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Hayven Sanchez

Professor Hugetz

ENGL 1301-IN

28 February 2022

Final Draft

Sex Trafficking in America documentary was made in the year of 2019. The creator of

this documentary is Jezza Neumann, and she published this video on Frontline PBS. This

documentary tells stories of young women who have been abducted and sex trafficked. The

documentary also presents research that has been done to see if more sex trafficking cases

happen during special events such as holidays and super bowls. It is stated in the documentary

that “Around any kind of large sporting event traffickers bring out their victims.” (3:24

Neumann, 2019). Not many women are able to share the important details of their cases, but

there was one young girl who was able to give hotel names and numbers. The documentary

shows how scared women are to speak on their cases. The more details that the detectives are

given then the faster it is to solve sex trafficking cases. Although Sex Trafficking in America tries

to inform that sex trafficking has always been a problem but is now rising in case numbers, bias

revealed through limited perspectives, lack of credibility, and word connotations which

persuades the audience to believe that sex trafficking cases have gone up through time.

Throughout the documentary you were able to see limit perspectives due to it only

showing one side of the case. There is only so much that these women want to share when being

interrogated about their case and trafficker. It is challenging to get useful evidence on the men

who sex traffic women. Due to the limited suspects and evidence, we are presented with limited
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perspectives which shows cases are rising due to no one attempting to stop traffickers. Therefore,

detectives have created this documentary to catch men in the act of sex trafficking. To catch

them in the act detectives disguise themselves and do “Undercover work on the streets.” (31:31

Neumann, 2019). The detectives would go up to parked cars and ask men “What are you looking

for?” (31:34 Neumann, 2019), and they would respond with “Sex.” (31:36 Neumann, 2019).

Detectives were presented with no evidence and very limited perspectives that they had to go and

do the work to make a change in the world. The detectives rented a hotel to lead traffickers into

meeting up with them which they called it “A hotel reversal.” (34:22 Neumann, 2019). Having

limited perspectives effected the documentary in the way of not having the perspective of

someone who has delt with being trafficked, but the perspective of just catching men in the act

which the detectives had to do.

In this documentary lack of credibility presented by men shows and informs us that sex

trafficking cases are now going up. Men never really take responsibility for their actions of

abusing women physically and sexually. Instead of taking credit for what they did and receive

the punishment they find it easier to keep making excuses. For example, when the detectives

were luring men into the hotel room everyone that got caught always had an excuse. One of the

detectives named Melissa stated that “Almost every single male that I interact with the first thing

they want to say is whoa no, no, no.” (36:21 Neumann, 2019). As the males would walk through

the door and got handcuffed, they never took fault on why they were there. Some said “I didn’t

know! The girls I interact with are not trafficking victims.” (36:32 Neumann, 2019). When taken

into custody not one out of five men admitted to meeting up and were too coward to take

credibility for trying to sexually abuse these women. Melissa made it clear on how “Our

requirement went from a simple ticket to sending you on your way to now being booked into
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jail.” (37:04 Neumann, 2019). The lack of credibility males has in America causes sex

trafficking cases to rise due to them knowing women aren’t willing to speak on it. Lack of

credibility effected the documentary in the way of showing that men can’t own up to the

consequence and setting an example for other men in America.

Word connotations is another example of how this documentary was bias and tries to

inform the viewers to believe that sex trafficking cases have gone up. As the males got booked

into jail they were then sentenced to a hearing where their victims would testify against them.

When in the hearing the witness stated that “Doing something like this to a person is inhumane.”

(45:46 Neumann, 2019), and the defendant stated that he saw no difference “Between trading

drugs in society and trading females.” (48:18 neumann,2019). Going back to the hotel males

would use word connotations to try and manipulate the situation and put the blame on women for

the reason they are at the hotel. One male stated “Well, if I knew that, that someone was under

the control of a pimp doing it forcefully, I wouldn’t be interested in it.” (36:40 Neumann, 2019),

but that was just him trying to backfire on women so he wouldn’t get caught. Word connotations

used by males informs the viewer that cases have gone up because traffickers never take

responsibility and switch up their words. Having word connotations effected the documentary by

making women feel degraded and seem like they are the liars.

The purpose of the documentary Sex Trafficking in America is to inform that sex

trafficking is a major problem and continues to rise in case numbers. The intentions of the

documentary were correct but was very questionable to why there was multiple actions causing

this film to be bias. Women who have been sex trafficked lack confidence in speaking out which

is shown why their traffickers have not been stopped. In addition to the lack of confidence the

audience was presented with limited perspectives which did not help the investigation like it
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should have. Males made it seem like women ask to be trafficked and want this for themselves,

but the detectives in the documentary prove their point that it is not. Overall, the documentary

was very informative of how bias men are and how numbers have gone up in sex trafficking

cases.