In modern society, several issues have hugely and negatively impacted communities and people. It is necessary for the people and people of power to try and fix them. Two major dilemmas in society right now are human trafficking and false confession. We need to understand how these complications arise so that we can respond correctly to these situations and safely solve the problem.

In an online zoom meeting, the idea of human trafficking, especially sex trafficking, was being discussed. Since it is highly profitable in the underground business, human trafficking has become the fastest-growing criminal enterprise, and that is a severe issue. Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. In other words, human trafficking is the modern slavery as all the rights and freedom of victims are taken away.

Traffickers are secretive and can be both men and women of all ages, including all ethnicities. Traffickers have created the most harm in huge sporting events, like the Superbowl, and sometimes even be the person that is the closest to you. Rev Que English, the chair of the New York City Faith-Based Coalition Against Human Trafficking and Domestic Violence, talks about the process in which victims are sex traffick, which can be categorized into three parts: the act, the mean, and the purpose. The act means what has been done such as recruitment, transfer, or harboring a person. The mean is how trafficking is done, such as the use of threat, force, coercion, abduction, fraud, and deception. The purpose means why is trafficking done, and usually, it is done for sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, or even removal of organs. Although human trafficking has existed in the past, modern technology has made it easier for traffickers to commit these crimes. With social media apps and doxing, data harvesting for private information has become easier for traffickers to stalk people, physically and online. Traffickers can get information about people’s relatives and friends and can even get phone numbers to try to pretend as someone else to lure people.

By using their resources, traffickers find and target vulnerable people as they are financially unstable or uneducated by exploiting their vulnerabilities through false promises. Some of the high-risk victims the traffickers prey on are impoverished people, undocumented immigrants, runaways, foster care individuals, or people with drug addiction. Once attracted, traffickers use torture tactics and manipulation to control the victims. According to the US Department of State, “Right now traffickers are robbing a staggering 24.9 million people of their freedom and basic human dignity—that’s roughly three times the population of New York City.” Many of these victims are also children. In the United States alone, 800,000 children are reported missing per year, which is roughly 2,000 children per day. Out of these missing children, at least 100,000 children are victims of sex trafficking every year. Most of these kids are only between the age of 12 and 14 years old. Many of these children are girls and are usually abducted at a very young age for a variety of purposes, but most commonly for sexual exploitation.

It is possible to identify the people that are used in human trafficking. Human trafficking victims are physically, emotionally, and mentally hurt and usually have signs of physical abuse,

a type of tattoo or branding, unexplained absences from school or work, depression, and emotionally unstable. Moreover, as people read more about these issues and become knowledgeable, people’s senses become heightened, and they will be more aware of their surroundings. However, it is saddening to say that trying to save these victims can be difficult. Victims do not understand how terrible their situations are. Traffickers also manipulate the victims, so they are forced to go back. Furthermore, to save them, it can be dangerous and can endanger the victims by worsening the situation and adding complexation.

Many things are being done to stop traffickers from committing these crimes. As people become more aware and active in this issue, people of power have made many procedures and laws. Cuomo was the one to sign a legislature to end child trafficking. Some social media are making private social media and limiting access to people’s private information.

In the meeting, another significant issue that was brought up is the idea of interrogation of minors and false confession. False confession shows the corruption and the wrongdoings of the justice system. Police would force, threaten, or give false hope to youth to confess about crimes that they did not do. The problem lies in that youths are interrogated without any appropriate adults, like supervisors, lawyers, or the youth’s parents. Without an adult, the police can take advantage of the youth’s fear and lack of knowledge to abuse its power of police questioning. According to statistics, 25% of wrongful convictions included false confessions. Also, 42% of teens in juveniles have made false confessions and were wrongly accused of crimes. For instance, if we take a further look into police arresting minors before any form of investigations, the Central Park Jogger Case shows a false accusation for the assault and rape of a female jogger named Trisha Meili, who was found in critical condition because of the endangering attacks from eight people. Five youth defendants, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Santana Jr., and Kharey Wise convicted of assaulting Ms. Meili before all got exonerated when inmate Matias Reyes (convicted rapist) confessed to the crime.

It is crucial to help youths to avoid being pressured by these abusive policing. One significant contribution to help youths is the Federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) established in 1974 and last authorized in 2002. This act provides crucial support for state programs and assists communities to have a comprehensive approach for juvenile prevention and further addresses vulnerable youth or family issues. As you know, police must notify a person of their Miranda rights, the rights to stay silent, before taking them into custody or interrogating them. The same should be true for minors, but with additional precautions and requirements for the Miranda warnings. In addition, many different allies and organizations started to bring light to this and brought justice to some people who were wrongly accused of committing crimes.

These issues have greatly affected the communities around us. These crimes and inequality call for both the younger and older people to work together to create a change for society. We should continue to be aware and alert about such issues to protect ourselves and others.

By—Wilson Zhang & Sashana Kinghorn