The Influence of International Human Trafficking on United States Prostitution Laws: The Case of Expungement Laws

When the issue of human trafficking first gained widespread public attention in the United States in the 1990s, the discussion centered on international human trafficking. In 2000, the United States passed an anti-trafficking law, popularly called the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), and the United Nations adopted an anti-trafficking treaty called the Palermo Protocol. Both the TVPA and the Palermo Protocol focused on combating international human trafficking by encouraging countries around the world to pass laws against trafficking and prosecute traffickers. Meanwhile, in the United States, state-level criminal justice systems treated United States citizens qualifying under the federal definition of human trafficking victim as criminals by prosecuting them for prostitution. Activists for sexually exploited women and girls in the United States noted the irony that the United States was so concerned about trafficking in other countries, but was neglecting trafficking of its own citizens. The United States was allowing laws and practices in the states that it was condemning in other nations. For example, federal law requires other countries to ensure that victims of trafficking are not inappropriately incarcerated for unlawful acts as a direct result of being trafficked. n1 Yet many states lack laws [*172] ensuring that sex trafficking victims are not prosecuted for prostitution. As a result, anti-trafficking activists have put pressure on Congress and state legislatures to apply the same legal standards used in an international context to sexually exploited women and girls in the United States. They are leveraging the international human trafficking legal framework to push for legal change to state laws on prostitution

Moving Beyond Slaves, Sinners, and Saviors : An Intersectional Feminist Analysis of US Sex-Trafficking Discourses, Law and Policy

This article analyzes stories and images of sex trafficking in current mainstream US public discourses, including government publications, NGO materials, news media, and popular films. Noting the similarities and differences among these discourses, the first part demonstrates that they often frame sex trafficking using a rescue narrative that reiterates traditional beliefs and values regarding gender, sexuality, and nationality, relying heavily on patriarchal and orientalist tropes. Reflecting this rescue narrative, mainstream public policies focus on criminal justice solutions to trafficking. The second part suggests alternative frameworks that empower rather than rescue trafficked people. The article argues that the dominant criminal justice approach to trafficking—the state rescuing victims and prosecuting traffickers—will not alone end the problem of sex trafficking, but that public policies must address the structural conditions that create populations vulnerable to trafficking and empower those communities to dismantle inequalities that are the root causes of trafficking

An Examination of Some Central Debates on Sex Trafficking in Research and Public Policy in the United States

Numerous heated debates about human trafficking pervade mainstream media as well as the scholarly literature. The United States’ law and order approach to human trafficking, which prioritizes criminal prosecution of traffickers, is supported by many anti-trafficking advocates. But others have articulated powerful critiques of this approach. The first part of this article provides an introduction to some of these debates, focusing on five areas: definitions of human trafficking, the scope of the problem, causes and solutions of human trafficking, the effectiveness and impact of anti-trafficking laws, and anti-trafficking dis courses. This section will discuss the role of research on trafficking in the development of law and policy. The article’s second part will provide a more in-depth examination of how these debates play out among feminists, who have been deeply divided historically and still today on issues related to sexuality. Women of color, in particular, have opposed the law and order approach to violence against women in the United States and have questioned criminal justice approaches to trafficking that do not address structural economic an d social factors that make people vulnerable to trafficking. This paper will conclude with recommendations for some guiding principles for future public policy and research

