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The Racial Roots of Human Trafficking
Abstract
This Article explores the role of race in the prostitution and sex trafficking of people of color, particularly minority youth, and the evolving legal and social responses in the United States. Child sex trafficking has become a vital topic of discussion among scholars and advocates, and public outcry has led to safe harbor legislation aimed at shifting the legal paradigm away punishing prostituted minors and toward greater protections for this vulnerable population. Yet, policymakers have ignored the connection between race and other root factors that push people of color into America's commercial sex trade. This Article argues that race and racism have played a role in creating the epidemic of sex trafficking in the United States and have undermined effective legal and policy responses. Race intersects with other forms of subordination including gender, class, and age to push people of color disproportionately into prostitution and keep them trapped in the commercial sex industry. This intersectional oppression is fueled by the persistence of myths about minority teen sexuality, which in turn encourages risky sexual behavior. Moreover, today's antitrafficking movement has failed to understand and address the racial contours of domestic sex trafficking in the United States and even perpetuates the racial myths that undermine the proper identification of minority youth as sex trafficking victims. Yet, the Obama administration has adopted new policies that raise awareness about the links between race and sex trafficking. These policies also facilitate the increased role of minority youth as leaders and spokespersons in the antitrafficking movement. Their voices defy stereotypes about Black sexuality and call upon legislators and advocates to address some of the unique vulnerabilities that kids of color face with respect to sex trafficking.
... It involves the sexual abuse or exploitation of a child under the age of 18 years old (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention [OJJDP], n.d.). Research suggests that children in the U.S. enter sex trafficking at the age of 12 to 14 years (Butler, 2015), which is well below their age of consent. This problem of sexual abuse or exploitation is daunting for children due to biological and psychological factors as well as their limited life experiences, which heighten their vulnerability. ...
... Youths who are classified as runaways, throwaways, and street youth are also known to be at risk (NCMEC, 2019). Studies show that youth who experience adverse childhood experiences to include poverty, as well as disconnections from schools and community supports are more likely to become victims than youth who have not had such experiences (Butler, 2015). These risk factors of child sex trafficking fall disproportionately on Black girls. ...
... These risk factors of child sex trafficking fall disproportionately on Black girls. Accordingly, they are more likely than their White counterparts to become victims of sex trafficking and to do so at younger ages (Butler, 2015). ...
Child sex trafficking is a troubling, yet hidden, social problem in the United States. Black girls are particularly vulnerable given the intersection of their race and gender as they navigate biological, psychological, and social vulnerabilities. Yet, little light is shed on their experiences, and consequently, strategies to practice with them are lacking. To resist the universal focus on sex trafficking, and to develop targeted approaches to address marginalized groups, such as Black girls, it is imperative to embrace critical, non-exclusionary, and non-oppressive perspectives. This paper introduces critical race theory (CRT) and employs some of its tenets to explain the oppression that Black girls face. Finally, it provides practice strategies, grounded in CRT, to meet the unique challenges of Black girls thereby advancing social work practice in an increasingly racialized context.
... Human tra!cking is not immune from racialization in countries with racial minorities such as the United States. In her seminal (2015) article, "The Racial Roots of Human Tra!cking," Cheryl Nelson Butler (2015) argued that "Race intersects with other forms of subordination . . . to push people of color disproportionately into prostitution and keep them trapped in the commercial sex industry. Its intersectional oppression is fueled by the persistence of myths about minority teen sexuality" (p. ...
... 1468). African American children are often overrepresented in almost every statistic on CSEC in the United States (Bell, 2015;Butler, 2015;Young, Johnson, Bidorini, & Williamson, 2019). Native Americans perceive a strong connection between colonization and a tireless targeting of native people for prostitution (Butler, 2015). ...
... African American children are often overrepresented in almost every statistic on CSEC in the United States (Bell, 2015;Butler, 2015;Young, Johnson, Bidorini, & Williamson, 2019). Native Americans perceive a strong connection between colonization and a tireless targeting of native people for prostitution (Butler, 2015). Structural racism drives women of color to engage in prostitution (Butler, 2015). ...
