
“At the very root of the sex trafficking and sexual exploitation epidemic sweeping our nation and world is the demand,” said Truckers Against Trafficking Deputy Director, Kylla Lanier. “The prostituted person, and more recently, the traffickers have been the focus of attention and arrests, while the buyer goes home with a warning. This must change. Traffickers meet the demand for commercial sex by luring their victims into this life and keeping them there through force, fraud, or coercion. If there were no money to be made, they wouldn’t pursue this criminal activity.” Lanier adds, “When all is said and done, if there is no buyer, there would be no victim.”
Commercial sex buying is one of the biggest problems today. In the market of sex trafficking, there are sellers (traffickers), buyers, and victims. Basic economics shows that demand is the most fundamental thing that drives market survival. Without a demand for purchased sex, there would be no sex trafficking victims. The Man to Man campaign takes a much-needed approach to helping eradicate sex trafficking by focusing on having men influence other men to remove the demand.