An Intersectional Analysis of Sex Trafficking Films

This essay analyzes the portrayal of sex trafficking in representative dramas and documentaries, both Hollywood and independent films. The majority of these films use a rescue narrative to tell the story of sex trafficking: an innocent and naïve young woman or girl is tricked or abducted by a villainous trafficker, who imprisons her and controls her with brutal violence until a heroic rescuer overcomes tremendous adversity in order to save her. Race and nationality inflect this gendered narrative: the rescuers are usually white, Western men and the traffickers are from Eastern Europe and/or are men of color. The issue of sex trafficking is portrayed simplistically, in black and white terms, with a clear bad guy, innocent victim, and savior. Often these films focus on the extreme, and least common, form of trafficking: a minor being abducted off the street and transported violently across national borders to be sold at auction. These films focus on criminal perpetrators and criminal-justice solutions, rather than on the broader systemic causes of sex trafficking, like globalization, economic inequality, poverty, and ethnic, race, and gender oppressions. This essay will discuss the 2007 Hollywood movie Trade, the 2010 Hollywood movie Taken, and the 2007 independent drama Holly as well as the NBC dateline special Children for Sale. The essay will then turn to several films that portray sex trafficking in more complex and nuanced ways: the 2003 film Trading Women, the 1999 film Sacrifice, and the 2007 film Very Young Girls. The essay concludes by calling for more films that portray a wider range of experiences not based on myths about trafficking that lead to simple criminal-justice-oriented solutions, but that explore the complexity of sex trafficking and show the need for localized solutions that address the systemic conditions that fuel sex trafficking

Amplification of Structural Inequalities: Research Sabbaticals During COVID-19

With the closing of schools and child care centers, the pandemic has significantly increased parents’ caregiving labor, especially mothers, who do much more caregiving than fathers. The pandemic is hitting communities of color particularly hard, placing a heavy burden of stress and caregiving responsibilities for ill family members on Black and Brown women. In this essay, I examine how the pandemic is influencing the ability of female faculty members to engage in research and writing during sabbaticals, with particular attention to the impact of parenthood status, race/ethnicity, and socio-economic background. I argue that the pandemic is amplifying pre-existing structural inequalities that have negative impacts on female faculty members’ ability to conduct research during their sabbaticals. In my conclusion, I will examine some institutional responses to the crisis and their potential to enhance faculty sabbatical research during the pandemic

The Emergence of Organized Feminist Resistance to Sexual Harassment in the United States in the 1970s

The first organized resistance to sexual harassment grew out of the women’s movement, emerging at the intersection of activism against employment discrimination and feminist opposition to violence against women. The issue of sexual harassment brought together women’s workplace concerns with resistance to male sexual aggression. In the mid-1970s two organizations formed to focus primarily on sexual harassment—Working Women United in Ithaca, New York, and the Alliance Against Sexual Coercion in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Based on archival materials and interviews, this article documents the early movement against sexual harassment, focusing particularly on the feminist activists who founded these organizations—who they were and how they shaped the movement against sexual harassment. These women made significant contributions to the public understanding of sexual harassment and the development of legal prohibitions against it

History and Politics of Medication Abortion in the United States and the Rise of Telemedicine and Self-Managed Abortion

This article examines the decades-long campaign to increase access to abortion pills in the United States, including advocates’ work to win U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of mifepristone and misoprostol for abortion, the continuing restrictions on mifepristone and the multiple strategies advocates have pursued to challenge these restrictions, including lobbying the FDA to remove the restrictions, obtaining a limited research exemption from FDA restrictions and suing the FDA during the COVID pandemic. The article pays particular attention to influence of research conducted on the safety and efficacy of medication abortion as well as research on the impact of increased availability of abortion pills through telemedicine during the pandemic. The article also addresses self-managed abortion, where people obtain and use mifepristone and/or misoprostol outside of the formal healthcare system, and documents the growing network of organizations providing logistical, medical and legal support for people self-managing abortion. The article concludes with reflections on the role abortion pills might play in the post-Roe era amid increasingly divergent abortion access trends across different regions of the United States

Teaching to Empower

This essay offers strategies for balancing teaching about injustices with strategies to empower students by looking to the past, the present, and the future. Learning about past organizing for social justice using primary archival documents offers lessons in perspective, strategy, and inspiration. Learning about present activists and organizations teaches students cutting-edge strategies for social change and opens up possibilities for their future activism. Finally, teaching students the importance of envisioning a better future, especially through the creative arts, can help them clarify their values and develop affirmative, constructive goals. This essay describes specific activities and exercises for doing each of these things to enhance teaching to empower