A narrative study on the psycho-social impact of sex trafficking on victim’s parents in the state of Karnataka

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Indrajit Goswami ◽  
Sujatha M. Jithu ◽  
Nigel Raylyn Dsilva

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the life of the victim’s parents in Karnataka and to gain a better understanding of the consequences or impact of sex trafficking on them. Design/methodology/approach A narrative research design was used in the study. Applying the method of narrative inquiry and the concept of three common spaces, the study explored the actual life situations and experiences of the victim’s parents. The study covered three pairs of parents as participants from two cities, i.e. Mysore and Bangalore in the state of Karnataka. Data was collected through in-depth face-to-face interview, informal conversations, photographs and field notes. Findings The study found that the victims’ parents are living an isolated or socially alienated life with potential symptoms of behavioural, cognitive and emotional disorders. The study also found that the victim’s parents fundamental right to live with dignity and respect have been violated. A significant finding in the study was that the parents did not cite or refer to any substantial efforts undertaken by non-governmental organisations in reintegrating the victim’s families within their communities. There are many rehabilitative services available for the victims. Unfortunately, the victim’s parents mostly remain unnoticed and unattended by therapists, social work practitioners and policymakers. An appeal is made to therapists, social workers, policymakers and individuals to support the victim’s parents. Originality/value All forms of human trafficking, especially sex trafficking has drawn considerable interest from researchers, policymakers, charities and non-government agencies. However, very little is known about the living conditions of the victim’s parents, especially the psycho-social status in their families and neighbourhood. Therefore, it was pertinent to explore the life of the victim’s parents including violation of their human rights. It highlights the importance of support from the society in reintegrating the victim’s families with their communities. This paper contributes to the qualitative literature by providing narrative evidence, which will lead to better policymaking and designing effective support services for the victim’s parents.

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 385-395
Author(s):  
Richard Cebula ◽  
James E. Payne ◽  
Donnie Horner ◽  
Robert Boylan

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of labor market freedom on state-level cost of living differentials in the USA using cross-sectional data for 2016 after allowing for the impacts of economic and quality of life factors. Design/methodology/approach The study uses two-stage least squares estimation controlling for factors contributing to cost of living differences across states. Findings The results reveal that an increase in labor market freedom reduces the overall cost of living. Research limitations/implications The study can be extended using panel data and alternative measures of labor market freedom. Practical implications In general, the finding that less intrusive government and greater labor freedom are associated with a reduced cost of living should not be surprising. This is because less government intrusion and greater labor freedom both inherently allow markets to be more efficient in the rationalization of and interplay with forces of supply and demand. Social implications The findings of this and future related studies could prove very useful to policy makers and entrepreneurs, as well as small business owners and public corporations of all sizes – particularly those considering either location in, relocation to, or expansion into other markets within the USA. Furthermore, the potential benefits of the National Right-to-Work Law currently under consideration in Congress could add cost of living reductions to the debate. Originality/value The authors extend the literature on cost of living differentials by investigating whether higher amounts of state-level labor market freedom act to reduce the states’ cost of living using the most recent annual data available (2016). That labor freedom has a systemic efficiency impact on the state-level cost of living is a significant finding. In our opinion, it is likely that labor market freedom is increasing the efficiency of labor market transactions in the production and distribution of goods and services, and acts to reduce the cost of living in states. In addition, unlike previous related studies, the authors investigate the impact of not only overall labor market freedom on the state-level cost of living, but also how the three sub-indices of labor market freedom, as identified and measured by Stansel et al. (2014, 2015), impact the cost of living state by state.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Salome Amissah-Essel ◽  
Nancy Innocentia Ebu Enyan ◽  
Christiana Asiedu

Purpose Persons with mental illness (PWMI) need to be housed and cared for properly. Providing this support can be physically, financially and psychologically exhausting for the caregiver. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of a caregiver managing a mental home in Ghana and to get a deeper understanding of what it really takes to host and care for PWMI. Design/methodology/approach A narrative research design was used. The narrative approach was used to gather the stories of the caregiver. Data was collected through in-depth face-to-face interview, informal conversations and field notes. Thematic analysis was performed focusing on both the personal and social experiences of the participant. Findings Three main themes emerged from the participant’s experience as follows: stigma and rejection, burden of hosting and support from others. The study also found that what it takes to host and care for PWMI is psychological resilience as follows: determination and love. An appeal is made to individuals to also support PWMI instead of the government alone. Originality/value The outcomes of this study indicate that the life of a caregiver managing a mental home is a journey characterized by stigma, rejection and financial burden. It highlights the importance of support from others for the caregiver to keep providing optimal care. This paper contributes to the literature on carer resilience by providing evidence that once there is determination and love, PWMI can be housed and cared for in Ghana.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
Elene Lam ◽  
Elena Shih ◽  
Katherine Chin ◽  
Kate Zen

