Resources for Teachers - Essay Questions: Human Trafficking, including modern day slavery, contemporary slavery, debt bondage, serfdom, forced labor, forced marriage, transferring of wives, inheritance of wives, and transfer of a child for purposes of exploitation. Also forced prostitution, child prostitution, sale of children, and trafficking in children.

Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery

Resources for Teachers

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ESSAY QUESTIONS

1. When the Trafficking Victims Protection Act was passed in 2000, it had wide bipartisan support in Congress, with the working definition of trafficking broadly understood as the transport of persons for the purpose of forced labor in a wide variety of sectors, most notably agriculture, domestic servitude, manufacturing and sex work. In the ensuing years, the focus has shifted to the last of these, with the definition of trafficking broadened to include transfer for the purpose of prostitution even without coercion. How do you perceive this shift in focus to sex-work affecting the success of efforts to stop human trafficking in general?

2. How does a repressive society compare to a free society with respect to human trafficking for purposes of forced labor?

3. Is there a correlation between form of government and a country's success in battling human trafficking? Form of government may vary, even between adjacent countries. Some countries are republics with an executive head of state, while others are constitutional monarchies with a ceremonial head of state, and still others may be absolute monarchies or even something else. You can access a list of countries and their systems of government here

4. Can you find a country whose tier rating stands out when compared to the ratings of adjacent countries. Try to explain the disparity. What is the country doing (or not doing) to improve its current position? [Suggestions: Venezuela, Columbia, Belize, Cuba, Morocco, Uzbekistan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Korea, North Korea]

5. Choose a country and assign your own tier-rating by averaging the ratings of its adjacent countries. Compare it with the official tier-rating. How do you account for the difference, if any?

6. The Western Hemisphere inherited a large part of its culture from Europe during the Age of Exploration. How is this reflected in the tier ratings?

7. What impact, if any, does religion have on a country's ability to deal with human trafficking? Consider which religions are prominent in each region and the moral implications of slavery in that religion.

8. Can slavery be viewed as beneficial within societies where unemployment and starvation are endemic?

9. Can we judge the level of trafficking in a country by counting the number of reports posted for that country on the web? Which factors influence the number of postings?

10. The U.S.A. has recently been assigned a tier-1 rating. Rate it yourself, basing your rating on the posted country report. How does the rating that you assign compare with your sujective impression of the level of human trafficking in the U.S.?

11. Italy has been assigned a tier rating of 2 in the 2020 TIP Report. Review the links to reports of Human Trafficking in Italy and assign your own tier rating. How do you account for the difference, if any?

12. Venezuela has been assigned a tier rating of 3 in the 2020 TIP Report. Review the links to reports of Human Trafficking in Venezuela and assign your own tier rating. How do you account for the difference, if any?

13. How would the legalization (decriminalization) of prostitution impact sex traffickers and the sex industry in general? Specifically, how would decriminalization affect forced prostitution, child prostitution, and the trafficking of women and children for purposes of sexual exploitation?

14. List three major factors that contribute to the persistence of modern-day slavery, worldwide. How do they contribute and how might they be mitigated?

15. In 2005, aneki.com listed the 10 poorest countries in the world as follows: East Timor, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Tanzania, Burundi, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Comoros, and Eritrea. Furthermore, aneki.com listed the 10 richest countries in the world: Luxembourg, Norway, United States, San Marino, Switzerland, Denmark, Iceland, Austria, Canada, and Ireland. Focusing only on Africa, Mauritius and South Africa were listed as the two richest countries. How does a poor country compare to a rich one with respect to the prevalence of human trafficking?

16. Create a new rating system based not only on trafficking activity, but also on financial capacity to deal with trafficking. In your rating system, poorer countries should not be rated as stringently as wealthier countries.