Human trafficking: A social justice issue for women and children

The proposed paper aims to examine the utility of social justice coursework for public health students. Using the issue of human trafficking, an important social justice issue, the authors will illustrate how course work in social justice connects public health students to emerging public health issues and provides a framework for stimulating students to analyze the associated public health, political, policy, and legal issues. Examining the health consequences to the victims of human trafficking and the available resources to treat victims is an aspect of the issue that public health students/practitioners can have the greatest impact. A full literature review was conducted using both academic and public sources. The issue was examined in four subtexts; victim, trafficker, government, and consumer of sex trade. The focus of the literature review and the paper is on the social injustice that human trafficking visits upon women and children. The literature demonstrated that this is the third highest profit industry for organized crime after drugs and guns. It is estimated that 600,000 – 800,000 people are trafficked each year and 80% are women and children. The issue of human trafficking is complex but is best treated as a human rights violation. There remain wide gaps in the delivery of healthcare to the victims of trafficking and this paper will identify and explain the causes of those gaps. Students conducting coursework in social justice can impact those emerging injustices through research and publication illuminating the issue for public scrutiny.