Firstly, let's take a look at the state of the child-trafficking industry. In 2007, there were over 5,682 child traffickers prosecuted in the United States, of which 60% were convicted. 2014, there were 10,051 prosecutions, but only 44% were convicted [2, p.60]. This indicates that the while the number of prosecutions of child traffickers doubled, the conviction rate of said traffickers made a dramatic fall over the span of 7 years, despite a 150% increase in budget allocation in 2014. These numbers indicate that the government has become lenient towards child molesters, made no progress in the battle against rampant child trafficking, and increases expenditure to no effect. This industry is expanding and these figures only scrape the surface of the human trafficking epidemic that is occurring worldwide.
To understand why such an inhumane practice can exist on such a grand scale, we will revisit the fact that human trafficking is a business. All businesses, regardless of its legality, operate under the law of supply and demand: with every demand follows a supply. The numbers shout to us that there is a demand for child sex slaves, and that there are people monetizing over this at the expense of the children's lives. If the United States alone has thousands of cases per year, you couldn't imagine how rampant issue is in third world nations.
According to The Thorn, a child trafficker can make between $150-200,000 per year over a single child [3]. Considering the average age of entry into the trade is 14-16 years old, we can deduce that the prices rise as the ages go lower. This revisits the situation that the customers who are making these purchases are people of high wealth. On an individual scale, this propagates the notion of why politicians and elites are often involved in scandals around the practice. Unfortunately we live in a day and world where your status can protect you from persecution of a crime.
It is generally accepted that people visit third world countries for the sole purpose of purchasing at lower risk and an even lower price. According to a 2007 report, people can have sex with a 13 year old girl for as low as $1 [4]. A case example would be in 2010, when 10 American missionaries were charged for attempting to kidnap 33 children in Haiti after the earthquake. When I say ten Americans, I actually mean there was a band of ten grown adults conspiring a large-scale kidnapping. 9 of them were released after negotiations by Bill Clinton, while the leader, Laura Silsby, was found guilty of her charges due to circumstantial evidence, further reiterated by the fact that her defensive attorney was found to be a wanted sex offender and human trafficker [6]. These people live in a reality different to ours; warped morals, different values, things that are unthinkable to us are normal to others.
Haiti and other undeveloped countries are vulnerable to all kinds of crimes and exploits. In times where NPO's can get away with $500 million dollars vanishing from Haiti Relief donations, it seems reasonable to propose a meticulous investigation into the corrupted state of the country.