In the business world, it is known that supply and demand go hand in hand. Unfortunately, this is also true in the ‘business’ of human trafficking. The demand – whether for labor or sex – is on the rise; thus, the supply must also increase to satisfy this ugly appetite. In today’s broken world, especially in third world countries, the demand has plenty of disposable, vulnerable, and poor men, women and children at its disposal.
Would the end of demand be the end of human trafficking?
I don’t think it’s quite that simple because a lot of other factors are at play here – corruption, poverty, ignorance – but, I do think that ending the demand would significantly cripple this business that profits off human exploitation.
Please watch this video – End Demand – that was produced by Sharedhope International. They are passionate about the women and children that are feeding the supply pool – whether they were trafficked or victims of circumstance. This short, 2 min. video, not only describes this business, but will take you there visually. It will show you faces.
The last few days, media has been bringing this demand issue into the forefront. As I am sure many of you have heard, Governor Eliot Spitzer of New York was caught in a federal investigation involving a prostitution ring. Click here to read more about the general issue. I am not going to focus on this specific example, but I wanted to mention it. Below I have also posted an article that was just published in the New York Times. It was written by two experts in the field of human trafficking, so they are able to shed some light on what often lies behind the ‘Pretty Women’ syndrome that is veiling America’s eyes.
We live in a broken world that requires ‘brokeness’ to heal it. What does this mean? I grew up ignorant to many realities found in this world, including the notion that people still live enslaved today. So, obviously, I did nothing to try to stop it. In fact, I didn’t even know that anything needed to be stopped. But now I know…my heart is breaking and my spirit compels me to act!
God’s heart breaks for his children that are living in bondage, and who are not given the opportunity to become who He has created them to be. As I was exposed to this truth/reality throughout SE Asia, God broke my heart for these girls…and even gave me a taste of sympathy for the johns (men who use the girls)…
Obviously, I am not a guy, nor am I stating that I know what goes on in the mind of a guy. But, erring on the side of mercy and grace, the Lord showed me that these men are searching (in the wrong places) to fill one of their deepest longings and desires – to be loved and to love. Unfortunately, in our fast paced society, we want ‘it’ now and tend to delay patience or endurance for instant gratification. While combating human trafficking deals more with the surface manifestation of human desires gone awol. We also need to go deeper – into the souls of both men and women. And sometimes this take even more courage…
The Myth of the Victimless Crime
By MELISSA FARLEY and VICTOR MALAREK
March 12, 2008
Op-Ed Contributors
The New York Times
WHAT do we know about the woman Gov. Eliot Spitzer allegedly hired as a
prostitute? She was the one person he ignored in his apology. What is she
going through now? Is she in danger from organized crime because of what
she knows? Is anyone offering her legal counsel or alternatives to
prostitution?
“I’m here for a purpose,” she said in a conversation with her booking agent
after meeting with Governor Spitzer, according to the affidavit of the
F.B.I agent who investigated the prostitution ring. “I know what my purpose
is. I’m not a … moron, you know what I mean.”
Her purpose, as a man who knew patiently explained, is “renting” out an
organ for 10 minutes. Men rent women through the Internet or by cellphone
as if they were renting a car. And now, in response to the news about
Governor Spitzer, pundits are wading into the age-old debates over whether
prostitution is a victimless crime or whether women are badly hurt in
prostitution no matter what they’re paid.
Whose theory is it that prostitution is victimless? It’s the men who buy
prostitutes who spew the myths that women choose prostitution, that they
get rich, that it’s glamorous and that it turns women on.
But most women in prostitution, including those working for escort
services, have been sexually abused as children, studies show. Incest sets
young women up for prostitution  by letting them know what they’re worth
and what’s expected of them. Other forces that channel women into escort
prostitution are economic hardship and racism.
The Emperor’s Club presented itself as an elite escort service. But aside
from charging more, it worked like any other prostitution business. The
pimps took their 50 percent cut. The Emperor’s Club often required that the
women provide sex twice an hour. One woman who was wiretapped indicated
masked by its description as “travel dates.”
Telephone operators at the Emperor’s Club criticized one of the women for
cutting sessions with buyers short so that she could pick up her children
at school. “As a general rule,” one said, “girls with children tend to have
a little more baggage going on.”
Whether the woman is in a hotel room or on a side street in someone’s car,
whether she’s trafficked from New York to Washington or from Mexico to
Florida or from the city to the suburbs, the experience of being
prostituted causes her immense psychological and physical harm. And it all
starts with the buyer.
Melissa Farley is the author of “Prostitution and Trafficking in Nevada:
Making the Connections.” Victor Malarek is the author of “The Natashas:
Inside the New Global Sex Trade.”
