User:Revelrous/sandbox

Human Trafficking is on the rise in the state of Florida. In just this year, there have been 1,603 calls in 2017. There have also been around 550 human trafficking cases in 2017. Human Trafficking is the second richest illegal industry just behind drug trafficking. Human Trafficking on average makes about thirty five billion dollars a year. Types of trafficking are forced labor, sex trafficking, and others. Florida is known for being third place in the nation for human trafficking. That’s 45% of Human Trafficking in the states. Compared to Washington D.C., which is responsible for 0.07% of Human Trafficking, that's a major difference. Human Trafficking in Florida may happen more due to such cities near the ocean such as Orlando, Miami, or Jacksonville.

 In Miami, human trafficking could be easier to do because of all the tourists that go to Miami from around the world. Traffickers in Miami target all sorts of places such as bus stops, bars, halfway houses, strip clubs, etc. In Miami, the majority of the type of trafficking there is sex trafficking for prostitution. The rise of sex trafficking in Miami led to the Safe Harbor Act which changed the policy for when prostitutes get arrested. The law changed the policy from arresting a prostitutes for 60 days, to instead giving them treatment for abuse. Some of the prostitutes are minors or are young adults that have been manipulated or threatened with violence by traffickers into prostitution.

 According to some sources, within 48 hours, 80% of runaways are approached by traffickers. In some other cases, pimps deceive minors or other women into a thought process of their pimp being their “boyfriend” or their “caretaker”. Other traffickers instead offer money or drugs in order to try and persuade minors to get into the sex trafficking business. For Orlando and Jacksonville, those cities could be centers for human trafficking due to the location of each city. Both cities are very close to the Atlantic Ocean. There are a few organizations that are helping to stop human trafficking. The Governor of Florida, Rick Scott, in 2016 signed four bills in order to try and raise awareness for human trafficking. The bills signed were made in order to help victims and giver harsher punishments to traffickers that are caught. Some organizations are made by the public in order to try and stop human trafficking such as the organization known as Polaris. Polaris is a non-profit organization founded in 2002 that combats human trafficking. Polaris has their own hotline in order for communities to report suspicious activity that could relate to human trafficking or for victims to call and be rescued themselves.

 Other organizations have been made by the government in order to try to stop human trafficking such as different state hotlines made in order to report human trafficking. One organization, known as The Northeast Florida Human Trafficking Coalition helps arrests suspects but also helps rehabilitate victims from the sex trade or other parts of human trafficking. Another organization, based in Jacksonville, known as World Relief has also taken a stand in order to combat human trafficking. World Relief has been around fighting human trafficking since the year 2005. World Relief has been around since 1989 and has combated multiple issues along with human trafficking.

 Another organization, stationed mainly in Orlando, known as Greater Orlando Human Trafficking Task Force, has taken a similar approach by having a phone number in order to report suspicious activity that could be human trafficking. Greater Orlando Human Trafficking Task Force is a citizen made coalition that wants to combat human trafficking in areas such as Central Florida. Greater Orlando Human Trafficking Task Force also keeps an eye and reports on updates concerning laws that affect human trafficking and news for human trafficking in general. In other statistics for human trafficking, it is calculated that around 68% of human trafficking victims are in forced labor. 26% of them are children and around 55% are women and girls. In Central Florida, statistics show that more young adults are being targeted for human trafficking. Statistics also show that the majority of human trafficking crimes happen to women, but can also involve men and children. In many cases in human trafficking, calls to the human trafficking hotline are made by a community member who observed something out of the ordinary. According to some other statistics, 92% of sex trafficking victims were sexually abused as children. The average age of entry for sex trafficking is 12-14.