Slavery was abolished in 1865, yet it still exists in the form of human trafficking, and more specifically, sex trafficking. I am very interested in this overall topic of sex trafficking, and I have been since it was initially presented to me as a major problem in my senior year at an all girls high school. I had a teacher who was incredibly passionate about the topic and devoted a great deal of time to informing young women so we could spread the knowledge and make a difference. I think it's safe to say that no one could read a story about a young girl going through things such as: being abducted, shipped to another country, forced to have sex with strangers, and be treated as less than a human, and not be completely horrified. I do not have personal experience with this, but I think under the same issue is the problem of rape, especially in college, and I have witnessed friends going through that, so I could only imagine what a victim of sex trafficking has to endure and how they handle it. A victim's entire life will be changed from this experience, and they will lose a part of themselves they will never be able to get back. 

In regards to the issue of sex trafficking itself, I do have the bias that it is a horrific crime against humanity, but I think that everyone does, and I don't think it will prove to hinder my paper. However, I am not greatly educated in the area of the government's involvement, or lack there of, within the issue. I am aware there is legislation, however it doesn't seem to be incredibly effective. I think I will be able to avoid a bias in regards to the topic of preventing and punishing sex trafficking, since I will be gaining mostly new information to answer this question. After spending four years at an all girls school, I have become an advocate for women's rights, so this topic is especially important to me. I think it is absurd that women are able to be treated as much less than human, and virtually nothing is being done about it, and once those women are freed, if they are, their lives are drastically changed forever. Before high school I was not too familiar with how many ways women are mistreated within society, and now that I know I hope to spread the information so that things can hopefully begin to change. I would consider myself a stakeholder in the issue because of this experience and knowledge, however the issue does not affect me directly, but it could. No one plans to go into this industry or situation and now that I know more about it, I hope to be able to prevent unsuspecting victims from being pulled into it.

I knew I was interested in sex trafficking as a topic, but I have struggled to find a specific question that I could research, as it is such a broad issue. After the first ILP's, I came to realize that the government is somewhat involved, but it has not proved to be efficient. This caused me to start thinking about what exactly can be done to combat this issue as a whole. There are organizations and people who help victims after the fact or help rescue them, but I think the major key missing to solving this problem is prevention. I'm hoping to look further into exactly what legislation exists and how that can be put into action. In addition, I would like to share some stories and ways innocent girls can fall victim to this to give a background on how big of a problem this is and also to guide thoughts on new government involvement. I think sex trafficking needs to be brought to the forefront of society's problems, and should be addressed within the government and law enforcement. This situation could be equated to the problem of drug smuggling, and it is very similar in nature, so why does it not get the same amount of attention and concern? I hope to prove sex trafficking to be a major issue and be able to declare if the legislation is doing all that is possible or if more can be done.

Writing a research paper on this topic should not be a difficult task, as there is a great deal of information floating around on the internet and in other scholarly works. It's surprising that so many people can brush the problem to the side with it right in front of them all the time in news articles and such. However, writing an argumentative research paper on sex trafficking may prove to be a little more difficult because no one will argue that sex trafficking in itself is a good thing and would support it. But, to accomplish this, I plan to argue that more could be done to prevent girls from becoming victims and from sex traffickers having a business at all. There is plenty of information that can be used to prove that more action needs to be taken to make this issue less prominent. In addition to proving this could be prevented, I would like to prove how great of a problem it is. I think a major problem stems from the lack of knowledge of what is going on every single day that no one even notices.

Through my research thus far, I have mostly found evidence and details that can be used as support to prove that this problem is very prominent. However, I have not found as many arguments, but I need to look further into current legislation and legislation that was not passed, for whatever reasons. I think within this data I will stumble upon some more arguments surrounding the issue of sex trafficking. But, I have found that there is some disagreement over whether or not increasing the punishment and sentence of a convicted sex trafficker will actually help solve the trafficking problem. One side argues that there is less of a chance that traffickers will abduct children if they know they could be imprisoned for the rest of their life, while the other side claims that it will cause more unexpected problems as a byproduct in the process. 

Moving towards a thesis, I may need to decide more on exactly what I want to research after looking into the government's take in the whole situation. I think right now the topic, although narrowed down from my original research of general sex trafficking, is still a little bit broad, and I will need to decide more on what exactly I want to prove. As far as complexity is concerned, I do not think this topic is too complex or too simple because it is an issue that most people are aware of but are not educated on, and it can be understood to be problematic by mostly everyone. On the other hand, it may not be controversial enough because it is undeniable that sex trafficking is terrible, but the problem is more within the government and how it is handled or not. I think further research of the legislation that is existent and what else could be done will guide a productive thesis and thus a well researched, convincing argument. 
