HUMAN
TRAFFICKING
YOU MAY THINK slavery is a bygone problem. Or, it’s possible you heard of Nigerian militants kidnapping 200 schoolgirls in May, and threatening
enslavement, and you thought slavery might be
happening now—only somewhere else. However,
slavery is a current problem in the United States.
A recent study involving sex trafficking at the
2014 Super Bowl (an event as all-American as
apple pie) demonstrated that human trafficking,
sadly, is flourishing even in the United States.
Last March, the Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research
at Arizona State University’s School of Social Work, published a
study entitled “Exploring Sex Trafficking and Prostitution Demand
During the Super Bowl 2014 ( https://ssw.asu.edu/research/stir/
exploring-sex-trafficking-and-prostitution-demand-during-the-
super-bowl-2014). The study placed two fake adult services ads
in the New York and New Jersey metro area during the ten days
preceding the Super Bowl. The ads received almost 1,500 total
contacts, including contact from individuals seeking services
and potential traffickers offering employment opportunities.
The study identified some 38 websites advertising the sexual
services of what appeared to be underage children, or juvenile
sex trafficking victims.
What can we, as legal and compliance
professionals, do about the current problem of
slavery (i.e. human trafficking)?
For the last several years, presidential proclamations declared
January to be National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention
Month. This past January, President Obama asked us, in his Presidential Proclamation on National Slavery and Human Trafficking
Prevention, “to recognize the vital role we can play in ending all
forms of slavery.” As lawyers and compliance professionals trained
to spot issues and escalate risk, we can assist in the fight against
human trafficking by raising awareness of human trafficking,
BY ART MIDDLEMISS AND HILLARY ROSENBERG
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