... The criminalization of prostitution exacerbates the vulnerability of women and youth in the sex trade, as enforcement of the law has primarily focused on the arrest of sex workers (including trafficking victims and minors) for prostitution-related offenses while their exploiters (pimps, johns) are arrested and charged at much lower rates (Farrell, Owens, & McDevitt, 2014;Farrell, Pfeffer, & Bright, 2015). Historically, minors involved in the sex trade (particularly racial minorities) have been criminalized (Butler, 2015;Musto, 2013;Saar, Epstein, Rosenthal, & Vafa, 2015;Swaner, Labriola, Rempel, Walker, & Spadafore, 2016). Criminalization creates an environment in which those involved in the sex trade are routinely harassed by and are often fearful and distrustful of law enforcement, which serves to deter victims from seeking help. ...
... Race intersects with other forms of subordination, including age, class, and gender, which has resulted in women and girls of color disproportionately being victimized by sex trafficking (Butler, 2015). This oppression is fueled by myths related to minority teen sexuality (e.g., that they are more promiscuous and sexually more mature), which prevents their recognition as victims while also promoting risky sexual behaviors (Butler, 2015;Chong, 2014). ...
... Race intersects with other forms of subordination, including age, class, and gender, which has resulted in women and girls of color disproportionately being victimized by sex trafficking (Butler, 2015). This oppression is fueled by myths related to minority teen sexuality (e.g., that they are more promiscuous and sexually more mature), which prevents their recognition as victims while also promoting risky sexual behaviors (Butler, 2015;Chong, 2014). Although sexual exploitation affects children of all races, racial stereotypes about prostitution and sex work have made it difficult to shift the paradigm and identify children of color as victims. ...
Sex trafficking of children and youth is receiving significant attention from practitioners, researchers, and policymakers. Recognition that sex trafficking constitutes a form of child abuse has increased; however, there is still a need for a theoretical framework that provides direction on how best to intervene and conduct research into this phenomenon. In this article, we present a traumagenic social ecological framework of child sex trafficking that examines perceived social norms, societal and environmental factors, extended and intimate relationships, and personal characteristics that influence the ecological setting in which the child is embedded. Utilizing a four-tier approach, our framework focuses on how factors at each level interact and contribute to youths’ vulnerability for sex trafficking through mechanisms including social norms. This allows us to move beyond individualistic explanations of why sex trafficking occurs and consider more complex relationships. This framework is also useful to identify and group intervention strategies on the basis of social ecological level, as each level can be thought of as both a level of influence and a key point for prevention. In addition, interventions that have an impact on all levels of the social ecological framework are encouraged in order to successfully prevent child sex trafficking.
... Criminological research on trafficking has been lax on interrogating legacies of chattel enslavement, structural oppressions, and contemporary human trafficking. Butler (2015) argues human trafficking has racial roots in the labor exploitation and sexual abuse of enslaved Black women and children. Delving into the criminal legal system's response to sex trafficking, Butler (2015) asserts Jezebel permeates the anti-trafficking movement as seen with the "systemic failure of federal law enforcement" (p. ...
... Butler (2015) argues human trafficking has racial roots in the labor exploitation and sexual abuse of enslaved Black women and children. Delving into the criminal legal system's response to sex trafficking, Butler (2015) asserts Jezebel permeates the anti-trafficking movement as seen with the "systemic failure of federal law enforcement" (p. 1501) and other actors to recognize Black women and girls as victims due to racialization and hypersexualization of their bodies. ...
... It is, therefore, informed by moralizing, anti-prostitution sentiments in western Judeo-Christian cultures, as well as among lobby groups which frame prostitution as inherently exploitative (Sharma 2005;Gallagher 2010). Add to this the fact that the intersection of race, gender, and class cause some female bodies -women of colour -to be more likely victims of trafficking (Butler 2015). These 'outsiders' or multiply marginalised groups do not 'embody' the ideal citizen but rather by their very identity and the activity which they pursue -prostitution in this case -they contravene certain sociocultural norms (Russell 2016). ...
... Rather it argues that gendered perspectives determine who is victim or perpetrator and that these binary identities shroud broader processes of exploitation affecting Haitian migrants -children and adult, women and men. Here, scholars of intersectionality remind us that marginalised populations do not have homogenous experiences (Crenshaw 1989;1991;Butler 2015). Class and race, intersecting with gender, result in significant power differences within the category of women such that a poor Haitian woman, for example could be multiply marginalised vis-à-vis a middleclass -or even poor -Dominican woman. ...
