Writers Den

Human Trafficking Awareness
Lisa D. Campbell
Professor Kratz
University of Southern California

INSTRUCTIONS: Gather at least three newspaper articles and at least one peer-reviewed journal article that
discusses the population and/or legislation you are focusing on this semester with your group. This work should be
done individually as the newspaper articles should be specific to your own community. For instance, if you are
focusing on undocumented students and the DREAM Act, you would want to gather information about undocumented
students at your local university. You should also search for policy reports from the RAND Institute and the Drum
Major Institute for Public Policy related to your specific piece of legislation.
Create an annotated bibliography of the materials you find and post the annotated bibliography to the forum. For
instructions on how to create an annotated bibliography, please visit the following link:
OWL English Purdue

Running head: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIE
2

Human Trafficking Awareness: An Annotated Bibliography

(Name of Local News Paper and website: please site APA) Loudoun Times.com
http://patch.com/virginia/mclean/congresswoman-comstock-human-trafficking-problemnorthern-virginia-0

Barbara Comstock
U.S. Representative to Congress from the 10th District

Northern Virginia has a growing human trafficking problem – problems we are seeing expand
throughout the country. The Fairfax County Police Department recently established the Northern
Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force to crack down on this scourge. In the past 12 months
alone, the Task Force has had 156 leads, 109 victim recoveries, 267 victims identified and 73
suspects. One-hundred and two of the 109 victims recovered are U.S. citizens.
Our local police and community leaders are rising to this challenge to combat this terrible crime
in Virginia and we have a great partnership to continue this work. Four years ago, Virginia was at
the bottom of the Polaris Project’s Anti-Human Trafficking State Rankings. Virginia is now
ranked in the top category (Tier 1) in the fight against human trafficking thanks in large part to
the efforts of our law enforcement, faith based organizations, teachers, victim service centers and
local and state elected officials.

Running head: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIE
3

(Name of Local News Paper and website: please site APA) Inside NOVA
http://www.insidenova.com/opinion/guest-opinion-human-trafficking-happens-here-invirginia/article_da69afa0-995a-11e4-ae84-eb1b8b73265e.html
Although human trafficking is a major international problem, it happens here in America as well.
This illegal activity has been estimated to generate about $10 billion a year in our nation alone.
The National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline received reports of more than 3,600
sex trafficking cases in 2013. In fact, there were 465 calls from Virginia to the National Human
Trafficking Hotline in one year.
It is estimated that between 100,000-300,000 American youth are currently at risk for becoming
victims of trafficking. The average age of a child who enters the sex trade in America is 12-14
years old. In 2013, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children estimated that 1 in 7
runaway children reported to them were likely sex trafficking victims.
The foster care and youth group home community is particularly vulnerable to human trafficking
because of the instability of their situation. And sadly, traffickers often target young individuals
who have an unstable life, and have been abused, neglected or exploited.
Here in Virginia, our law enforcement community and Department of Social Services are doing a
good job of becoming more aware of trafficking situations among the people they serve. In
addition, trafficking victims are being treated more as victims than criminals, especially those
under the age of 18. Our state government has also extended the age that foster youth “age-out”
of the system from 18 to 21 years old, in an effort to protect and better prepare them for
adulthood.
As a community, we must remember that trafficking occurs in Virginia and here in Prince
William County. We must remain vigilant to spot signs of human trafficking, like drastic

Running head: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIE
4

behavioral changes, signs of abuse, strong anxiety about a debt, and claims of long working
hours with no workplace details. To learn more information about trafficking activity and signs
to look for, check out the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Initiative at www.novahti.com or
the Polaris Project at www.polarisproject.org.
(Name of Local News Paper and website: please site APA) The Connection
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2014/mar/06/sex-trafficking-our-backyard/

Since its creation in October 2013, the human trafficking unit of the Fairfax County
Police Department has received over 70 tips and leads about human trafficking in Northern
Virginia.“Fifty-two percent of those leads involve juvenile sex trafficking cases,” said Detective
William Woolf, lead investigator of the Fairfax County Police Department’s human trafficking
unit, at a House Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations subcommittee on Feb. 26.
In his testimony, Woolf addressed the need for stricter penalties on those responsible for
human trafficking and the ways Fairfax County is addressing trafficking
Woolf said that more resident treatment centers are needed across the country, as survivors such
as Vu have to travel nearly 3,000 miles to receive the treatment they need. According to Woolf,
judges are often going below the federal sentencing guidelines in trafficking cases.
“They are oftentimes just imposing the mandatory minimums as provided by the statute, when
the guidelines suggest much higher penalties for this type of criminal conduct,” he said.
There is also a need for federal legislation addressing the demand side, Woolf said.
“There are individuals out there that are purchasing sex from our children, and these individuals
need to be punished or we at least need the tools to be able to address that as well, particularly
when their actions are affecting interstate commerce,” Woolf said.

Running head: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIE
5

The Virginia General Assembly has addressed legislation dealing with sex trafficking this
session, including HB 235, which has passed both the house and senate. The bill, introduced by
Delegate Rob Bell (R-Albemarle), would place convicted sex solicitors on Virginia’s online
registry of sex offenders.
(Name of peer-reviewed journal article: please site APA) Trafficking within the United
States
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/07/humantrafficking/litrev/index.pdf

3.2 Trafficking within the United States
To date, estimates of human trafficking have focused almost exclusively on international
trafficking victims (Laczko & Gozdziak, 2005), and this holds true for the United States as well.
Only a recent estimate of minors at risk for sexual exploitation comes close to estimating U.S.
domestic trafficking. Between 244,000 and 325,000 American youth are considered at risk for
sexual exploitation, and an estimated 199,000 incidents of sexual exploitation of minors occur
each year in the United States (Estes & Weiner, 2001). These figures, however, are limited
estimates of youth at risk for human trafficking and do not address adult U.S. citizens trafficked
into the sex industry or American children and adults trafficked for labor. We can, however, turn
to estimates of other at-risk populations, such as runaway/throwaway youth, youth exploited
through prostitution, and child labor, to gain a better sense of the potential prevalence of
domestic trafficking, or at least the numbers of people at high risk of trafficking.
Given the correlations between runaway/throwaway youth and minors exploited through
prostitution (Estes & Weiner, 2001), findings from the Second National Incidence Studies of
Missing, Abducted,

Running head: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIE
6