Sex trafficking or trading is simply modern day sex slavery. Until this week it is a subject that I have purposefully kept outside my peripheral awareness. Having three daughters, of course I knew about it, feared it, thought on it. As missionaries, we traveled extensively with our young daughters to West Africa, Canada, and Jamaica. Even as the girls grew older and more beautiful, I became concerned. Concerned for the safety of my own daughters, BUT pitifully unwilling to delve into the stark, nauseating facts of other girls (and boys) living this horror every day.
It's just too painful.
Even watching the movie TAKEN was difficult because the reality is most stories do not turn out that well. Sad too is the fact that many girls and boys taken into sex slavery have no one looking for them. They are called throwaways - a term I just read this week. Depravity! It's alive and well in this world.
In the past 24 hours, God has laid this issue on my heart and asked me to look at sex trafficking with both eyes, both ears, and all my heart. Even this morning there were two other emails that brought this plight directly to me. It's time. I hear you, God, but not sure if I'm up to knowing all this.
There are thousands of websites that contain startling statistics - even right here in the United States. However, the statistics are conflicted. One website will give one number, another site will give a larger or smaller number. Everyone has an opinion on what is and what isn't true as far as the amount of children caught in the web of sex trafficking.
So this blog entry today is not about statistics. It's an introductory look at what sex trafficking is.
Below are numerous links to articles and videos that I found helpful (though excruciatingly difficult to process). Glean and read and learn at your own leisure. If you have found sites that are informative about this subject, PLEASE SHARE THEM with us here.
Read this. (A recent sting operation in Chicago revealed the intrinsic buying and selling of young children among different gangs.)
An interesting take
(From a Huffingpost contributing writer. I will say that I do disagree with the 90% of all sex trafficking victims being women. That might have been true a few years ago, but certainly not in 2011.)
ABC report
(This is a long but revealing story that weaves the plight of several victims.)
Slavery of any sort is a
consequence of our fallen
world. Human trafficking
is the furthest thing from
the ideal God created.
Dr. Janet Crouse
