scholarly journals The New Virtual Crackdown on Sex Workers’ Rights: Perspectives from the United States

2019 ◽  
pp. 189-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan Peterson ◽  
Bella Robinson ◽  
Elena Shih
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
Online Advertising ◽  
The United States ◽  
Safety Practices ◽  
Consensual Sex ◽  
Trafficking Victims ◽  
Share Information

On 11 April 2018, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) was signed into law in the United States. FOSTA introduced new provisions to amend the Communications Act of 1934 so that websites can be prosecuted if they engage ‘in the promotion or facilitation of prostitution’ or ‘facilitate traffickers in advertising the sale of unlawful sex acts with sex trafficking victims.’ While supporters of the law claim that its aim is to target human traffickers, its text makes no effort to differentiate between trafficking and consensual sex work and it functionally includes websites where workers advertise services or share information, including safety tips.[3] Following the law’s passage—and even before its full implementation—sex workers felt its impact as websites began to eliminate platforms previously used to advertise services. Backpage, an adult advertising website, was pre-emptively seized by the FBI. Other platforms began to censor or remove content related to sex work, including Google, Craigslist, and many online advertising networks. Sex workers in the United States have denounced the passage of FOSTA for reducing workers’ ability to screen clients and ensure safety practices. This paper provides an overview of the findings of a recent survey with sex workers in the United States, details the advent of similar initiatives in other countries, and explores how the legislation conflates trafficking with consensual sex work.

Conflict and Agency among Sex Workers and Pimps

2014 ◽  
Vol 653 (1) ◽  
pp. 225-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Marcus ◽  
Amber Horning ◽  
Ric Curtis ◽  
Jo Sanson ◽  
Efram Thompson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Child Sex Trafficking ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
Effective Policy ◽  
The Relationship

The dominant understanding in the United States of the relationship between pimps and minors involved in commercial sex is that it is one of “child sex trafficking,” in which pimps lure girls into prostitution, then control, exploit, and brutalize them. Such narratives of oppression typically depend on postarrest testimonials by former prostitutes and pimps in punishment and rescue institutions. In contrast, this article presents data collected from active pimps, underage prostitutes, and young adult sex workers to demonstrate the complexity of pimp-prostitute dyads and interrogate conventional stereotypes about teenage prostitution. A holistic understanding of the factors that push minors into sex work and keep them there is needed to designand implement effective policy and services for this population.

scholarly journals Child Labor Trafficking in the United States: A Hidden Crime

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Kaufka Walts
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Child Labor ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Labor Trafficking ◽  
Domestic Servants ◽  
International Laws ◽  
Trafficking Victims ◽  
Sexual Services

Emerging research brings more attention to labor trafficking in the United States. However, very few efforts have been made to better understand or respond to labor trafficking of minors. Cases of children forced to work as domestic servants, in factories, restaurants, peddling candy or other goods, or on farms may not automatically elicit suspicion from an outside observer as compared to a child providing sexual services for money. In contrast to sex trafficking, labor trafficking is often tied to formal economies and industries, which often makes it more difficult to distinguish from "legitimate" work, including among adolescents. This article seeks to provide examples of documented cases of child labor trafficking in the United States, and to provide an overview of systemic gaps in law, policy, data collection, research, and practice. These areas are currently overwhelmingly focused on sex trafficking, which undermines the policy intentions of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (2000), the seminal statute criminalizing sex and labor trafficking in the United States, its subsequent reauthorizations, and international laws and protocols addressing human trafficking.

scholarly journals COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on online sex advertising and sex trafficking

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Coxn ◽  
Vanessa Castro ◽  
Bridgette Carr ◽  
Glen Bredin ◽  
Seth Guikema
Keyword(s):  
Sex Workers ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
Online Advertising ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Commercial Sex ◽  
Future Health ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Social Events ◽  
Inclusive Society

Disruptive social events like the Covid-19 pandemic can have significant impact on the commercial sex industry, yet these effects have been little understood. This paper examines the effect of the pandemic on one part of the commercial sex industry: sex trafficking. Our results from scraped sexual service advertisements show that the pandemic has had measurable impact on online advertising for sex trafficking in the United States, with a significant decrease associated with stay-at-home orders followed by an increase to levels well above prepandemic levels as Covid-related restrictions were relaxed. We contribute to the policy landscape by showing that the initial decrease was associated with a loss of demand for sexual services due to pandemic-related health concerns, but that a confluence of factors, including the lack of economic and social support, increased the number of people vulnerable to being exploited. This study can assist policy makers in predicting future changes in the sex industry to support a more just and inclusive society. In the context of future health crises, natural disasters, and major social disruptions it can guide policy makers in apportioning public aid in a way that does not leave vulnerable populations and existing sex workers powerless to being trafficked.

