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Trafficking in Women and Children

NCJ Number
174511
Journal
Trends in Organized Crime Volume: 3 Issue: Dated: Pages: issue (Summer 1998)-9
Editor(s)
P Williams
Date Published
1998
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This is an overview of trafficking in women for commercial sex, and trafficking in children as part of the broader issue of child prostitution.
Abstract
The main participants in trafficking for commercial sex include: (1) women who decide that travel abroad, even to work as prostitutes, is better than their current situations; (2) women tricked into going abroad and who find themselves in forced servitude or prostitution; (3) brokers and agencies who recruit the women; (4) criminal organizations that engage in or facilitate the trafficking; (5) corrupt police and officials who take payoffs and provide false passports or other necessary documents; and (6) guards who prevent the women from escaping or punish them if they try to escape. There has been an upsurge of trafficking in women and children from one country to another, and governments are looking at various ways to combat this trade. Control measures either in effect or under consideration include regarding the women as victims not perpetrators of crime, expanded witness protection and special care programs, and imposition of tougher penalties.