Human Trafficking

“What is human trafficking? Where does it exist?  What contributes to human trafficking?” (My Sister’s House).  People may not consider human trafficking as a part of human rights, but human trafficking is a modern form of slavery.  According to World English Dictionary, slavery is “the state or condition of being a slave; a civil relationship whereby one person has absolute power over another and controls his life, liberty, and fortune.”  In other words, a person has the power over another’s human rights when that person is a slave.  This means that human trafficking forces people into labor and/or sex and their natural rights are taken a way from them.  But most people only believes that human trafficking is related with prostitution. My question is why has no one tried to stop human trafficking?

My Sister’s House, a non-profit organization, has a pamphlet titling Human Trafficking: Look Beneath the Surface.  In the pamphlet, it answers the earlier questions.  It states that “trafficking victims can be single or married, any age or ethnicity” (My Sister’s House).  The victim for human trafficking can be anyone.  One may even know or knew someone that was a victim.  It goes on to state that “all around the world there are millions of women, men, and children who are enslaved and force to live in most horrific living conditions” (My Sister’s House).  This means that neither gender nor does age matter.  Lastly, the pamphlet states that “the most significant contributing factor is the lack of awareness action of the issue which results in continued trafficking” (My Sister’s House).  In other words, people are aware of the situation, but no one has stopped it from happening.

The only thing that the pamphlet omits was not being more concise on the labor part of human trafficking.  Most people would not care about the labor part because they are more interested in why people would force others in to prostitution.  Besides that, My Sister’s House is bias against those who are forced  into human trafficking.  It seems they want to have people start acting on preventing human trafficking from happening.

There are pros and cons for prostitution in dealing with Human Trafficking.  Marjan Wijers, Chair of the European Commission's Expert Group on Trafficking in Human Beings, states that a pro for Human Trafficking is "criminalizing the sex industry creates ideal conditions for rampant exploitation and abuse of sex workers...[I]t is believed that trafficking in women, coercion and exploitation can only be stopped if the existence of prostitution is recognized and the legal and social rights of prostitutes are guaranteed" (Top 10 Pros and Cons: Should prostitution be legal?).  On the opposition, Margareta Winberg, former Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden, states that "I believe that we will never succeed in combating trafficking in women if we do not simultaneously work to abolish prostitution and the sexual exploitation of women and children. Particularly in light of the fact that many women in prostitution in countries that have legalized prostitution are originally victims of trafficking in women"(Top 10 Pros and Cons: Should prostitution be legal?).  In my opinion,  no one has stopped human trafficking because  of what Margareta Winberg said that many women in prostitution were originally victims of trafficking, so that means that people see that these women are no longer in slavery to people.

References

My Sister's House. Human Trafficking: Look Beneath the Surface. Print.

"Slavery | Define Slavery at Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com | Free Online Dictionary for English       Definitions. Web. 17 Apr. 2011. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/slavery>.

"Top 10 Pros and Cons - Prostitution - ProCon.org." Prostitution ProCon.org -- Should Prostitution Be Legal?      Web. 17 Apr. 2011. <http://prostitution.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000115>.

Racial Profiling

What is racial profiling?  Are there any beliefs that law enforcement officials racially profile?  These questions may flow in one’s mind.  The criminal justice system is the most bias and prejudicial system in society from the time of slavery to terrorism. Racial profiling has effects on human rights because the criminal justice system is most likely conduct these racial profiling on ethnic minorities. According to WordNet, “racial profiling is a form of racism consisting of the (alleged) policy of policemen who stop and search vehicles driven by persons belonging to particular racial groups.” My question is why is racial profiling still around?

In the book, Critical Issues in Crime and Justice, by Mary Maguire and Dan Okada discuss racial profiling through police ethics, contemporary race and crime issues, and the research on conflict theory and the police.  Maguire and Okada discusses that “ Higgins, Gabbidon, and Jordan analyzed data from the 2004 Minority Rights and Relations/Black-White Social Audit poll and found that blacks were more likely than whites to believe that racial profiling is widespread” (Maguire 105).  The authors also state that “racial profiling can occur whether or not those targeted are actually engaged in any crimes” (Maguire 105). African Americans believe that officers are racists because they are the most likely to get pulled over by police officers and believe that they have done something wrong.; however, the officers may be looking for someone that committed a crime that resembles the one being pulled over.  Often descriptions are black males from 5 foot 2 to 6 feet.  This makes up majority of all blacks.  This could be the same for other ethnic minorities; however, it depends on how they see law enforcement.

