Sex Trafficking Victims Essay

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Effect of Ethnicity on the Portrayal of Sex Trafficking Victims The second argument involves the comparison of different types of victims based on ethnicity and their likelihood to appear in news and media. Victims who belong to an ethnic minority are often largely ignored in the news compared to the “ideal victim” portrayed in news media (Gekoski, Gray and Adler, 2012). This is not as predominantly the case with sex trafficking victims, while race plays some effect in who the media portrays the effect is far more negligible than in other crimes involving those belonging to a similar demographic. Generally, in crimes like homicide and assault a dichotomy exists between the “undeserving” victim and the “perfect” or “ideal” victim (Gekoski et al., 2012). The “ideal victim” being typically a white female and often young. This results in ethnic minority groups being determined by media to being these …show more content…
These ethnic women are both structurally disadvantaged and suffer from symbolic and actual violence, this culminates in them being more susceptible to sexual exploitation including sex trafficking (Chong, 2014). While normally these types of systemic disadvantages and racism would typically decrease the attention afforded by news media, one need only examine the plight of the missing and murdered aboriginal women for examples of this, uniquely this does not affect sec trafficking victims as significantly. The explanation for this is due to the fact the sensationalistic stories of these victims outweigh the negative influence race has on the ethnicity of an individual. Wetizer (2007) suggests claim makers attempt to use as many horror stories of victims as possible in order to advance their moral crusade. This extends beyond race in an effort to connect to as many people as possible and advance the awareness of sex trafficking through news