The anti-trafficking agenda has faced at least two main criticisms-it privileges criminal justice over human rights and it focuses excessively on sexual exploitation and prostitution. Human trafficking has historically been linked with sexual exploitation of women and children, and despite attempts to broaden the scope, these associations have persisted. Scholars have called for new ways of framing trafficking which can effectively capture the complexities of this phenomenon and adequately represent the affected populations. This paper argues that an excessive focus on 'women-and-children' victims precludes an examination of a wider cross-section of vulnerable populations. Using the case of Haitians in the Dominican Republic, it proposes that a human security perspective that explores intersectional identities is best suited for studying human trafficking as it more closely examines the different factors which render people vulnerable to trafficking.
... Furthermore, the link between moral panics about human trafficking and policies and legislation should not be ignored. Historically, human trafficking laws have roots in panics about race, immigration, and the movement of women (Butler 2015). In both the USA and at the international level, early nineteenth century concerns about human trafficking were rooted in white slave panic, using sensationalized imagery of young, innocent white women being coerced into prostitution (Gallagher 2010). ...
Moral panics around the issue of sex trafficking are not new, as human trafficking itself has roots in the moral concern over the prostitution of white women. However, in modern times the growth of social media has enabled sex trafficking conspiracies to quickly emerge and easily spread. Scant literature has explored how social media now plays a role in generating moral panics around sex trafficking. This paper uses tweets about the #WayfairGate conspiracy as a case study to analyze this issue. Findings reveal that moral panics generated through social media still follow the basic elements of a moral panic. Themes of religion and patriotism are also found. Further, the use of technology enables the fast spread of misinformation, generates stereotypes about both sex trafficking and human trafficking more broadly, and acts as a gateway introduction to other conspiracies. Such conspiracies should not be dismissed as they have the ability to impact public opinion and shape policy.
... Overall, our regression results and the associated predicted probabilities and marginal effects indicate that among human trafficking defendants in federal court, the strongest demographic predictors of being charged under the most serious, higher-penalty sex trafficking statutes are being male and being White/White Hispanic. This finding is deserving of additional research focusing on the implications of racial differences among defendants in these cases, particularly in light of longstanding racialized narratives surrounding sex trafficking in the U.S. (e.g., Butler, 2015;Donovan, 2006Donovan, , 2019 and internationally (Krsmanović, 2020). However, given the limitations imposed by the FJSP data, with its blunt measures of race/ethnicity (described formerly), our results alone cannot fully support, for example, the assertion by one researcher and commentator that sex trafficking defendants "are increasingly white, affluent, and wellconnected" . ...
Because it commodifies humans and their labor, human trafficking is distinct from other crimes and from other types of trafficking, including drug trafficking, the most frequently-prosecuted trafficking crime. The underlying social networks and organizational structures of these trafficking crimes may also differ, resulting in potentially significant differences among the offenders themselves. Using 21 years of data from the Federal Justice Statistics Program in a quantitative research design, we examined whether significant demographic differences exist between defendants charged with drug or human trafficking, and within human trafficking, between those charged with labor or sex trafficking. Further, because federal statutes differentiate among the severity of sex trafficking crimes, we assessed whether significant differences exist among sex trafficking defendants, depending on the severity of the crime with which the defendant is charged. Results indicate that human trafficking defendants differ in important respects from drug trafficking defendants. When separating human trafficking crimes into labor and lower- and higher-penalty sex trafficking, statistically significant differences among defendants remain. Notably, males and White/White Hispanic defendants in human trafficking cases are most likely to be charged with serious, higher-penalty sex trafficking. Female defendants are more likely to be charged with lower-penalty crimes that do not involve minor victims or the use of force. The networks and opportunity structures necessary to support severe forms of trafficking may therefore be dominated by male offenders. Although recent media attention has focused on female offenders in sex trafficking cases, researchers and policymakers should note that these cases do not reflect historical trends.
... Beyond membership of a particular social group, other convention grounds may also be relevant. Whilst much research will draw parallels between race, racial discrimination, and trafficking, there has been little work that looks into the intersection in any meaningful way beyond the anecdotal (Bell 2011;Butler 2015;Chong 2014;Williamson 2017;Fehrenbacher et al. 2020;Greer 2013;Gonzalez 2017;Reid et al. 2019;Bryant-Davis and Tummala-Narra 2017). A focus on race as a relevant ground in trafficking-based claims helps shift attention away from the gendered perspective on trafficking. ...