Both Maguire and Okada seem to know what they are talking about.  They hardly omit information.  However, they need to supply the percentage from the Minority Rights and Relations/Black-White Social Audit poll.  This is so that people could see how much more blacks believed that racial profiling was widespread as well as the percentage of other minorities that might have the same beliefs.  Racial profiling is ethicallt wrong for the officer and the criminal justice system in general.  The authors seem to be unbiased when discussing the issue of racial profiling because they made one section of the book all about racial profiling even if the authors wrote on other main critical issues.

Racial profiling has changed since 9/11. Since the “War on Terrorism,” there seem to be some people feel uncomfortable with certain people.  In the article from the CNN.com,“Airlines, Passengers Confront Racial Profiling,” about airlines and passengers confrontations on racial profiling.  An argument against racial profiling is that one passenger stated that "they were treating me like a suspect." The passenger also said "I felt like I was in custody."   In my opinion, racial profiling is unethical as well as a violation of human rights. There is some ethnic minorities that are under the impression that when they are approached by law enforcement that it is racial profiling when in reality, it is for just misidentification or that official is racist.

References:

"CNN.com - Airlines, Passengers Confront Racial Profiling - October 3, 2001." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. 03 Oct. 2001. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. <http://archives.cnn.com/2001/TRAVEL/NEWS/10/03/rec.airlines.profiling/index.html>.

Maguire, M. and Dan Okada. Critical Issues in Crime and Justice: Thoughts, Policy, and    Practice. Sage: Thousand Oaks, California. 2011.

“Racial Profiling.” WordNet. Web. 27 Mar 2011

Equal Employment

What comes to mind when one thinks of companies?  Are they diverse in different backgrounds such as gender, race, and sexual preference?  Are companies hiring because Affirmative Action laws and regulations?  With Affirmative Action, companies are required to hire people with different backgrounds, thus creating diversity.  Many people that are qualified have lost their job because of Affirminative Actions. By hiring a diverse work force, people believe they have a better understanding of minorities.   Affirmative Action even wants companies to hire minorities that are not qualified for positions that are open. Does Affirmative Action really make equal employment or is it the government’s way to make minorities happy about gaining employment?  Today, Affirmative Action might be viewed differently.  Is United State’s employment equal in today’s society as compared with previous generations?

Former vice president of Hewlett-Packard, Kim Box, wrote an article for the Sacramento Bee about diversity and how it is imperative in keeping California businesses competitive.  She discusses that “more than one-third, 141 of the 400 largest public companies in California have no women among their directors and highest paid executives” (Box).  Box says “people have a tendency to hire other people like themselves. While this is comfortable and convenient, you limit the creative thoughts and insights to groups of like-minded people” (Box).  In other words, people will hire those that think similar and may have biases against those that are minorities.  This situation will cause a loss of creative ideas and products for the company. 

A great example of unequal employment comes from the movie, The Toy. In this movie, an African American reporter tries to obtain a job with the best newspaper company in town; yet the paper refuses to employ him because the color of his skin.  The reporter had the experience and could bring new ideas and views to the paper; this did not help his cause.  The difference between this movie and reality is that at the end of the movie the African American reporter ended up getting the position of reporter because of how he brought the owner and his son together.  In reality, this does not always happen. People often have to search elsewhere to find jobs.

Kim Box states that hiring diverse teams can better mirror the customer base.  However, she omits statistics of how much better these companies can do, when targeting a variety of audiences.  Box may have a bias against the 141 businesses where there are no women among their directors and/or executives since she was the Vice President of Hewlett-Packard.  However, Box does bring up interesting points about diversity. For example, Kim Box states that “diversity is a well-discussed topic among the business world, evidence shows progress is severely lacking.”  This could mean even if companies suggest they are diverse, evidence against these suggestions are not present. Additionally, she suggest that “diverse groups will have insights and experiences to complement and challenge one another.”  People of different backgrounds have different knowledge for products and ideas which will bring a new focus for the companies.

