A New Perspective On Human Trafficking: The Demand Driving Women Trafficking and Sex Trafficking

Japan. The Netherlands. Canada. The United States. Travel to any country in the world and somewhere you’ll find men paying for sex. This demand is one of the driving factors behind the trafficking of women and girls all over the world. Women are taken from their homes under the false assumption they will be provided with good jobs and then they are placed into situations of prostitution and sexual exploitation.

Both NGO’s and religious groups focus on providing services and help to victims of women trafficking and sex trafficking, but have only recently begun to consider addressing the issue from the demand side. To effectively combat trafficking, we have to consider all three factors—supply, demand, and distribution. Much effort has gone into countering the “supply” side, with programs, services, and aid for victims of women trafficking and sex trafficking, as well as the “distribution” with prosecution and conviction of known sex traffickers. But not much effort has gone into addressing the “demand” part of the equation. To successfully eradicate women trafficking and sex trafficking, we must consider the exploiters in the sex industry, the countries women are taken to when captured, and the inherent culture that both promotes and tolerates sex trafficking and sexual exploitation of women.

Multiple factors contribute to sex trafficking and women trafficking, among them poverty, sexism, and gender discrimination. Women who are impoverished or in vulnerable positions find themselves forced into providing cheap labor and commercial sex, after applying for a job as a dancer, waitress, babysitter, nanny and other similar types of work. In those cases, girls are drawn across the border or to a new country under the impression that they’re beginning a new job. Traffickers often in cohorts with corrupt government officials then seize women’s passports and travel documents and then force these women into prostitution and other illegal activities. However, this isn’t true in every case—many women find themselves subject to women trafficking and sex trafficking within their own country.

When combating the sex trafficking of women, rarely does one consider the men as the ultimate consumers of the exploited women. Men are the invisible part of the equation. But if not for them, there would be no demand. The average John is a man who’s purchasing services at a place of prostitution or one who is visiting as a sex tourist. Women trafficking and sex trafficking brings women and children to men who wish to buy them, or men travel as sexual tourists to countries and then purchase them there. One common misconception is that men who seek service from prostitutes are lonely and must buy sex to fulfill their needs. Research indicates this is not true; most of the men seeking sex from prostitutes are married, and many happily so. They believe they deserve something “more” and are entitled to buy it or get it however they wish. The trafficking process begins when men create the need and demand for women, girls, and children who are to be brought and used for prostitution.

Millions of women around the world are trapped into lives of sex slavery and human trafficking. Women trafficking is a transnational problem that requires the efforts and coordination of many international and national agencies. As of now, efforts to stop human trafficking and women trafficking have been largely ineffective. To combat trafficking, law enforcement and government officials must prosecute traffickers, challenge concepts of masculinity centered around sexual violence and exploitation, fight corrupt facilities that profit from the exchange of women, shut down trafficking routes, and identify victims of sexual trafficking and direct them to appropriate care.

Bio: Erica Ronchetti is a freelance writer for Soroptimist International of the Americas, an organization working to improve the lives of women and girls in local communities and throughout the world. Learn more about women trafficking and sex trafficking and how you can raise awareness at www.soroptimist.org.

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