Answer to Question #320922 in Sociology for Mel

Question

In about 150 words, use the four elements of a social to motivate why human trafficking can be viewed as a social problem.

Answer 1

Structural factors of human trafficking

The structural issues behind human trafficking show that people who experience it are not simply random victims of crime. They are often targeted because traffickers know they need money or because they have family members to provide for. A social justice perspective shifts our understanding of human trafficking from individual harm and criminality towards structural conditions that facilitate exploitation. Acts of actual human trafficking receive the most attention from our media, criminal agencies and support organizations. Yet human trafficking stories do not begin with a criminal, but with poverty and exclusion.

Exploitation across time and space

The social justice perspective is crucial for understanding the life trajectories of people who are trafficked.

They are subject to severe exploitation from traffickers and their associates. But many have experience with exploitation both before and after trafficking.

Stories of human trafficking are inseparable from often lifelong stories of hardship and marginalization.

Endure exploitation

Undertake physically and mentally exhausting work

Sacrifice themselves for their families