Utilitarian View on Sex Trafficking

There are many aspects of what pleasure and pain may come out of the different parties engaging in sex trafficking. Most obviously there are the girls involved, who were often forced into the system against their will, and do many of the activities reluctantly. This will have a major emotional toll and will amount to a large minus. There is also the physical aspect of many of the girls being infected with AIDs thus greatly shortening their life spans. It is also important to note, however, that as time goes on these girls will eventually succumb to the system, whether it be through addiction to drugs or via an emotional attachment to their owners caused by extremely low self-esteem and little contact with the outside world. All in all, for the girls involved it is probably safe to assume that good is not being maximized.

The clients of this trade receive pleasure in the form of sexual release. However at the same time these individuals may be infected with AIDs or may already have the disease themselves. So the brief instant of pleasure is coupled with a large reduction in life span. All in all, this is also a large minus and good is not being maximized here as well. Then, what if we were to eliminate or at the least greatly reduce the transmission of AIDs through a program that promoted the use of condoms, along with the enforcement of such a policy?

If such a policy were to become a reality we may have to accept sex trafficking in a utilitarian view. Neither the girls nor the clients can become infected with AIDs so there is no reduction in life span on either side. Then there is only the question of whether the pleasure received by the clients outweighs the emotional distress of the girls. This case seems very similar to the situation of the Roman Colosseum where the spectators receive miniscule amounts of pleasure compared to the great pain endured by the participants because the pleasure a client may receive is only brief while the emotional pain experienced by the girls will follow them throughout life. However, even if it is greater, this then only becomes a numbers game, where once a certain client threshold is reached, we would be forced to acknowledge that the good was being maximized here. This number may be 10, 100, or even 10,000 individuals serviced, in the end, we would still be forced to accept that "good" is being maximized.

 Another attempt to get out of this morbid conclusion would be to imagine a scenario where this system did not exist and attempt to weigh that against what currently is. While the unhappiness from being "ruined" would no longer be an issue many of these girls would still be living in poverty and may therefore experience some degree of unhappiness. The would-be clients would look to other methods for their sexual frustration and while many would find it, a small number would probably turn to rape and we are once again looking at a few girls with large emotional scars without the pleasure from a large number being "serviced" in a world with sexual slavery. We would still be forced to acknowledge that a world with sex trafficking would be okay.

The solution ultimately lies in what is the cause of this system. As Nicholas Kristoff explains, saving one or two individuals will not make much of a difference. What is needed is a massive revamp of societal thinking via education or awareness programs. The face of this revamp will be attempting to change how women are viewed. In the countries where sex trafficking is allowed, women are seen as second class citizens and hold no power. Through this can we then imagine a world where the impoverished women who are forced into sexual slavery have a means to provide for themselves while the men who rely on this system may be able to break free from viewing women as merely possessions or objects of desire. The only problem would then be the cost to move towards this direction. For the countries that must undergo these changes, the cost will be great, both psychologically and monetarily. However, this is not a change that they must go through alone, and if financial backing and or political pressure from Western powers this may be accomplished. And in this potential future, certainly there is much more good then either of the previous futures or realities discussed so far.