This paper critically engages with the long-term protection of trafficked persons. In particular, it assesses whether, and the conditions under which, trafficked persons can be considered as refugees under Article 1A of the Geneva Refugee Convention. The importance of international refugee law in this context is highlighted both by the number of trafficked persons seeking international protection and by its suitability to overcome the shortcomings of existing protection provisions in anti-trafficking instruments, which remain discretionary, conditional, and limited in scope. The paper begins by discussing the relevance of refugee protection for trafficked persons. It then applies the various components of the refugee definition to trafficked persons, focusing on the concepts of persecution and membership of a particular social group. Within these, it focuses on aspects of the debate that are currently missing from the broader literature. This includes the question of whether trafficking qua trafficking meets the threshold of persecution and the value of developments in international law in that regard, the merit of using race as a convention ground in cases of trafficked persons, and the contribution of legislative developments recognizing former victims of trafficked persons as members of a particular social group. It then concludes by highlighting the benefits of refugee protection for trafficked persons and indicating the challenges on the road to that protection.
... Also shown in Table 6, these statistics demonstrate that, even in the US, where white children do comprise a significant number of child-trafficking cases, children of color are disproportionately likely to be victims. This racial disparity in child trafficking is well-documented in the US and abroad by the US Department of State 2020 and other sources (e.g., Davey 2020;Butler 2015). These results and the QAnon imagery primarily depicting white youths are consistent with Hypothesis 1. ...
In the lead-up to the 2020 US presidential election, adherents to QAnon conspiracy theories parlayed the “Save the Children” slogan from a well-known charity into a vector for exposure and political mobilization. This paper introduces three factors that potentially contributed space for appropriating the slogan into the QAnon-backed #SaveTheChildren campaign and, in this context, examines images of children shown alongside QAnon #SaveTheChildren messages. For these factors, we examine the use of race, age, gender, and graphic depictions in this exploitative imagery. Results show QAnon-related images massively over-represent preteen, white children compared to child-trafficking statistics and include a substantial proportion of graphic imagery. Building on studies of child-advocacy campaigns, we contend that QAnon imagery uses the familiar motif of distressed children while presenting a narrative distinct from both these child-advocacy groups and the realities of child trafficking. Embedded in broader contexts of race, gender, and emotional manipulation in online spaces, we discuss how these images are particularly impactful for conservative, white, and especially female audiences in the US and how other movements might be at similar risk of appropriation. The paper then closes by describing possible interventions to protect the safety of online audiences.
... Contemporary legislative efforts have been bipartisan and largely focused on the protection of women and children (primarily cisgender girls) from sex trafficking or "modern day slavery" Public discourse surrounding TVPA largely lacked an intersectional framework. By overlooking how intersectionality (that is, overlapping social identities) increases vulnerabilities to both exploitation and criminal justice involvement, counter sex trafficking legislation and on-the-ground efforts also erased the narratives of minority groups (Butler, 2015;Phillips, 2015). Specifically, girls of minority racial and ethnic backgrounds (for example, Black and Latina) and youths with a minority gender identification or sexual orientation are highly susceptible to CSE and criminalization (Dank et al., 2015;Phillips, 2015). ...
For the first time in US history, first-year female medical
school matriculants (50.7%) outnumbered men (49.3%) in
2017 [1]. Moreover, in 2019, women accounted for 50.5%
of all medical students for the first time [1]. Yet, female faculty continue to be underrepresented at the highest rankings in
academic medicine as a whole and in psychiatry [2, 3].
Women represent only 26% and 32% of full professors among
all medical faculty and psychiatry faculty, respectively, with a
majority identified as White [3]. Structural racism, gender
bias, and discrimination, along with the lack of systematic
strategies that aim to achieve gender and racial equity, result
in persistent achievement and promotion disparities among
students, residents, and faculty, especially among those who
are underrepresented in medicine [4, 5].