Migrant Asian massage workers in North America first experienced the impacts of COVID-19 in the final weeks of January 2020, when business dropped drastically due to widespread xenophobic fears that the virus was concentrated in Chinese diasporic communities. The sustained economic devastation, which began at least 8 weeks prior to the first social distancing and shelter in place orders issued in the U.S. and Canada, has been further complicated by a history of aggressive policing of migrant massage workers in the wake of the war against human trafficking. Migrant Asian massage businesses are increasingly policed as locales of potential illicit sex work and human trafficking, as police and anti-trafficking initiatives target migrant Asian massage workers despite the fact that most do not provide sexual services. The scapegoating of migrant Asian massage workers and criminalization of sex work have led to devastating systemic and interpersonal violence, including numerous deportations, arrests, and deaths, most notably the recent murder of eight people at three Atlanta-based spas. The policing of sex workers has historically been mobilized along fears of sexually transmitted disease and infection, and more recently, within the past two decades, around a moral panic against sex trafficking. New racial anxieties around the coronavirus as an Asian disease have been mobilized by the state to further cement the justification of policing Asian migrant workers along the axes of health, migration, and sexual labor. These justifications also solidify discriminatory social welfare regimes that exclude Asian migrant massage workers from accessing services on the basis of the informality and illegality of their work mixed with their precarious citizenship status. This paper draws from ethnographic participant observation and survey data collected by two sex worker organizations that work primarily with massage workers in Toronto and New York City to examine the double-edged sword of policing during the pandemic in the name of anti-trafficking coupled with exclusionary policies regarding emergency relief and social welfare, and its effects on migrant Asian massage workers in North America. Although not all migrant Asian massage workers, including those surveyed in this paper, provide sexual services, they are conflated, targeted, and treated as such by the state and therefore face similar barriers of criminalization, discrimination, and exclusion. This paper recognizes that most migrant Asian massage workers do not identify as sex workers and does not intend to label them as such or reproduce the scapegoating rhetoric used by law enforcement. Rather, it seeks to analyze how exclusionary attitudes and policies towards sex workers are transferred onto migrant Asian massage workers as well whether or not they provide sexual services.


2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
The Editors ◽  
Dipesh Chakrabarty

Abstract Dipesh Chakrabarty is Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor in History and South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. He is the author of several books, including The Crises of Civilization (2018) and Provincializing Europe (2000); and was one of the principal founders of the editorial collective of Subaltern Studies. In this discussion he ruminates upon the state of globality; its relationship to the planet Earth; the scope and possible duration of the Anthropocene; and some of globalization's consequences for humanity and human understanding. The interview was conducted by managing editor, Kenneth Weisbrode.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olumide Olusegun Olaoye ◽  
Ukafor Ukafor Okorie ◽  
Oluwatosin Odunayo Eluwole ◽  
Mahmood Butt Fawwad

PurposeThis study examines the asymmetric effect of government spending on economic growth in Nigeria over the period 1980–2017. Specifically, this study investigates whether the response of economic growth to government spending shocks differs according to the nature of shocks on them. In addition, the authors examine whether the stabilizing effects of fiscal policies are dependent on the state of the business cycle.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts the linear fiscal reaction function in addition to the nonlinear regression model of Hatemi-J (2011, 2012), Granger and Yoon (2002), which allows us to separate negative shocks from positive shocks to government spending. Similarly, the authors adopt the generalized method of moments (GMM) techniques of Hansen (1982) to account for simultaneity and endogeneity problems inherent in dynamic model.FindingsThe authors’ findings reveal that there is evidence of asymmetry in the government spending–economic growth nexus in Nigeria over the period of study. Specifically, the authors find that the response of economic growth to government spending shocks differs according to the nature of shocks on them. More specifically, the study established that the stabilizing effects of fiscal policies are dependent on the state of the business cycle.Originality/valueUnlike the traditional method of modeling asymmetry, which adopts the simple inclusion of a squared government spending term or by the inclusion of a cubic government spending term, the model adopted in this study allows us to model shocks and show how the responses of economic growth to government expenditure differ according to the nature of shocks on them.


