Broken Dreams and Shattered Promises: The Sex Trade in Metropolitan Atlanta

Broken Dreams and Shattered Promises: The Sex Trade in Metropolitan Atlanta

 Ryan Apicello

The Ohio State University

Sociology 2376.02

Fall 2015

[Abstract]

        Sex Trafficking has been an issue for cities as long as time will tell. Atlanta, Georgia is no stranger to the underground sex trade; Atlanta has one of the highest rates of sex trafficking in the country. Atlanta is a transportation hub with many people who travel through Atlanta every day. Atlanta has experienced unbalanced growth where most of the people are moving out of the city and are creating ghettos in the intercity. Poverty in the intercity has caused many broken homes which leads to a higher rate of prostitution. If we cannot develop cities to better accommodate growth, the prostitution problem could turn into a national problem. 

[Atlanta as city]

        Atlanta has a population of an estimated “456000 as of 2014 with 170,000 being white, 231000 being African-American, 15,000 being Asian, and 23,000 being Hispanic or Latino with a medium income of $46,439” (American Factfinder, 2015). It is also considered to be a primary transportation hub of the United States and is home to the Hartsfield-Jackson airport, the busiest in the United States by more than 10 million people. This airport on average has more than 45 million people traveling a year. The city also contains the world headquarters of corporations such as Coca-Cola, Home Depot, UPS, Delta Air Lines and Turner Broadcasting Atlanta also is home to the 2nd largest hotel market in the United States and has seen huge economic growth in the past 20 years.  As a result of this influx of capital, Atlanta has also seen many of its metropolitan residences moving out of the city to the suburbs, this has caused poverty to ensue in the city. The Brooking Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy Explains it like this “the most rapidly growing population centers are outer suburban areas up to thirty miles from Atlanta’s central business district. Jobs, people, and prosperity have moved north- wards and outwards, leaving a large arc of little or no population growth, economic decline, and an unusually high concentration of poverty on the south side of City of Atlanta and its close-in southern suburbs.” Poverty is known to cause broken homes, segregation amongst class and race, poor job and school performance, and poor housing growth. Atlanta has been segregated since the early 20th century “Atlanta became the first city in the United States with a comprehensive racial zoning plan when it was approved on April 10, 1922.”(Johnson, Neal, Harris, 2012) The city divided itself with its interstate system “In Atlanta, Interstate 20 served as the dividing line between the mostly white north and black south.” (Rivlin, 2000) This divide has caused areas in Atlanta Georgia to be very impoverished, which results in broken homes, poor education, and prostitution. Families that are very impoverished can lead to the families doing very tough things for money. 

[Spatial-entrapment]

        Atlanta is said to be one of the largest sex trafficking areas in the United States. Being that the city is racially divided it lets poverty thrive in certain areas of the city. Racial divides play into the social-entrapment theory, where if your surroundings can either help or hurt you depending on how your surroundings are. According to African-American women are at a larger disadvantage than white women because “African-American women have longer commutes to work than white women and that also negatively effects their ability for better employment” (Gilbert, 2005) Women who do not have the means to transport themselves to better opportunities face with tough economic decisions are almost powerless “Power is associated with mobility and immobility associated with powerlessness.”(Gilbert, 2005) Girls who feel trapped more likely to resort to means of supporting themselves that are less than ethical. Girls who are trapped within there own families are at an even higher chances of being trafficked because they feel like that have no where to turn. Sex traffickers know how to look for girls who are down on their luck and who come from families who abuse them or don’t support them. “Human sex traffickers are scammers who are able to size up their victims’ needs and offer them money, and sometimes promises of love and security. However, what the victims receives are broken dreams.”(Lane, Batchelor, 2015) Most of the time these girls are easy to lure because they are so young and naïve. Sometimes the home that a girl is raised in is so broken that the parents themselves for the girls into a life of prostitution. “Esther speaks on this topic, her stepfather was her trafficker, while her mother aided him, he broke her down and make her feel worthless”(Lane, Batchelor, 2015) many of the girls that are introduced to the sex trafficking industry by their parents end up running away and get picked up by a pimp. Naomi ran away her mother’s drug dealer was abusing when she was 15 after at the age of six. She explains her running away like this; “ I was surrounded by pimps in what they call a pimp circle. The surround and harass and intimidate you, and try to get you to come with them, a car pulled up to me when I got out of the pimp circle, it was a guy who came off as nice, he later would become my pimp.”(Lane, Batchelor, 2015) many of the pimps use a system of groomers, recruiters, and watchers, groomers teach the girls how to conduct themselves, recruiters recruit the girls, and watchers escort the girls around so they don’t run off, these girls are treated like animals and when you do not have the ability to move or change your surroundings you lose most of your power according to the social entrapment theory.