Anti-trafficking saviors: Celebrity, slavery, and branded activism

2021 ◽  
pp. 174165902110078
Author(s):  
Robert Heynen ◽  
Emily van der Meulen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
Media Campaigns ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Chattel Slavery ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Modern Day Slavery

This article traces the development of popular forms of anti-trafficking activism in the United States through a social network and discourse analysis that focuses on NGO websites, celebrity advocacy, merchandising, social media campaigns, and policy interventions. This “branded activism,” as we describe it, plays an important role in legitimizing an emerging anti-trafficking consensus that increasingly shapes both US foreign policy and domestic policing, and is frequently driven by an anti-sex work politics. Popular anti-trafficking discourses, we find, build on melodramatic narratives of victims and (white) saviors, depoliticize the complex labor and migration issues at stake, reinforce capitalist logics, and enable policy interventions that produce harm for migrants, sex workers, and others ostensibly being “rescued.” Celebrity and marketing-driven branded activism relies especially strongly on parallels drawn between histories of chattel slavery and what anti-trafficking campaigns call “modern-day slavery.” We challenge these parallels, particularly as they encourage participants to see themselves as abolitionist saviors in ways that reinforce neo-liberal notions of empowerment rooted in communicative capitalist networks.

scholarly journals At the Intersection of COVID-19 and Sex Work in the United States: A Call for Social Work Action

Affilia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 088610992098513
Author(s):  
Nicole F. Bromfield ◽  
Meg Panichelli ◽  
Moshoula Capous-Desyllas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Community Action ◽  
Sex Trade ◽  
The Impact

The emergence of COVID-19 in the United States in early 2020 has severely disrupted the lives of most Americans, and people engaged in sex trade are no exception. People in sex work encounter multiple challenges when trying to access the services they need, particularly as they fear arrest, stigma, and pathology related to their work. These barriers have been amplified during the global COVID-19 pandemic, as sex trade workers may further lack access to crucially needed health care and may not have a mechanism for generating a basic income to meet their daily survival needs. Using an intersectional feminist lens, in this article, we discuss the impact of COVID-19 on people in sex work while highlighting sex workers’ resiliency and community action in the face of the pandemic. We highlight empowerment work led by black and brown sex worker communities. As authors and advocates, we call for critical feminist social work action that situates social workers as advocates for the human rights, well-being, and health of individuals in sex work, with a focus on centering the voices of those with lived experience and a focus on harm reduction, during and in the lingering aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trafficking, Scandal, and Abuse of Migrant Workers in Argentina and the United States

2014 ◽  
Vol 653 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Brennan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Dominican Republic ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Migrant Labor ◽  
Labor Migrants ◽  
Labor Exploitation ◽  
Trafficking Victims ◽  
Definition Of

This article examines the varied consequences that the label “trafficked” holds for migrants and for the organizations that assist them. In the case of migrants from the Dominican Republic to Argentina, threat of U.S. economic sanctions prompted the two governments to document incidents of trafficking by labeling all forms of migrant labor exploitation as trafficking. Collapsing a range of coerced and noncoerced labor experiences under one label has muddied the definition of trafficking. In contrast, U.S. trafficking policy systematically ignores significant exploitation of labor migrants, in part because of the volatile politics of immigration in the United States, and because of the conflation of sex trafficking with trafficking. The article uses these two examples of the effects of labeling exploited workers as trafficking victims to draw attention to the politicization of the term “trafficking.”

Feminisms, Prostitution, and the Sex Trafficking Debates

2019 ◽  
pp. 33-54
Author(s):  
Mary White Stewart
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Advocacy Groups ◽  
Popular Discourse ◽  
Contentious Issue ◽  
Legal Prostitution

Chapter 3 addresses the confusing, conflicting, and comingled landscape of sex work research, literature, and popular discourse. First, the authors address the deep divide amongst feminists about prostitution. Long a contentious issue for feminists, we review arguments that all prostitution is violence against women and arguments that prostitution is a viable, potentially empowering occupation. The authors sort through dichotomous positions about whether or not prostitution should be abolished or legalized. Next, they address the controversy between prostitution and trafficking. Currently, the United States is experiencing a moral panic about sex trafficking. An unlikely coalition between scholars and advocacy groups from radical feminism and the Christian right argue that all prostitution is trafficking. The purpose in this chapter is to untangle this conflation. Finally, the authors situate legal prostitution as different from illegal prostitution and legal prostitution in international contexts.

Sex Trafficking and Forced Sex Work Amongst Girls and Women in Namibia

2021 ◽  
pp. 65-88
Author(s):  
Igor Pashkovskiy ◽  
Suzanne LaFont ◽  
Ryan Chaney
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Rural Women ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Department ◽  
Tier 2 ◽  
Department Of State ◽  
Tourist Destinations

The main objective of this chapter is to examine sex trafficking amongst girls and women in Namibia. In 2019 the United States Department of State deemed Namibia a Tier 2 country in terms of its effort to fight trafficking. Thus, while Namibia is not considered a nation where the massive expoitation of girls and women for international sex trafficking occurs, there is research indicating that there is significant intranational sex trafficking. Impoverished rural women and girls, often from ethnic minorities, are coerced or forced to move to border towns, urban areas, and tourist destinations to engage in sex work. This form of trafficking is frequently under-reported, if reported at all. The material presented in this chapter is based on research from recent reports regarding the situation. This information will be augmented with data and excerpts from transcribed interviews conducted in 2013 with 73 self-identified sex workers and ex-sex workers, many of whom were forced to relocate for the purpose of engaging in sex work.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document