking is an unpublicized epidemic in America. January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and you probably didn’t hear about that, either.
A few months ago I met Emily Russell of Warrensburg, who is a volunteer in the fight to bring more awareness to the problem of human trafficking. I contacted her last week and asked for some information on the subject.
There are 29.8 million people enslaved by human trafficking globally, more than there were at the height of the Atlantic slave trade in 1860, when there were an estimated 25 million slaves, Russell says.
Human trafficking is more than slavery. It is the process of trafficking people against their will for sex – including pornography – or labor. Or both. It is also big business, estimated at $32 billion a year.
There are approximately 17,500 people trafficked into the U.S. from other countries and an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 minors being trafficked domestically at any given time.
Russell says in labor situations, victims are promised better wages and educational opportunities but upon entrance into the U.S. their documents are taken away, and through threats and violence, they are forced to work for long periods of time with little or no pay.
When people think of sex trafficking, they typically think of girls being kidnapped. But more often than not the trafficking looks like prostitution. It can even look like a girl willingly went with a man, Russell said. Threats, physical and sexual assaults, starvation, sleep deprivation and the use of drugs are methods of control to traffic girls into prostitution and pornography. The average age of entry into prostitution is 13. An estimated 50 percent of child pornography is made in the U.S.
When I think of “pimp” I think of some of the colorful characters in old 1970s movies. That is far from the case today. People who sell men, women and children are parents, siblings, foster care families, business owners, doctors and those in faith-based programs. Russell says 60 to 70 percent of all U.S. trafficking victims come from the foster care system.
Not around here, you say?
A Steelville mother was recently charged with selling her 11-year-old daughter for sex. A Cuba man was recently arrested for placing an online ad for someone to beat and rape his 11-year-old relative while he watched. A Columbia man was arrested last week for transporting women to and from hotels for sex. He allegedly held a gun on one woman to force her to continue prostitution. According to Polaris Project, St. Louis is one of the top 20 cities with the highest amount of trafficking activity in the U.S.
“One thing I hope to express is how easily this is something that could be happening in your community,” said Russell. “Sure there are higher numbers in bigger cities throughout the U.S., but it’s something that is literally happening everywhere. Given the profitability of trafficking humans, I predict that as more light is shed upon this issue, we will find that human trafficking is as prevalent as drugs in our communities.
“One of the key factors in combating trafficking is simply creating an awareness of the issue, as there are still so many people who don’t even realize that it exists or think it’s something that only happens overseas or to illegal immigrants.”
