The estimated 27 million slaves in our world today is more slaves than through all of history. In other words, if you added up all the people ever held in slavery throughout all of history, it would not total the 27 million slaves in our world today. Wow!
Think 27 million is a high estimate? No way there could be 27 million slaves in today's almost civilized world? You don't see slavery around you, so how could there be more slaves in the world than the total population of Australia, the Netherlands, Chile, Portugal, and a bunch of other countries? Well, two things: 1) Slavery is a very profitable business today because in most places it is hidden. And because it's hidden, the slave owners and traffickers have been allowed to run rampant without our knowing; and thus the numbers of risen rapidly. 2) Even if 27 million is a high estimate, the fact that there is one slave in the world today should cause alarm. How can slavery exist at all when we fought so hard to eradicate the cruel practice? For some of us, hearing that there is an estimated 27 million slaves in the world will inspire us to end, for real this time, the torment of slavery; for others, hearing that there is an estimated 27 million slaves in the world will cause bewilderment, and we'll want to argue that there's no way there can be that many. To the latter I say, "Who cares how many slaves there are? Let's just end slavery together!"
We might also say, "Okay, maybe there are 27 million slaves, but I'm sure that they are mostly in other countries, not in my civilized country, not in the United States!" Think again. There are about 19,000 new slaves brought into or coerced/deceived into slavery in the United States every year. Consider that modern slavery is not new, and the total number of slaves in the U.S.A. is rather high. That number includes foreigners brought into slavery in U.S. and it includes American citizens made into slaves. Among the slaves in the United States are about 100,000 sex slaves... under the age of eighteen. No country, no community is safe. Where there are greedy, lustful, broken people, there too could be slavery.
What is slavery/human trafficking anyway? The definition is pretty easy: "compelled service." When service in any way is compelled and not entirely voluntary, then it is slavery. Coercion or deception, exploitation and abuse are considered conditions of slavery. Of course, where there is buying or selling of a human being, that is most definitely slavery.
Want to talk about money? From Benjamin Skinner's book, A Crime So Monstrous, we can learn that commercial sex trafficking, perhaps the most known form of modern slavery, is a $100 billion industry worldwide. "A 2003 study in The Netherlands found that, on average, a single sex slave earned her pimp $250,000 per year." Do you think crime syndicates, aka mobs and gangs, have noticed how lucrative sex trafficking can be? Absolutely. Sex trafficking is now the "second most lucrative commodity for crime syndicates of all sizes". And this is just sex trafficking. There are other forms of trafficking:
- Labor Slavery: similar to what we think of when we say we ended slavery in 1865. In some parts of the world, including the United States, slaves still work in fields, often because they are trying to pay off a miniscule debt that they or a family member incurred years ago. The original debt can have been as small as ten cents, but because of impossible interest rates, the debt can never be paid back by the individual or his/her family. Also, slavery exists in factories. Sweat shops or similar conditions are common worldwide.
- Domestic Slavery: often wealthy first-world citizens prey on poor and struggling foreigners, bring them back to their own country where the foreigner probably doesn't know the language, and enslaves them as a maid/butler type of person, as well as a "there for that"--an on-the-side sex slave. Domestic slaves are usually not allowed to leave the house, except on Sunday, and even when they do leave the house they are often too scared or too confused to escape or to tell anyone what is really happening.
- Restaurants/Retail/Massage Parlors: it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that many massage parlors double as harbors for sex traffickers. Essentially the massage parlors share with restaurants and some retail stores in an all-encompassing slavery: labor and sex and domestic slavery are often combined at these places. Any restaurant, any retail store can be a culprit.
Some final stats on sex slavery in the U.S., particularly that form disguised as the massage parlor industry.
- "Johns" who frequent brothels disguised as massage parlor make it a "hobby" to buy sex and to track all massage parlors nationwide. There are more than 5,000 brothels disguised as massage parlors nationwide.
- Standard pricing structure: Johns pay a house fee of $60 - $90 per half hour or hour plus they occassionally pay tips; the women are pressured to "please the customer" in order to receive tips. These unpredictable tips are the women's sole source of income to pay the numerous fees and interest rates they are charged by the network.
- Standard day for a woman in a brothel disguised as a massage parlor: 10am – 2 or 3am, 7 days a week
- Estimated average number of men a woman must has sex with daily: 6 -10
- When the U.S. Craigslist Adult Services Section was available, there were 10-16,000 adult services postings/day in the US alone. This was estimated at 40 percent of the total online sex ads in the U.S. each day at the time.
- Law enforcement across the U.S. have identified online sex ads as the number one platform for the buying and selling of sex with children and young women.
- An FBI investigation found that more than 2,800 ads of prostituted children were posted on Craigslist in 2008 alone.
