News Enterprise Alabama
News Enterprise Alabama
With over $12 billion a year in revenue, child trafficking has become one of the fastest growing criminal enterprises in the world. Prevention and rehabilitation are the main focus of many government and private organizations; however, few non-profit organizations are focusing their attention on shutting down the demand side of this enterprise by targeting the day to day buyers who fuel the sex-trade industry.
The Predators
In October 2008, a New Jersey man pleaded guilty in Newark to three counts of traveling to Thailand with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, and one count each of producing and possessing child pornography. Wayne Nelson Corliss was the subject of a worldwide INTERPOL alert, based only on an anonymous photo. This sole piece of evidence brought ICE agents the leads they needed to locate and arrest Corliss. Since then, two other men in Alabama have pleaded guilty to traveling with Corliss to Thailand to have sex with young boys.
Other predators also loom behind false names and identities through online chat rooms and social networking sites. One such case involved 13-year-old, Alicia Kozakiewicz who was lured out of her Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania home by an internet friend. The ‘friend’ turned out to be a 38- year-old pedophile that held Kozakiewicz captive and sexually assaulted her for four days before she was rescued by an FBI agent.
While governments and non-profit organizations continue to work diligently to stem the tide of the growing child trafficking industry, the criminal networks engaged in this highly profitable activity are becoming more violent and profit-driven than ever before. The principles of supply side economics continue to prevail in the global child slavery business. Supply is a byproduct of demand, and when demand rises, so does the need for supply.
Child Slavery Is An Atrocious Crime Against Humanity
Child trafficking accounts for 50% of all modern human slavery. Slavery is a form of forced labor in which people are considered to be the property of others. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand wages. The individuals who use these children include: pornographers, sex tourists and facilitators, human smugglers and traffickers of minors, criminal aliens convicted of offenses against minors, and individuals deported for exploitation offenses who have returned illegally. Oftentimes, these predators share their files of children being molested with other predators and use streaming video showing molestation of children in real time. Those who prey on children are often trusted members of the victims’ families or communities and include relatives of victims, clergymen, doctors, athletic coaches, daycare and camp directors, teachers, janitors, babysitters, law enforcement officials and firefighters.
Traffickers are known to specifically target minors because they are looked upon as easy targets. One instance of this occurred in Trenton, New Jersey, where a seven-year old was sold by her 15-year-old stepsister to an undisclosed group of men for sex. The teen has been charged with aggravated sexual assault, promoting prostitution and other crimes.
Stopping Child Trafficking At The Source
Some sources believe that addressing the demand side of human trafficking is a much-needed remedy for halting this horrendous activity. One way this can happen is to operatives to prosecute and convict child predators, thus destroying the source of the demand. The individuals on these teams are drawn from a pool of the best intelligence and investigative personnel who have had distinguished careers in military, federal, and state organizations, and who possess skills that enable them to achieve their goals in the US and abroad. There is no glory or fame associated with these efforts. The reward comes from knowing that they are taking predators off the streets, and by doing so, are saving many innocent children from a brutal life of slavery.
Child slavery and child trafficking occurs because there is a high demand for such services. Organized crime syndicates seek out vulnerable victims and place them in situations where there is little hope of escape. These children are afraid for their lives and, at the very least, have lost their childhoods forever. By putting predators behind bars and stopping demand, ending child slavery becomes a plausible reality.
Chris Harmen is a writer for Stop Child Trafficking Now. Over one million children are vulnerable to child trafficking. This situation will continue until child slavery is addressed at the demand level.
Georgia and Alabama Tornado News Coverage (March 2007)
