Anthony Talbott’s talk on trafficking made some significant points. One of the points he made that stuck the most was that a person does not have to be moved or transported to another place to fit the definition of being or having been trafficked. He explained that a person qualifies as being trafficked if they are exploited by force, fraud or coercion. This became significant because this means that trafficking can be a form of domestic violence. This contributes significantly to the difficulty of fighting human trafficking. Behind the doors and window shades of someone’s house, no one can see one person screaming threats at another person when they won’t do something, or see another person beating someone else if something wasn’t done up to par. Nobody hears the lies one person tells another for a purpose of exploitation. No one but the victim feels the fear as result of lies told to them. No one but the victim can imagine what might happen if they call a bluff on those lies. These crimes are almost impossible to see and even more impossible to try and prove.

Anthony Talbott talked of how human traffickers are unfortunately smart in a way and good at what they do. Traffickers can do simple things that make prosecution very difficult. One of the simplest things traffickers who exploit people for labor is they pay them a miniscule amount so people can’t claim they weren’t paid. Proving exploitation of persons is nigh impossible because those exploited ended up with a form of a contract and were paid, so when it comes to enforcing the law, you can’t. This major difficulty in fighting trafficking isn’t even the first difficulty to overcome. In order to even have a chance at prosecuting traffickers officials need evidence to go arrest them. Many times this comes from a tip which doesn’t happen often or from a previous victim. Many times these victims don’t come forward. Anthony Talbott discussed that many victims of sex trafficking don’t come forward because they end being prosecuted. He further explained that even after a victim may have gotten away or have been rescued, they have to be rehabilitated in sense and re-introduced into society. People who are trafficked are vulnerable because of economic reasons and family reasons most of the time. After victims are trafficked they are still vulnerable for the same reasons and often end up being trafficked again. Fighting trafficking is very difficult because victims are many times afraid to come out and traffickers are good at protecting themselves against the law.