Human Trafficking in Today's Society

4 Credit Hours
Syllabus - 7 week course with two-week between classes

Extra credit - click here

Session One:
Orientation: Discuss class and expectations, go over policy, and divide class into research groups
Exercise: Ice breaker exercise at the beginning of class - finding your comfort zone
Text: Read the first four chapters of Disposable People – New Slavery in the Global Economy, was assigned. A discussion about this material will take place in class.
Lecture: Roger Cram - Human Trafficking in the United States - PowerPoint (allow time to load)
Video: Not My Life (80 minutes)
For the Next Session: read chapters 5 and 6 in Disposable People – New Slavery in the Global Economy and Definitions and Methodology in "The 17th Annual Trafficking in Persons Report for 2017”
( http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2017/210543.htm ) and ( http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2017/210548.htm ) and be prepared to discuss them in class.

Session Two:
Discuss chapters 5 and 6 of  Disposable People – New Slavery in the Global Economy and  Definitions and Methodology of "The 17th annual Trafficking in Persons Report for 2017.”
Guest Speaker:  TBA, "How can someone allow themselves to become a slaver?"
Lecture:  Roger Cram - Our Border Crossings and Human Trafficking - The Mexican Cartels, The Train of Death, and Immokalee, Florida  PowerPoint (allow time to load)
Writing assignment one issued- due next class.
Video: Amazing Grace 118 minutes
Groups: Break into study group, receive subject research and presentation assignments
Quiz One Issued – take home exam – due next class. Test is below indicated as Test One - January 23, 2016
For The Next Session:  read the first four chapters in The Slave Next Door and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act ( http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2017/210553.htm ) and Stopping Human Trafficking, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by International Peacekeepers ( http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2017/210554.htm ) of "The 17th Annual Trafficking in Persons Report for 2017” and be prepared to discuss them in class.

Session Three:
Discuss the first four chapters of The Slave Next Door and pages 24 through 49  and Victim's Stories ( http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2017/210546.htm ) in "The 17th annual Trafficking in Persons Report for 2017.”
Collect writing assignment one and Quiz One
Pizza Party in class
Video: The Ratanak Foundation - 30 minutes
Lecture:  How Humans Change from Kind Individuals to Slaves
Lecture: Roger Cram - Human Trafficking in The United States and Ohio including search and seizure regulations.  PowerPoint (allow time to load)
Video: Trade - 119 minutes
Groups: Break into study groups to discuss the research and presentation assignments
Writing assignment two issued – due next class.
For the Next Session:  Read class handout on Half-the-Sky for next class "Grassroots vs. Treetops." Read chapters five and six of The Slave Next Door and Global Enforcement Data ( http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2017/210757.htm ) and  Victim Identification: The First Step in Stopping Modern Slavery ( http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2017/210542.htm ) in "The 17th annual Trafficking in Persons Report for 2017” and be prepared to discuss them in class.

Session Four:
Discuss chapters seven – five and six of the book The Slave Next Door and the pages 50 through 63 of and assignments in "The 17th annual Trafficking in Persons Report for 2017”
Collect writing assignment two.  Return writing assignment one and quiz one.
Guest Lecturer discussing Half the Sky – Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
Study Group Class presentations:  Presentations from group  TWO
Video (first half) Human Trafficking - 90 minutes
Quiz Two issued – take home exam – due next class.
For the Next Session:  Read chapters seven and eight in The Slave Next Door and Topics of Special Interest
( http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2017/210542.htm ) in "The 17th annual Trafficking in Persons Report for 2017” and be prepared to discuss them in class.

Session Five:
Collect written presentation reports from groups ONE and TWO and Quiz Two. Return to class writing assignment two.
Discuss chapters seven and eight in The Slave Next Door and the previous assignment in "The 15th annual Trafficking in Persons Report for 2015” and be prepared to discuss them in class.
Study Group Class presentations:  Presentations from groups ONE, THREE and FOUR
Writing assignment three issued – due next class
Video: (second half) Human Trafficking - 90 minutes
Lecture: The Psychological Ramifications of Human Trafficking – Victim, Perpetrator, and Society
For the Next Session: . Read chapter 7 in  Disposable People – New Slavery in the Global Economy and Chapter 10 in The Slave Next Door, and TIP Report Heroes ( http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2017/210547.htm ) in "The 17th annual Trafficking in Persons Report for 2017.”