We will review the barriers women face advancing their
careers in academic medicine in general, and academic psychiatry in particular, with specific attention paid to inequities
for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) women
and especially underrepresented in medicine (URM) women
compared to White women based on race/ethnicity. We will
also consider the intersecting impact of sexual orientation and
gender identities on women. Although there is a substantial
body of research on academic medical career progression for
women and URM, research identifying strategies and challenges for URM women is limited. Challenges noted include
institutional barriers related to mentoring, time management,
influence of bias, exclusion from formal and informal networks, and involvement in committees and non-promotion
activities. Notably, the literature often considers women
homogenously and does not account for nuanced differences
between groups. Still, we propose solutions to narrow persistent gender and racial/ethnic disparity gaps for womenidentifying faculty.
The Association of American Medical Colleges defines
underrepresented in medicine (URM) as “those racial and ethnic populations that are underrepresented in the medical profession relative to their numbers in the general population”
[6].We use the term “URM women” to describe these women,
who include all who do not identify as exclusively White or
Asian [6]. We use the term “Black, Indigenous, and People of
Color (BIPOC) women” to describe women whose racial/
ethnic identities are non-White to recognize the significant
past and present history of violence, structural racism, and
injustice toward Black and Indigenous people in the USA.
We use the term “LGBTQIA+ women” to refer to lesbian,
bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and all sexual
and gender minoritized women in recognition of the discrimination and oppression they experience
... Contemporary legislative efforts have been bipartisan and largely focused on the protection of women and children (primarily cisgender girls) from sex trafficking or "modern day slavery" Public discourse surrounding TVPA largely lacked an intersectional framework. By overlooking how intersectionality (that is, overlapping social identities) increases vulnerabilities to both exploitation and criminal justice involvement, counter sex trafficking legislation and on-the-ground efforts also erased the narratives of minority groups (Butler, 2015;Phillips, 2015). Specifically, girls of minority racial and ethnic backgrounds (for example, Black and Latina) and youths with a minority gender identification or sexual orientation are highly susceptible to CSE and criminalization (Dank et al., 2015;Phillips, 2015). ...
Historically, youths who are affected by commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) in the United States have been implicated as perpetrators of crime and overrepresented in the juvenile justice system. As an intriguing example of the “smart decarceration” social work grand challenge, policy and practice initiatives have converged to decriminalize cisgender girls and young women experiencing CSE by reframing them as victims of exploitation rather than as criminals. To date, these efforts have largely focused on gender-specific programming for cisgender girls and young women. In this article, the authors describe how federal, state, and local policy and practice innovations have supported reframing CSE as a form of child maltreatment and rerouted girls and young women from the juvenile justice system to specialized services. Using Los Angeles County as a case example, the authors detail how innovative prevention, intervention, and aftercare programs can serve as models of smart decarceration for CSE-affected cisgender girls and young women with the potential to address the needs of youths with diverse gender and sexual identities.
... This is unfortunate as a robust understanding of risk is central to the development of high-quality and targeted prevention efforts (McCoy, 2017). Based upon a review of the literature on DMST risk factors, social work researchers should pay close attention to risks like juvenile justice involvement (Chohaney, 2016;Godsoe, 2015), child welfare (i.e., child protective services [CPS]) involvement (Cavazos, 2016;Countryman-Roswurm & Bolin, 2014;Reid, 2010), substance use or abuse and other mental health concerns (Reid & Piquero, 2014), and minority race (Butler, 2015;Choi, 2015;Ocen, 2015;Perkins & Ruiz, 2017) in trying to understand and develop DMST prevention strategies. Perhaps more than any other risk factor, however, a cumulation of the literature suggests that victims' unmet basic needs are extremely important for understanding adolescents' DMST risk as the available literature suggests that victims' "unmet basic needs" is the risk factor that ties all of the other risk factors to one another (see Twis, 2019). ...
Domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) is the commercial sexual exploitation of a minor American citizen or permanent resident within the United States. It is a human rights abuse and carries significant consequences for victims’ psychological, physical, and social health. To interrupt DMST victimization patterns, it is important for researchers and advocates to fully understand how victims’ vulnerabilities are exploited by different people in their lives, but investigations of DMST victim–trafficker relationships are largely unexplored in the literature. The purpose of this cross-sectional path analysis of archival data, therefore, is to explore the influence of victims’ unmet basic needs on their victimization within specific types of DMST relationships. The results of this study suggest that unmet basic needs may play less of a role in influencing victim–trafficker relationship type than might be hypothesized based upon broader understandings of human trafficking vulnerability.