There are a few arguments on Affirmative Action. Two arguments for Affirmative Action are “advocates for the diversity rationale argue that society as a whole benefits when affirmative action is used to maintain diverse schools, workplaces, and businesses. According to this argument, people from different backgrounds, cultures, and genders bring complementary skills that collectively enrich the places where they work and learn” (Affirmative Action). Those against the ideals of Affirmative Action argue that it is wrong to allocate social benefits on the basis of immutable characteristics, such as race or gender (Affirmative Action).  There are arguments for equal employment as well.  According to The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees “AFCME”, the “working conditions and physical effort are two of the factors that are commonly looked at in a pay equity study.”  They later suggest that “all jobs, regardless of whether they are performed primarily by men or by women, should be paid based on the level of skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions required by the job.”  AFCME arguments against this by suggesting, “some men get paid more because they have dangerous jobs or jobs which demand physical strength.” In today’s society, equal employment has changed as compared to that of previous generations.  This is due to no longer needing to segregate jobs from minorities.  Working conditions, physical and ideological ideas come into play such as the skill level of minorities have over the majority.  However, Affirmative Action is still happening today for employment and education.  With Affirmative Action, there could still be unfair treatment of minority employees by promoting them to positions to gain federal grants or leaving them at entry level positions. People are still turned away even if they meet the required needs of the company which creates legal problems.

Works Cited

"Affirmative Action - Pros and Cons, The Origins of, Legal Treatment of, Political and Social Debates, The Future." Online 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. Web. 06 Mar. 2011. http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/5916/Affirmative-Action.html.

"What Are Common Arguments Against Pay Equity and How Can the Union Respond?" AFSCME. Web. 12 Mar. 2011. <http://www.afscme.org/publications/2417.cfm>.

Box, Kim. "Diversity Is Imperative to Keep California Businesses Competitive." Sacramento Bee 27 Feb. 2011. Print.

Hate Crimes

Many people don’t consider hate crimes as apart of unfair treatment of human rights.  Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law states that hate crimes violate the victim's civil rights and that is motivated by hostility to the victim's race, religion, creed, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender.  If one looks at the first part of the definition, it states that a crime that violate the victim’s civil rights. Today's civil rights deals with deal with any of the civil liberties guaranteed by theU.S. Amendments.  So in other words hate crimes goes against the Amendments by targeting race, religion or other factors. Are there still hate crimes happening in society since the Civil Rights Movement?

According to the Do You Know How To Be Safe?, a brochure passed out by California State University Sacramento Department of Public Safety (Sac State Police Department), it gives facts and the signs of hate crimes that may have been committed as well as other safety information.  The facts are from the 2003 Attorney General’s Hate Crime Report which states “that 55% of hate crimes in 2000 were racially motivated, 16% were motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation and 69% of those victims were specifically anti-male homosexual bias” (Sac State 7).  Most of crimes could take place at victims’ homes, highways, schools, and colleges. These facts are relevant because they show that there are still hate crimes in society.  There are no facts that are excluded because race and color coincide with each other due to some people's belief that one’s color deals with their race.  However, most people are aware that this is not true.

Most of the hate crimes may have been committed if the victim was selected by the perpetrator because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, and gender.  These groups are known as “protected classes” (Sac State 7). Other factors include written or oral comments of the perpetrator that indicates their bias; date of incident coincides with a significant day of the protected classes; the differences of race or religion of the victim and perpetrator; and organized hate group activity in the area.  Sac State Police Department's only bias is when crimes go unnoticed, then no one could be punished so they try to prevent all crimes and let all students, professors, and others that are on campus for no reason of how to be safe.  The author is consistent with the facts for argument of safety. The author’s value is the safety of people on campus as well as at home and everywhere they are at.  People are trying to pass legislation for these hate crimes.

               

There are argument for and against hate crime legislation.  According to B.A. Robinson, a writer for a Religious website, the opposition of hate crime legislation argues that federal hate crime legislation would increase federal government participation in law enforcement.  But for those in favor of the legislation, they state that increased federal involvement in hate crime prosecution would be beneficial and sometimes local prejudices prevent extremists who target specific groups from receiving a proper trial and sentence (Robinson 2009).  These are just two of many arguments about hate crime laws.  I believe that hate crimes still exist and that we should increase federal involvement so everyone does not have to live in fear.  Hate crimes in America have shifted from African Americans to Mexicans, Muslims, and homosexuals who want to marry.

References

Hate crimes. (N.D.).Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law. Retrieved February 19, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hate crimes

Robinson, B.A. "Hate Crime Law Arguments Pro and Con. Civil Rights Concerns." ReligiousTolerance.org by the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. 29 Apr. 2009.     Web. 19 Feb. 2011. http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_hat5.htm.

