Maggie Price
ENG 100 Assignment #3: Film-Based Argument Due: Draft #1 posted to blog by 11:59 on 3/23 Stopping a huge epidemic In Slumdog Millionaire, screen writer Simon Beaufoy shares the story of Jamal, a boy who grew up in the slum neighborhoods of India and managed to gain a spot on the gameshow, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Throughout the film, Jamal is shown as a person who must overcome many obstacles to survive, including an experience of torture when he provides the correct answers to too many gameshow questions. Jamal wins the gameshow money but one could argue he gains the most joy at winning the heart of his longtime love, Latika. At an early age, Latika is forced into sex trafficking where she and Jamal got separated. Many young girls in the United States are forced into sex trafficking at a very early age. These girls are getting kidnapped off the streets, from family members for money and even just in their neighborhood where they grew up. Sex trafficking is a very major issue going on every day but not a topic being brought up a lot. We don’t hear about this very often in the news like we hear about other key issues. The American government can prevent the sex trade from expanding in the country by raising awareness and having stricter law enforcement. Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery. It is one of the largest growing criminal industry in the world. According to The Huffington Post. It can be best described as recruiting, transporting and harboring of people especially women and children by use of threat, force or deception for exploitation. Traffickers take advantage of vulnerable persons with false promises or physical abduction, forcing them into slavery, forced labor and sexual trafficking. How often do we hear about these women and children being taken and forced into this? Not quite often. I believe the American Government needs to raise more awareness about this huge epidemic going on in the United States. Why? Because there are about 1.5 million victims alone In the United States and about 20.9 million worldwide. We as people need to start talking about this more but the American government needs to help, they have a huge voice and impact in this world and if they start talking about it more and bring more awareness by speaking out or helping fund these organizations who are trying to help raise awareness but may not have enough resources or money to make this happen. The way our law enforcement convicts these men and women involved in the sex trade industry needs to change. Sentencing all varies on many varied reasons but in many cases these people involved in sex trafficking get very short years in prison. For example, in Why Did These Sex Traffickers Only Get A Slap on the Wrist? three different incidents were mentioned. One of them were three men running a prostitution ring in Northern California. Many of these women were sold for sex to as many as 20 clients in a day. Each man only received three years for involvement in this ring. So why aren’t traffickers facing longer sentences? According to Dorchen A. Leidholdt the Director of the Center for Battered Women's Legal Services at Sanctuary for Families in New York City, states in that the Federal law requires that prosecutors be able to provide proof of force, fraud or coercion by these pimps. This makes It very important for the victims of these crimes to testify in court, but most of these women are often too scared to come forward or believe these pimps are their only source of protection due to a concept called “traumatic bonding.” Leidholdt also says that traffickers often brain wash their victims and use very sophisticated ways to do so. They get physically abused but these pimps make them believe that their safety depends on them, and manage to win their loyalty. According to Leidholdt short sentencing for human traffickers also means that victims are more scared to come forward, many pimps retain their power of prostitutes in jail behind bars, and prostitution rings are more likely to resume when the pimps are released from prison. The federal agency needs to be stricter on these sentences. Less than five years for a crime like this is out of control. They need to start giving these criminals a minimum of at least ten years and allow the prosecutors to use other evidence including wire taps regardless of the victim’s testimony. "Legislators and prosecutors need to beat traffickers at their own game, which means changing the law," Dorchen A. Leidholdt said "We have to find a way to be as sophisticated as traffickers are themselves."
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