... The neoliberal power structures and processes that create these vulnerabilities however remain invisible and as Davidson and Saull (2016) argue, it is part of the reason migrants are seen as the problem in the global north for taking jobs and welfare. Increasing poverty, inequalities, and unemployment arising from the structural adjustment programmes and reforms undoubtedly plays a contributory role to the pressures to migrate for better work opportunities and an associated stream of human trafficking (Butler, 2015;Williamson, 2017). ...
This paper describes the difficulties of researching racism in healthcare contexts as part of the wider issue of neoliberal reforms in welfare states in the age of global migration. In trying to understand the contradiction of a phenomenon that is historical and strongly felt by individuals and yet widely denied by both institutions and individuals, we consider the current political and socioeconomic context of healthcare provision. Despite decades of legislation against racism, its presence persists in healthcare settings, but data on these experiences is rarely gathered in Europe. National systems of healthcare provision have been subject to neoliberal reforms, where among others, cheaper forms of labor are sought to reduce the cost of producing healthcare, while the availability of services is rationed to contain demand. The restriction both on provision of and access to welfare, including healthcare, is unpopular among national populations. However, the explanations for restricted access to healthcare are assumed to be located outside the national context with immigrants being blamed. Even as migrants are used as a source of cheap labor in healthcare and other welfare sectors, the arrival of immigrants has been held responsible for restricted access to healthcare and welfare in general. One implication of (im)migration being blamed for healthcare restrictions, while racism is held to be a problem of the past, is the silencing of experiences of racism, which has dire consequences for ethnic minority populations. The implications of racism as a form of inequality within healthcare and the circumstances of researching racism in healthcare and its implication for the sociology of health in Sweden are described.
... Although there is no standard of oppressions that determine who is vulnerable for trafficking and exploitation, the intersection of different forms of oppression makes some people more vulnerable than others, including Women of Color, homeless women and children, and those living in poverty. When considering the life course of survivors, it is important to recognize that trafficking and exploitation experiences do not happen in isolation but are instead informed by a variety of vulnerabilities and inequities including histories of sexual abuse (Reid, Baglivio, Piquero, Greenwald, & Epps, 2017;Silbert & Pines, 1981;Sprang & Cole, 2018), gender-based violence or domestic violence (Silverman et al., 2007;Whittier, 2016), poverty (Myint, 2008;Tiano, 2016), globalization (Shelley, 2010); racism (Bryant-Davis & Tummala-Narra, 2017;Nelson-Butler, 2015;Chong, 2014), and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) (Reid et al., 2017). Because our forum consisted of both national and international representation, we broadly consider both in regards to vulnerabilities. ...
... Black girls are most likely to be charged with prostitution instead of being treated as victims based on a study of international and domestic risk factors for sex trafficking (Clawson, Dutch, Solomon, & Grace, 2009). The perception that minority young women are not victims, and downgrading the role of race and racism in sexual exploitation, perpetuate sex trafficking among youth and women of color (Butler, 2015). ...
Sex trafficking is a widespread form of human trafficking that exists globally. The forced sexual exploitation of young women for profit at the hands of traffickers is a human rights violation. Sex trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery where youths are sold as a commodity. It is difficult to determine the wide range of negative health outcomes associated with domestic minor sex trafficking due to the hidden nature of the crime and its lack of statistical data to determine prevalence. Viewing domestic minor sex trafficking through an ecological lens assists in the understanding of the multiple complex interactions between victims, their relationships, and environments that influence their health. Forensic nurses are poised as experts in the healthcare of vulnerable populations and possess the knowledge to understand that social determinants of vulnerability depend on the distinct setting or environment where victims of sex trafficking reside and how different factors affect their victimology, resilience, and well-being.
... That there are persistent and ongoing inequalities between women and men in every known social context, albeit in different formations, means that as Dorchen Leidholdt (1993, 133) points out, prostitution is not 'an exchange between similarly situated individuals who are making complementary choices: one to buy sex and the other to sell it'. How gender intersects with race and ethnicity to blend sexism, racism and colonialism in the prostitution system is rarely acknowledged, despite evidence that women from minority communities are disproportionately sexually exploited (for example, Kramer and Berg, 2003;Butler, 2015). Survivors of the prostitution system have long been clear that unequal power between women and men is the root of men's violence, inflected by racism/colonisation (for example, Norma and Tankard-Reist, 2016). ...
