Summary
Joaquin Mendez-Hernandez, a national of Savannah was was sentenced to life in a federal prison for his role in a sex-trafficking ring that operated in southeast United States. The ring involved a large amount of immigrant women who were trafficked, shipped to shacks in Georgia and the Carolinas where they were met by 20 or 30 immigrant men waiting to have sex with them. The women were trying to buy their freedom by being in the sex trade but their debt is never ending and they are basically in indentured servitude. The article states that even though they rescued these women, for every 10 women saved there are 50 or 100 more women being brought by traffickers.
Analysis
This report highlights how human trafficking is a growing industry and the lengths people will go to make money and be free. In the United States we are all feed this idea of the American dream. The people who are involved in sex trafficking whether its operating the ring or becoming a victim of it, have to engage in unspeakable acts to reach the goal of freedom or riches. When thinking about Mertons's Means Goal Gap theory, those who are operating the ring are somewhat innovators, because they are going after the American dream of rags to riches but not going through legit means to achieve that. These trafficking rings are a new form of slavery. Slavery has been prevalent through out human existence but in most cases in history the enslaving was based on race or ethnicity but now its based on gender. These vulnerable women are enslaved by these powerful men because they are so desperate for their freedom they are willing to sell their bodies based on a hope that one day they will be able to be free in America. These incidents are happening in and around our own state and are not individual problems, they are social problems.
Article
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/19/justice/southeast-sex-trafficking-ring/
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