I am a current sophomore at the University of Maryland, located in College Park, Maryland. This semester, I am taking the course CCJS325: Slavery in the 21st Century. You may be wondering what the title of this class means, and in this letter, I am going to tell you. There is slavery in the 21st century. There is slavery in the United States of America. There is slavery in every state. This slavery is human trafficking, and it is happening right now. We were assigned to read the book Renting Lacy by Linda Smith. This piece of writing was written to bring to light the serious issue of human trafficking. The issue that’s happening right now. Linda Smith, founder of Shared Hope International, decided to write down the horrors of human trafficking, …show more content…
According to the Polaris Project website, New Jersey is a tier 1 state, meaning that it complies with all of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s laws. The Polaris project website also rated New Jersey with a perfect score, stating that they’ve fulfilled all 10 law categories that fight against human trafficking (“2014 State Ratings on Human Trafficking Laws” Polaris Project, 2014). Even though New Jersey is meeting the requirements, it doesn’t mean that it’s not still happening. New Jersey is a prime location for human trafficking due to its proximity to Philadelphia and New York City, as well as smaller cities within the state itself like Atlantic City and Newark (Proebstle, 2012). They’ve increased staff and added a Human Trafficking Unity as well as forming about 500 human trafficking hotlines (Proebstle, …show more content…
A perpetrator of human trafficking is defined as someone who “knowingly holds, recruits, lures, entices, harbors, transports, provides or obtains, by any means, another, to engage in sexual activity … or to provide labor or services by threats of serious bodily harm or physical restraint against the person or any other person … intended to cause the person to believe that the person or any other person would suffer serious bodily harm or physical restraint …or by destroying, concealing, removing, confiscating, or possessing any passport, immigration-related document” or as someone who “receives anything of value from participation as an organizer, supervisor, financier or manager in a scheme or course of conduct” (NJ Office of the Attorney General,