Session Six:
Collect written presentation reports from groups THREE and FOUR and writing assignment three. Return to class Quiz Two.
Discuss chapter 7 in  Disposable People – New Slavery in the Global Economy, Chapter 10 in The Slave Next Door, and the TIP Report Heroes in "The 17th annual Trafficking in Persons Report for 2017.” and the two New York Times articles assigned last class.
Video: At the End of Slavery - the battle for justice in our time - 30 minutes
Video: Look Behind the Surface - Identifying Victims of Human Trafficking in the U.S. - 20 minutes
Lecture: Roger Cram - Pedophiles
Take Home final exam issued. Due the last class.Session Seven: April 2, 2016
Optional: appetizer party provided by class (volunteer)
Collect take-home final exams
Collect written presentation reports from groups THREE and FOUR

Videos Recommended:

Blood Diamond (2006)
Taken (2008)
The Whistle Blower (2010)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Holly (2007)
Trade (2009)

Group research projects, writing assignments, and tests: (any form of credible and documented research may be used if you reference it.) Note:  All written papers must be in the student's own words. Your professor is interested in what you have learned and your ability to express this knowledge, not interested in your ability to copy the work of another. Any quotes must be properly indicated and referenced. These quotes need to be limited; however, for too many quotes means you are not responsible for writing the majority of your paper. Any copying, cut-and-pasting, or other forms of plagiarism will result in an "F" for that particular paper or test.

Group 1
Research the economics of human trafficking - poor families selling their children because they can’t support them, slave labor being used more in poor economic times, child solders used because they are easy to control and are plentiful.

Group 2
When slavery is illegal in every country in the world, how can slavery exist today in more abundance than the entire 450 years of the Atlantic slave trade? Examine various cultures and values in the world utilizing slave labor and explore how laws are often in conflict with the customs, ethics, and controlling religions. Compare the business ethics of the slave sex trade with the ethics of their customers. Study how tribal chiefs and village traditions have more influence allowing human trafficking than national laws forbidding it.

Group 3
Explore the complex issues of human trafficking rescues when freed slaves often become more endangered than during their captivity. Should a sweat-shop slave be freed if she must result to prostitution for survival afterwards? If an undocumented immigrant serving as a domestic slave in the U.S. would be deported if discovered, should efforts be undertaken to liberate her? Should business and political tactics considered corrupt in the U.S. (bribery, price fixing, and favoritism) be employed in other countries if they help emancipate human captives?

Group 4
Research companies whose products are sold in the U.S. that are manufactured by raw material obtained by or produced by slaves, especially child slaves (Firestone, Dell, HP, Nestle, Hersey, Nike).  Suggest methods of creating greater public awareness of these issues. Critique for effectiveness legal documents and current efforts in place designed to combat these company’s activities.

Group 5
Explore several NGO’s currently combating human trafficking, and do a comparative analysis on their methods and success rates. Look for commonly shared methodologies that are the most productive in combating this issue.

Group 6
Research the psychological ramifications where victims have no social, cultural, or political voice in their life, where former slaves become future traffickers, where prolific human trafficking becomes normalized and the culture becomes desensitized to its horrors.

GROUP RESEARCH PROJECTS AND PRESENTATIONS

Groups will be comprised of 3 to 6 students in the class randomly assigned by the instructors. The groups will be issued a number and a corresponding group research project and presentation as listed above. Any documented material from a reliable source may be used to gather information about the group project. Each group will make a presentation to the class. These presentations will be a minimum of 10 minutes and a maximum of 20 minutes in length. Each group will be given an additional 10 minutes for class Q & A.

Groups are autonomous in their presentation style. For example, each member of a four-person group may speak for 5 minutes totaling 20 minutes, or the group may choose a spokesperson to speak representing the group. Some groups may share in assigning portions of the research to various members while others might create a PowerPoint presentation or other presentation media (if desired). A written report of the presentation or speech must be turned in by each group to serve as a reference for the instructors grading the presentation. There is no required length for this written report, but is should accurately cover the material presented and include the PowerPoint slides (if used) and a list of references. Is one member of your group a good writer? If so, this written speech might be assigned to that individual.

