Social Structure, Process and Development

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Prostitution across immigration routes, which is better known as sex and human trafficking is a rampant problem across the world. The use of immigration routes to transport women who have been kidnapped, coerced, and forced into prostitution is a very significant problem. Traffickers have used the social structure of countries that face rampant poverty, unemployment, and hopelessness to prey on unsuspecting women by luring them to emigrate to different countries under the auspices of a better life. Once in these new countries the women are forced to prostitute themselves for no pay and are treated as slaves forced to sell their bodies for the trafficking rings.
The social structure theoretical framework is predicated upon the belief that in society there are different structures that represent the hierarchy of society. Throughout history, those in power and in the higher socioeconomic classes have exploited the weaker classes and kept their status within the social structure by denying education, opportunities, and upward social mobility to those in the lower socioeconomic classes. The social structure thus creates a disparity within society between the haves and have-nots resulting in a society that has many desperate people. Social issues such as poverty, crime, and inequality are borne in such an environment and society.
Within such a social structure emerges the ability for people to become exploited and trafficked. Human trafficking is the second largest criminal enterprise in the world behind drug trafficking. Most of the trafficking victims are women and children and many are forced into prostitution under the guise of immigration. Because many of the women who are trafficked into prostitution come from countries with high rates of poverty; the social structure theory can help explain how many who are tricked into this profession become victims. When Eastern European women are offered jobs as maids within other countries such as Turkey, many of these women truly believe that they will be working legitimate jobs. Once they arrive in these foreign countries, they are subsequently told that they have a debt that must be paid, an astronomical figure, and that unless they work as prostitutes to pay it off they will be beaten, raped, or even killed. The reason that these women are willing to venture overseas in the first place is because of the social structure in their countries that allows the rich and powerful to hoard all the resources while poor people suffer unimaginable poverty. Therefore, the social structure is skewed and has led to significant amounts of women from Eastern Europe being trafficked into prostitution.
This is representative of many social structures in many countries that have witnessed the breakdown of the social fabric resulting in many people suffering and looking for any way to improve their scenario in life. As a result the world has 21st century slavery in the form of human trafficking and sex trafficking. This 21st century slavery is most rampant in countries such ...