2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 219-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin O'Sullivan ◽  
Richard Kemp ◽  
David Bright

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to lay the groundwork for a narrative study of desistance that is both qualitative and quantitative. Design/methodology/approach – The review traces the strands of research that have made self-story an important theme in the study of desistance with particular reference to work since 2001. Findings – The importance of an agentic self-story in the process of desistance from crime came to prominence in the work of Shadd Maruna (1997, 2001). Since then authors have attempted to formulate: first, an integrated theoretical view of desistance incorporating agency; and second, a clinically useful understanding of how self-story is important. The clinical studies have almost always been qualitative, relying on extensive life history interviews which yield great richness of detail but few, if any, testable hypotheses. To date, such studies have not provided the empirical foundation on which to develop policy in correctional environments. Practical implications – If it is found that a measure of self-belief correlates with desistance from crime, it may be possible to devise psychological interventions to enhance and change self-belief. Originality/value – The paper proposes adding a quantitative approach to the measurement of self-concept in order to estimate the likelihood of desistance.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 198-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eliza Hixson

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the social impact that two events, the Adelaide Fringe Festival and the Clipsal 500, have on young residents (16-19 years old) of Adelaide. The purpose of this paper is to examine how young people participate in these events and how this affects their sense of involvement in the event and contributes to their identity development. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed methods approach was adopted in which focus groups and questionnaires were conducted with secondary school students. As an exploratory study, focus groups (n=24) were conducted in the first stage of the research. The results of the focus groups were used to develop a questionnaire that resulted in 226 useable responses. The final stage of the research explored one event in further depth in order to determine the influence of different participation levels. Findings – This study found that young people demonstrated more involvement in the Adelaide Fringe Festival and their identities were more influenced by this event. Further investigation of the Adelaide Fringe Festival also indicated that level of participation affects the social outcomes gained, with those participating to a greater degree achieving higher involvement and increased identity awareness. This is demonstrated through a model which aims to illustrate how an event impact an individual based on their role during the event. Originality/value – This paper applies two leisure concepts in order to analyse the impact of events. Activity involvement is a concept which examines the importance of the activity in the participant's life. Also of importance to young people is how activities contribute to their identities, especially because they are in a transitional period of their lives.


2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-231
Author(s):  
Kiyoshi Murata ◽  
Yasunori Fukuta ◽  
Andrew A. Adams ◽  
Dang Ronghua

Purpose This study aims to investigate how Snowden’s revelations are viewed by young people in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan through questionnaire surveys of and follow-up interviews with university students in the two countries, taking into account the histories and current status of state surveillance in these countries and the current complicated and delicate cross-strait relationships. Design/methodology/approach Questionnaire surveys of 315 PRC and 111 Taiwanese university students (a majority studying in those places but a few studying abroad) and semi-structured follow-up interviews with 16 master’s course students from the PRC and one from Taiwan (all studying at Meiji University in Japan) were conducted, in addition to reviews of the literature on privacy and state surveillance in the PRC and Taiwan. The outcomes of the survey were statistically analysed and qualitative analyses of the interview results were also performed. Findings Youngsters living in the PRC had greater interest in and more knowledge about Snowden’s revelations than those living in Taiwan, and the revelations were positively evaluated in both countries as serving public interest. However, PRC students indicated they were less likely to emulate Snowden than those from Taiwan did. Originality/value This study is the first attempt to investigate the social impact of Snowden’s revelations on PRC and Taiwanese youngsters’ attitudes towards privacy and state surveillance as part of cross-cultural analyses between eight countries.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma van Santen

Purpose This paper aims to examine the shift away from the traditional distinction between organised crime and terrorist groups towards their conceptual convergence under the crime-terror nexus narrative in the context of international security and development policy in post-Soviet Central Asia. It assesses the empirical basis for the crime-terror and state-crime nexus in three Central Asian countries – Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – and argues that the exclusion of the state from the analytical framework undermines the relevance of the crime-terror paradigm for policy-making. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws on a literature review of academic research, recent case studies highlighting new empirical evidence in Central Asia and international policy publications. Findings There is a weak empirical connection between organised crime and Islamic extremists, such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Hizbut Tahrir, in Central Asia. The state-crime paradigm, including concepts of criminal capture, criminal sovereignty and criminal penetration, hold more explanatory power for international policy in Central Asia. The crime-terror paradigm has resulted in a narrow and ineffective security-oriented law enforcement approach to counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism but does not address the underlying weak state governance structures and political grievances that motivate organised crime and terrorist groups respectively. Originality/value International policy and scholarship is currently focussed on the areas of convergence between organised crime and terrorist groups. This paper highlights the continued relevance of the traditional conceptual separation of terrorist and organised crime groups based on their different motives, methods and relationship with the state, for security and democratic governance initiatives in the under-researched Central Asian region.


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