The final presentation grade will consist of two grades averaged together - the presentation grade and the written report grade. The written report will be due one week after the presentation. This averaged grade will be given to each member of the group; therefore, it is wise to select the individual talents of each member to best be utilized by the group (speaker, presenter, writer, researcher, etc.).  Great care must be taken to assure that each member of the group significantly participates in the project. Frequently a few caring members do all the work while other less ambitious members allow this unequal process.  This should be avoided. Working in groups is difficult, but is often the way problems are solved. If you find this assignment difficult, imagine trying to work in a group assigned to pass legislation in a third-world country to end slavery. You are in charge of a group consisting of politicians who are crooked, the police who work for whomever pays them the most, and judges who are slave owners. By the way, you don't speak any of the fifteen languages in the area and the local economy depends of slavery for its existence.

Writing Assignments: (Minimum of 750 words each)

Assignment 1
How can human beings turn from caring, ethical, responsible citizens into human traffickers using cruelty and violence against their victims? How does ones culture help or hinder this transition? How does the economy play a role in human trafficking?  You may use for references pages 24 - 33 from the Slave Next Door plus class lectures and exercises plus independent documented research.

Assignment 2
Write a paper involving the psychological theory of human trafficking, such as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need, where people behave differently when their physiological and safety needs are not met.  Extremely poor parents have sold their children to human traffickers believing the child will have at least one meal per day. Examine and analyze the psychological motivating factors of the perpetrator, the victim, and society. Research the psychological framework and dynamics of the poor and the psychological impact of human trafficking on various cultures.

Assignment 3
Discuss several of the economic issues involving modern slavery as discussed in our texts and class presentations. Discuss the economics of government slavery, for profit and non-profit organizations, child soldiers, and the competitive labor costs in various labor markets. Mention the cost to these organizations for ending slavery.

 
Team-Taught Interdisciplinary
Human Trafficking
4 Credit Hours
Course Description

Instructor: 
     Mr. Roger Cram, B.A. in Business Management, Hiram College; M.B.A., Kent State University, adjunct faculty for Hiram College, President Modeling Future Heroes, Inc., member of Free the Slaves and the Polaris Project, consultant and spokesperson for World Peace Partners of Winnipeg, MB,  speaker for the Collaborative Initiative to End Human Trafficking.

Course Description:
     Is there really any slavery left in today’s modern World?  Didn’t the 1865 Emancipation Proclamation end slavery in the U.S.? Third only to drugs and weapon sales, human trafficking is the largest and fastest growing organized crime activity in the world resulting in a multi-billion dollar industry. Forced factory and agricultural labor, the sex trade, debt bondage, domestic help, children soldiers, and the selling of human organs comprise the many facets of this contemptible trade.
     There are 27 million slaves in the world today secretly held captive and forced into manual labor and the sex trade. In this course we will explore the world slavery problem with emphasis on women and children. The political and economic reasons slavery is so prolific, the legal and ethical standards that clash with different cultures, and the undertakings currently trying to combat this scourge will also be investigated.

Required Reading Materials:

1. Disposable People – New Slavery in the Global Economy, Bales, Kevin.  University of California Press, Berkley 2004

2. The Slave Next Door - Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today, Bales, Kevin and Soodalter, Ron. University of California Press, Berkley 2009

3. The Road of Lost Innocence - Mam, Somaly, Random House, New York, 2008

4.  "The 17th annual Trafficking in Persons Report for 2013” June 2013, The United States State Department, available for download at: http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2017/index.htm#rpt

(Note: Supplemental reading assignments may be provided by the instructors.)                               

First Assignment: Students are to arrive for the first class having read the first four chapters of
Disposable People – New Slavery in the Global Economy and prepared to discuss this material.

Teaching Methods: There will be small discussion sections, open classroom discussions, lectures, videos, exercises, guest speakers, PowerPoint presentations, and a field trip.

