Sex trafficking involves some form of forced or coerced sexual exploitation that is not limited to prostitution, and has become a significant and growing problem in both the United States and the larger global community. The costs to society include the degradation of human and women’s rights, poor public health, disrupted communities, and diminished social development. Victims of sex trafficking acquire adverse physical and psychological health conditions and social disadvantages. Thus, sex trafficking is a critical health issue with broader social implications that requires both medical and legal attention. Healthcare professionals can work to improve the screening, identification, and assistance of victims of sex trafficking in a clinical setting and help these women and girls access legal and social services. Every year in India, over 200,000 women and children are inducted into the flesh trade. Of these, approximately one-third are under 18 years old. Sex trafficking is not only a severe violation of human rights but also results in adverse physical, psychological and moral consequences for the victims. The rescued girls are invariably penniless, mentally broken and suffering from serious or life-threatening illnesses such as HIV/AIDS. For children, these extremely traumatic experiences in their formative years not only stifle their healthy development, but also leave permanent scars in their lives. Traffickers and/or pimps commonly recruit potential victims who are either economically or socially vulnerable. These include women and girls who are susceptible to poverty, societal isolation, drug addiction, violence in the family, a history of child sexual abuse, family dysfunction, school failure, or a history of criminal behavior.4 It may also include orphans, women with physical disabilities, and those who are innumerate and illiterate.2 Typically, victims are recruited through either finesse or guerrilla pimping. Finesse pimping involves using compassion, kindness, and psychological games such as luring victims through small gifts of cash, clothes, shelter, food, and drugs that make them feel obligated or indebted to the pimp.Guerrilla pimping involves using violence, threats, intimidation, or aggression in order to recruit and then enslave the victim. Once women and girls become involved in the sex trafficking industry, it becomes very difficult for them to escape. Victims may face legal barriers, where the traffickers will confiscate or sequester all forms of immigration and citizenry documentation. Language barriers, fear, limited knowledge, and lack of money are other barriers that women and girls may face to prevent them from escaping the sex trafficking ring. In many parts of the world, legacy prostitution, or the involuntary enslavement of future generations of girls in the sex trafficking industry, becomes an expected societal norm. Sex trafficking involves some form of forced or coerced sexual exploitation that is not limited to prostitution, and has become a significant and growing problem and the larger global community. The costs to society include the degradation of human and women’s rights, poor public health, disrupted communities, and diminished social development. Victims of sex trafficking acquire adverse physical and psychological health conditions and social disadvantages. Thus, sex trafficking is a critical health issue with broader social implications that requires both medical and legal attention. Healthcare professionals can work to improve the screening, identification, and assistance of victims of sex trafficking in a clinical setting and help these women and girls access legal and social services.
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