I o S E W
International Organization for Stopping Exploitation of Women
Demand Reduction
In a recent article published on how to address the prolific nature of human trafficking, the following points were communicated by the top experts on the subject: They found that the reduction of sex-buying is one of the only proven effective means of curb sex trafficking.
“No commercial enterprise, criminal or otherwise, can exist without demand for whatever it is that is being transacted,” said NCOSE researcher Dr. Michael Shively. “Consumer demand is the cause and the existence of traffickers
and the exploitation of victims are its symptoms. There’s no evidence that sex trafficking can be substantially reduced by supply-side interventions.” “It’s very important to support survivors and identify them, it’s very important to go after
the pimps and traffickers,” he continued. “But they are reactive [tactics] and they are symptom management. They do not stop this. There’s no evidence that they actually bring this to a halt or even reduce it. The only evidence-based
interventions are demand-reduction.”
How do we reduce demand? From over a decade of research, prayer, and experience in the area of anti-human trafficking, we believe the answer rests first and foremost in leading all people to an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ, in and through His Sacraments. Secondarily, as John Paul II believed and did, it is in teaching boys and girls, men and women what it is to be human. Who they are in their dignity as members of the human family, and how to live in authentic relationship with one another. Our mission, inspired by and guided by these tenets, is to offer teenagers, men, and women the truths taught to us by St. John Paul II so that more people will be able both reject the lies of use and indifference in relationship to the opposite sex, while at the same time authentically love themselves and others. Christ is The Man, the one who reveals man [humanity] to himself. He is the Truth, and the truth revealed by John Paul II in his teachings and writings are the revelation of Christ of human dignity and human love.
Jesus taught us regarding himself “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came [before me] are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:7-11)
How do we receive and live out this abundant life? We know and believe that living an immoral life, distorts our reason and brings death even before the end of our earthly lives. Death is a division of the body and soul, separating what was never intended from the beginning to be divided. But how do we live a moral life practically speaking? When asked which of the commandments of the law was the greatest, Jesus replied, “’You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”’ (Matthew 22:37-40)
​
Our current age leaves men and women lost in confusion as to how to authentically love one another in and through their bodies. St. John Paul the Great was truly a gift for our time. His teachings in his writings Love and Responsibility, The Acting Person, and Men and Women He Created Them (known generally as The Theology of the Body), offer us the answers to the difficult questions of living out a life of love in our relationships with one and other, in particular in the marital relationship.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