Course Requirements and Grading:

^{1.                   30% - Three (3) papers (10% each) or other written assignments. These papers must be in the student’s own
        words and contain a minimum of 750 words.}

^{2.                   30% - Two (2) take-home quizzes (15% each)}

^{3.                   5% - Attendance in class and field trip attendance}

^{4.                   15% - A group presentation on an assigned human trafficking issue}

^{6.                   20% - Take-Home Final Exam}

<sup>Our instructors are very invested in your success in the course. Thus, if at any time you need clarification, assistance, or additional guidance, please feel free to contact us at the following:

Roger Cram                                                                                                               
Adjunct Faculty,                                                                                                      
President Modeling Future Heroes, Inc.                                                                                
330-569-4912 (C)  330-569-7962 (H)                                                  
rfcram@aoil.com</sup>                                                                         

^{*The instructors retain the right to change or modify any aspect of the syllabus.  In the event that changes or updates are made, students will be notified in a timely manner.}
 

Human Trafficking
Take Home Test One

For this test refer to the book Disposable People by Kevin Bales, The June 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report,  and presented class material. Answer all questions on separate sheets of paper, refer to the question number, place your name on each sheet, print your answers on a printer, staple your sheets together with a copy of this test (no paperclips).

Name ____________________________________________ (PRINT) - 100 possible points

SECTION ONE: Definitions and Short Answer (less than 150 words)
ANSWER ALL OF THE FOLLOWING FOUR QUESTIONS – WORTH 3 POINTS EACH (12 points)

(1)    According to our United States Department of State, what is human trafficking or trafficking in persons?

(2)  How are slaves controlled and kept from trying to escape? (class lecture)

(3)   Give brief descriptions of chattel slavery, debt bondage, contract slavery: Disposal People Page 19

(4)  What is sex tourism? Disposable People Pages 75-77

SECTION TWO:  Short Essay (less than 250 words)
PICK SIX OF THE FOLLOWING NINE QUESTIONS – WORTH 5 POINTS EACH (30 Points)

(5) How do women rank compared to men or television sets in Thailand? Do they owe a debt to their parents? Disposable People Pages 38-40

(6)    What social, political, and economic conditions are necessary to support slavery?
Disposable People Pages 31-32

(7)    What is the devadasi in India? Disposable People Pages 199-201

(8)     Does “race” have anything to do with slavery in modern times - why or why not?
Disposable People Page 10

(9)    Why did the prime minister in Thailand declare that HIV/AIDS is no problem in his country when it was actually reaching epidemic proportions?
Disposable People Page 76

(10) In Pakistan, what is the “peshgi “ system? Disposable People Pages 162-165

(11) Human rights groups lobbying for government action, magazine articles revealing the horrors of child slavery, and television programs denouncing the abuses in the charcoal batterias in Brazil generated no change. Independent NGOs (Non-governmental organizations) continuously feeding commissions of inquiry about human rights violations yielded little positive movement as well. So what is the key to reducing human rights violations and slavery if laws, publicity, and public outcry have no affect? Disposable People Pages 143-148.

(12) How many slaves existed during the 450 years of the Atlantic Slave Trade?  How many slaves exist today? (class lectures)

(13) In India, children make up a large portion of the bonded work force. What do they do? Is it dangerous? Disposable People Pages 199-200

SECTION THREE: Essay Section (Over 300 words each)
PICK ONLY FOUR OF THE FOLLOWING SEVEN QUESTIONS:  WORTH 10 POINTS EACH (50 points)

(14) Why is the government in Thailand so inefficient in preventing sex slavery and trafficking?
Disposable People Pages 72-75, 77-78

(15) Of all the countries in the world, Mauritania has the largest percentage of its people in slavery, yet it has no slaves. Explain this. Disposable People starting on page 80.

(16) Describe the process of recruiting slaves for the production of charcoal in Brazil.  Disposable People Pages 126-128

(17) In Brazil, describe the relationship between the identity card and the labor card, the purpose these two items serve, and how slave traders exploit these documents to control their workers. Disposable People Page 128

(18) Regarding the last question (17), compare this type of control over the Brazilian charcoal workers and the how the girls are controlled in the brothels in Thailand. Disposable People Pages 134-139

(19) In the United States in the 1800s and early 1900s, people of the southern states had definite stereotypical prejudices against blacks. The beliefs that blacks were lazy, superstitious, and not intelligent had a strong influence on their unfair treatment by whites. In Pakistan, family, religion, and caste position determine your occupation as well as the religious affiliation of your ancestors as far back as 300 years. Discuss prejudices in Pakistan similar to those against blacks in our early southern states? Disposable People Pages 171-174

