Criminal Justice Instructor Jon Johnson and his students held a ‘lunch and learn’ workshop over the global issue of sex trafficking on November 15. . The presentations were about the two biggest perpetrators of human trafficking: Russia and the United States.

     “About 26 million people in the world are in modern slavery,” Johnson said. “At the height of slavery in the 1800s, approximately 12 million people were enslaved. Now, it’s almost double that number.”

     The first group to present at Johnson’s lunch and learn talked about Russia. According to the CIA World Factbook, Russia is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children who are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking.

     “When we were giving the presentation, I noticed how people were exasperated at the statistics we gave,” law enforcement student Ashlynn Beaird said. “We were talking about the origins of human trafficking… the types of trafficking, and how much money is made off of it.”

     Johnson’s second group to present went over the United States of America: one of the leading countries in sex trafficking.  The U.S. State Department has estimated that approximately 600,000 to 800,000 victims are trafficked annually across international borders worldwide and approximately half of these victims are younger than age 18. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states that approximately 20% of human trafficking in the U.S. is in Texas.

     “Human trafficking [in the United States] is absolutely disgusting,” junior Peyton Pascual said. “It degrades people to the point of not feeling like they’re people. It’s important that we talk about it so people can be made more aware of it, and possibly stop it.”

If you or someone you know is a victim of human trafficking, please call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center: 1 (888) 373-7888