Human Trafficking and Major Sporting Events

The Super Bowl

“The Super Bowl is the greatest show on Earth, but it also has an ugly underbelly . . . it’s commonly known as the single largest human trafficking incident in the United States”
~ Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott

Please refer to the discussion rubric for posting expectations and information on how to maximize your points.

PART I:

Read the article Human Trafficking and Major Sporting Events: The Dark Side of the Super Bowl (Links to an external site.), which discusses the growing problem of human trafficking at the Super Bowl and other major sporting events.

For the next and final assignment in this module, you will be asked to prepare a task force plan of action. As part of that, you will need to consider how a major sporting event (that will hypothetically occur in the coming weeks) will be addressed. Begin by reading the article, Super Bowl Security: 33 Arrests on Sex-Trafficking Charges (Links to an external site.). Next, watch the short video clip below about how large sporting events attract sex traffickers.

Law Enforcement Cracking Down Sex Trafficking Ahead of Super Bowl 53
Time: 0:1:58
Closed-captioned

While the Super Bowl is highlighted in these media materials, a similar statement could likely be made about all major sporting events today. As we saw in Module 1, problems that the criminal justice system deals with are not isolated events. What one organization does to address a problem may also affect other elements of the criminal justice system.

For this discussion, choose a major city (or the city you currently live in) and research a recent major sporting event.

Post a summary of how human trafficking was or could have been involved. Include citations of the material you are referencing and address the following:

• How was human trafficking addressed?
• What actions were taken by what elements of the criminal justice system?
• How was the community affected?
• What could have been done differently?