(20) When humans were hunters and gatherers, little slavery existed, for one’s hunting skill often found favor and recognition within one’s tribe. About 11,000 years ago in the areas of India, Egypt, and Mesopotamia, farming became the developing way of obtaining food. This was labor intensive and did not encompass the spirit of the chase or the social status of great hunters.  Soldiers and rulers had to eat; therefore, discuss what started to develop to enable them to do so? Disposable People Pages 197-198

SECTION FOUR: MULTIPLE CHOICE and TRURE and FALSE (2 points each - Total 8 Points)
ANSWER ALL OF THE FOLLOWING FOUR QUESTIONS – WORTH 2 POINTS EACH (8 points)

(21)  Slaves rarely try to escape, yet many of them are often able to go out in public. How do modern-day slave owners control their slaves?

   (a)  Loyalty   (b) Violence   (c) Providing a guard as an escort   (d)  drugs and other addictive substances

(22)   Many of the tomatoes in the United States are picked by workers under slave-like conditions. Many of these pickers are immigrants for Mexico and Central America. In what area does most of this occur?

     (a)   South of Atlanta, Georgia  (b)  The Gulf Coast states of Alabama and Mississippi   (c) Immokalee, Florida   (d)  Gulf areas on the Texas coast

(23)  Toledo, Ohio is a primary areas for human-trafficking arrests because it is close to Detroit, it is close to Canada, it has Lake Erie ports, and in it has major Interstate Highways crossing United States coast to coast aiding in the transportation of slaves.  TRUE    FALSE

(24)  Right now, about 3% of the world's female population is missing. That is about  (a)  2 million females   (b)  5 million females   (c)  10 million females   (d)  15 million females   (5)  100 million females

Human Trafficking
Take Home Test Two

Name  (PRINT)_______________________________________________________________

Section One:  Reference the U.S. Department of Justice Trafficking in Persons Report 2015 and our class texts. Submit your answers on separate sheets of paper, printed, and double spaced. Staple ALL your answers together as one test. DO NOT hand in separate stapled sheets for each answer! This is one test in its entirety and all questions and answers should be stapled together as a unit.

(1)     Write about victim identification from the 2017 Human Trafficking in Persons Report. http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2017/210542.htm (500 word minimum)

(2)    Write about the Palermo Protocol and the TVPA (U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act) minimum standards including the 3P Paradigm program. (500 word minimum)

(3) Read the last chapter in Disposable People to answer this question: How are the population explosion, economic globalization, modernized agriculture, greed in profitability, and violence all related? Pages 232-234 Minimum 300 words, printed, doubled spaced.

 

Human Trafficking
Final Exam

Either answer Question 1 only, or answer questions 2 and 3 - your choice. Answer this final exam question on separate sheets of paper, printed, double spaced, stapled together, with your name printed on the top of the first page, with the question(s) you chose to answer clearly indicated,  and entitled Human Trafficking - Final Exam.  Bring this completed exam to our last class.

For this question, use the information in the Trafficking in Persons Report for 2015, the section entitled Definitions and Methodology, the section entitled United States of America, the (TVPA) Trafficking Victims Protection Act, both our text books and other material and as presented in class.

1. The United States, through the TVPA, 3P Paradigm, and Palermo Protocol, rate other country's effectiveness and cooperation in combating human trafficking through the Tier system. The nine publications of the the Trafficking in Persons Report for prior to 2010 omitted the United States in the world rankings of Human Trafficking. Starting in the 2010 report, the United States Department of State has included the U.S.A. in this publication, thus recognizing that there is a human trafficking problem in our country, and has ranked itself (the U.S.A.) as a Tier 1 country.  By understanding the TVPA, 3P Paradigm, and Palermo Protocol, and comparing their requirements to what is actually being done in the U.S.A. to combat Human Trafficking, should our country really be ranked Tier 1?  Why if you believe "yes" or why not if you believe "no."  In not less than 1,250 words,  argue whether or not the United States should really be ranked as Tier 1?
 

2. In the hand out on Half the Sky presented by guest speaker and Hiram College professor Carol Donley, what is meant by "grassroots vs. treetops"? Give details and examples.  500 word minimum.

3.  In not less than 750 words, describe what can be done to fight human trafficking.