National Human Trafficking Awareness Day: Which States Are Doing Most To Stem Slavery?

National Human Trafficking Awareness Day highlights the fact that it's no longer possible to have a "not in my backyard" attitude about modern-day slavery.

The United States currently has between 100,000 and 300,000 prostituted children, with the average age of entry into prostitution for girls being 12-14 years old, and even younger for boys, according to the Polaris Project, which combats human trafficking across the country.

Though the issue is growing, discovering and prosecuting instances of the crime is difficult. AP recently reported that while some states have cracked down on internal trafficking, the variation in laws implemented by states makes it hard to target and combat the problem.

Find out which states have the strongest laws for human trafficking, and click here to get information and resources about trafficking in your state.

SLIDESHOW OF STATES WITH THE STRONGEST TRAFFICKING LAWS:

Comments

[ldyqtee6]

08:26 PM on 01/12/2012

How did Texas make that list? Having laws on the books and enforcing them are two different things.

[LMPE]

05:47 PM on 01/12/2012

seems to be no pattern amongst the states

[sibelhodge]

12:36 AM on 01/12/2012

As a writer, I wanted to use my voice to raise awareness into sex trafficking, and that's how Trafficked: The Diary of a Sex Slave was born. I started researching other victim’s stories online. They were horrific, heart breaking, gut wrenching, and I knew this was a subject that, despite being such a global problem, a lot of people are unaware goes on.

Although the book is fictional, it’s inspired by these victim’s stories, and is a very sad global reality. In 2007 the US Department of State carried out a Trafficking in Persons report. The statistics shocked me to the core: 700,000-800,000 men, women and children trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 80% of which are women and girls, and up to 50% are minors.

And one of the truly scary things is, most people think it only affects third world countries, but it’s going on right under your nose. The US Department of State estimated 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States alone each year.

I wanted Trafficked to be gritty, hard hitting, and tear-jerking. And I wanted it to make people really stop and think about this subject.

The victims wish someone would help end the nightmare that they suffer each and every day. We can help them when others chose not to.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trafficked-Diary-Sex-Slave-ebook/dp/B005GAC5VQ/ref=sr_1_5?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1326344488&sr=1-5

Sibel XX