Sacramento State. Do You Know How To Be Safe? Sacramento: Sacramento State. Print.

Human Rights and Torture

According to WordNet, human right is any basic right or freedom to which all human beings are entitled and in whose exercise a government may not interfere (including rights to life and liberty as well as freedom of thought and expression and equality before the law).  Human rights has been an issue throughout history dating back to the treatment of the Jewish in Egypt.  Today, the problems dealing with Human Rights deals with religion shown by the World Trade Center Attacks on 9/11 and any terrorist attacks there after to cultural indifferences that could lead to a genocide of a certain culture and race or even labor laws such as the right age to work.  In the criminal justice system,  human rights have always led to problems such as racial profiling while dealing with police discretion of arrests, convictions and sentencing.  Others are the torturing of prisoners since the War on Terrorism. The same could be said about equal employment in law enforcement where Affirmative Action comes into play with both Human and Civil Rights. 

With these problems in the present and the past, Civil Rights, child labor laws, racial profiling, and religious tolerance comes into play with laws and policies such as Affirmative Actions, if the people born in the U.S. then they are citizens (14th Amendment), slavery is illegal (13th Amendment), the right to vote (19th Amendment) and etc. Everyone is affected by human rights in one way or another through these laws and policies.  So my question is whether or not human rights are still on the road to equal treatment of people?

Sharon Cohen writes on civil rights and other human rights articles for the Associated Press.  On Sunday, January 30, 2011, she wrote an article on police torture in Chicago to extract confession from innocent people for crimes that they did not commit.  The article could apply to police brutality and corruption. She cites a letter from 1989 and an attorney who represented a man that was behind bars.  The letter was talking how there were some Chicago police officers that were torturing known criminals to extract confessions for petty thefts to murder. The letter and the attorney stated that “the torture was not necessary.”  The article states that over 100 minorities were tortured from police officers for confessions and claimed about it.  The author’s bias is the torturing of innocent people for confessions of crimes that they did not commit.  Torturing people can go both ways.  One is being unethical and improper police procedures such as those that have nothing to do with a certain crime and are tortured or arrested for that crime.  The other way is that torture should only be used when law enforcement needs to prevent crimes from happening such as preventing another terrorist attack.  However, I have to agree with those that argue that torture is unethical and part of improper police procedures to gain unsuited confessions.

The article was decent and the author made sure that people were aware that there was inmate torture prior to 9/11 as well to inform people that the War on Drugs led police to commit acts that were unethical at that time and the public opinion was fine with that.  The pertinent facts were not omitted in the article due to the author's example of the type of torture that was performed with one of the people.  The author values equal treatment.  According to Critical Issues in Crime and Justice, “some argue that the public has no choice but to accept a certain level of police corruption and abuse in the interests of public safety and in serving the noble cause” (Maguire 7).

There are arguments for torture and human rights.  A couple arguments,  according to Dr. Sam Vaknin, are “suspects - innocent until proven guilty - indeed should not be subject to penalty. But torture is merely an interrogation technique.” Ethically, it is no different to any other pre-trial process: shackling, detention, questioning, or bad press.  According to Diana Ayton-Shenker, an argument against Human Rights is that universal human rights can be intrusive and disruptive to traditional protection of human life, liberty and security.  The better treatment of humans may lead the world to a better place; however, there will be people that may treat others with disrespect as well as unfairly due to how people are raised and trained.  This is because of public opinion and history of man.  Human rights and the road to better treatment of minorities have been improving in America since the 1960’s with the Civil Rights Movement.

Ayton-Shenker, Diana. "The Challenge of Human Rights and Cultural Diversity." Welcome to the United Nations: It's Your World. Web. 05 Feb. 2011. http://www.un.org/rights/dpi1627e.htm.

Cohen, S. (2011). How tables were turned on a police torture squad. The Sacramento Bee, A(12).

Maguire, Mary and Dan Okada. Critical Issues in Crime and Justice: Thought, Policy, and Practice. Los Angeles, CA: Sage. 2011

Vaknin, Sam. "The Argument for Torture." Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD),

Self-love, Narcissism,Narcissists, Psychopaths, and Relationships with Abusers, Stalkers, and Bullies- Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Re-Visited. Web. 05 Feb.   2011.  <http://samvak.tripod.com/torture.html>.

WordNet. "Human Right." Online Dictionary: Definitions by WordNet, Webster's, Etc. Web. 05 Feb. 2011. <http://dictionary.die.net/>.