All of this turned out to be nonsense. Of course, it goes without saying that children are occasionally victims of sexual exploitation and violence at day care centers; children are occasionally kidnapped and murdered; young people go missing, only to turn up later, slightly decayed, in a ditch by the side of some road. None of these facts, however, are evidence in the kind of massive conspiracies alleged by supposed experts who have been entertaining us with their tales for years. In fact, the allegations of massive cover-ups of various so-called cultic activity tend to blind both the public and officials by creating investigatory dead-ends, wasting precious man-hours and resources as phantom cults and their leaders are chased down, prosecuted, only to be released because all the so-called evidence was so shoddy and very often prosecutorial misconduct was involved (see the McMartin Preschool case in California for details).
With that in mind - i.e., real crimes become blown way out of proportion, creating overreaction on the part of both the public in general, and elected officials in particular - I found this article from yesterday's Washington Post, highlighted by Faith in Public Life, "Human Trafficking Evokes Outrage, Little Evidence" by Jerry Markon, very interesting:
Outrage was mounting at the 1999 hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building, where congressmen were learning about human trafficking.
A woman from Nepal testified that September that she had been drugged, abducted and forced to work at a brothel in Bombay. A Christian activist recounted tales of women overseas being beaten with electrical cords and raped. A State Department official said Congress must act -- 50,000 slaves were pouring into the United States every year, she said. Furious about the "tidal wave" of victims, Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.) vowed to crack down on so-called modern-day slavery.
The next year, Congress passed a law, triggering a little-noticed worldwide war on human trafficking that began at the end of the Clinton administration and is now a top Bush administration priority. As part of the fight, President Bush has blanketed the nation with 42 Justice Department task forces and spent more than $150 million -- all to find and help the estimated hundreds of thousands of victims of forced prostitution or labor in the United States.
But the government couldn't find them. Not in this country.
The evidence and testimony presented to Congress pointed to a problem overseas. But in the seven years since the law was passed, human trafficking has not become a major domestic issue, according to the government's figures.
The administration has identified 1,362 victims of human trafficking brought into the United States since 2000, nowhere near the 50,000 a year the government had estimated. In addition, 148 federal cases have been brought nationwide, some by the Justice task forces, which are composed of prosecutors, agents from the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and local law enforcement officials in areas thought to be hubs of trafficking.
In the Washington region, there have been about 15 federal cases this decade.
Ronald Weitzer, a criminologist at George Washington University and an expert on sex trafficking, said that trafficking is a hidden crime whose victims often fear coming forward. He said that might account for some of the disparity in the numbers, but only a small amount.
"The discrepancy between the alleged number of victims per year and the number of cases they've been able to make is so huge that it's got to raise major questions," Weitzer said. "It suggests that this problem is being blown way out of proportion."
Government officials define trafficking as holding someone in a workplace through force, fraud or coercion. Trafficking generally takes two forms: sex or labor. The victims in most prosecutions in the Washington area have been people forced into prostitution. The Department of Health and Human Services "certifies" trafficking victims in the United States after verifying that they were subjected to forced sex or labor. Only non-U.S. citizens brought into this country by traffickers are eligible to be certified, entitling them to receive U.S. government benefits.
Administration officials acknowledge that they have found fewer victims than anticipated. Brent Orrell, an HHS deputy assistant secretary, said that certifications are increasing and that the agency is working hard to "help identify many more victims." He also said: "We still have a long way to go.''
The Bush Administration response to this "discrepancy"?
But Tony Fratto, deputy White House press secretary, said that the issue is "not about the numbers. It's really about the crime and how horrific it is."
I want to be clear that I am not saying human trafficking does not occur here in the United States or abroad. I am not claiming that the victims of these crimes are not subject to degradation, dehumanization, and various threats to health and body. I am saying that we have here another example of earnest outrage at a problem snowballing in to a huge, expensive, wildly out of control effort to deal with a problem that, for the most part doesn't exist, and can be handled without the aid of additional legislation, and with the tools law enforcement on various levels already has.
I also find it hilarious that, at least in this instance, it is supposedly small government Republicans who create a huge law-enforcement bureaucracy, spend millions and millions of tax-payer dollars, huff and puff around the country about moder-day slavery, and have . . . 1300 prosecutions to their credit, when the allegations of trafficking were 50,000 a year. 1300 is seven years, out of an alleged total of 350,00 cases. That is .0037 percent, in case you were wondering, of alleged actual cases as opposed to actual prosecuted cases.
I am highlighting this not to downplay the horrors of human trafficking, but to highlight ways in which we suddenly become gripped by concern over a problem that, for the most part, or completely, doesn't exist. We waste time, energy, resources, all because we become, what? - horrified at the story of a victim of human trafficking? The problem is real, just not an epidemic in the United States. The solution has already been largely in hand, but the additional tools offered by legislation become more of a burden than a help to the real pursuit and prosecution of these crimes. And, of course, those who point out these little salient facts suddenly become accused of being callous to the victims, which we most surely are not.
I shall put my thesis bluntly. The problem is real; the solution is not.