The extent to which prostitution is addressed in Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) policy in the UK varies by nation, region and local area. Current Westminster government policy frames prostitution in terms of associated harm and exploitation, not as harm and exploitation, in sharp contrast to Scotland and some local areas. This short article extends Liz Kelly's (1988) continuum of violence against women to prostitution, drawing on definitions of VAWG, research evidence on harms and conceptual links between men's abusive practices. For policy, this means a re-orientation towards specialist support for women, including to leave prostitution, and seeking to end demand. There are also opportunities for Westminster government policy to create consistency in VAWG prevention work and sexual exploitation of children through a more coherent analysis of gendered violations and violences. While the focus is on UK policy, the case for including prostitution in strategic approaches to VAWG will have wider resonance.
... It also appears that criminalization discourages buyers [43,44], reducing the demand for sellers, which in turn worsens commerce for traffickers and reduces trafficking [45]. However, arrest can compound adversity for sellers, particularly those from marginalized populations [46], and enforcement can be selectively used against buyers and brokers [47] in a racist way. Criminalization can also create dangerous conditions in which sellers must collude with buyers and brokers to hide them from law enforcement [48]. ...
According to the World Health Organization, "commercial sex" is the exchange of money or goods for sexual services, and this term can be applied to both consensual and nonconsensual exchanges. Some nonconsensual exchanges qualify as human trafficking. Whether the form of commercial sex that is also known as prostitution should be decriminalized is being debated contentiously around the world, in part because the percentage of commercial sex exchanges that are consensual as opposed to nonconsensual, or trafficked, is unknown. This paper explores the question of decriminalization of commercial sex with reference to the bioethical principles of beneficence, nonmaleficence, and respect for autonomy. It concludes that though there is no perfect policy solution to the various ethical problems associated with commercial sex that can arise under either criminalized or decriminalized conditions, the Nordic model offers several potential advantages. This model criminalizes the buying of sex and third-party brokering of sex (i.e., pimping) but exempts sex sellers (i.e., prostitutes, sex workers) from criminal penalties. However, ongoing support for this type of policy should be contingent upon positive results over time.
Background:
Girls impacted by commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) in the juvenile legal system are three times more likely to have suicide attempts than girls without histories of exploitation. Yet, research on risk profiles and correlates that contribute to elevated suicide risk among girls with CSE histories remains scant.
Objective:
We sought to examine suicide attempts profiles among CSE-impacted girls in the juvenile legal system.
Participants and setting:
We partnered with a specialty court for CSE-impacted youth in Los Angeles County.
Methods:
Data were collected from case files of the 360 girls participating in the court from 2012 to 2016. Latent class analysis was used to identify their profiles of risk indicators.
Results:
Four risk profiles for suicide attempts emerged: (1) Parental Incarceration (PI; 30 %), (2) Child Welfare Contact (CWC; 25 %), (3) Disruptive Behavior and Sleep Problems (DBS; 25 %), and (4) Pervasive Risk (PR; 22 %). Among youth in the PI group, 5 % had a suicide attempt; however, contrary to our hypothesis, no youth in the CWC group had a suicide attempt. Rates of suicide attempt were significantly higher among youth in the DBS group, as 14 % had a suicide attempt. As hypothesized, youth in the PR were associated with higher risk of suicide attempts, with 28 % reporting a prior suicide attempt.
Conclusions:
Findings underscore the need for standardized suicide screenings and treatment referrals for girls with CSE histories and suggest an important opportunity for multidisciplinary collaboration with courts to improve suicide prevention strategies. The present study also supports the importance of examining risk across the socioecological context.
A legacy of the transatlantic slave trade, Brazil is home to the largest number of African descendants outside Africa and the greatest number of domestic workers in the world. Drawing on ten years of interviews and ethnographic research, the author examines the lives of marginalized informal domestic workers who are called 'adopted daughters' but who live in slave-like conditions in the homes of their adoptive families. She traces a nuanced and, at times, disturbing account of how adopted daughters, who are trapped in a system of racial, gender, and class oppression, live with the coexistence of extreme forms of exploitation and seemingly loving familial interactions and affective relationships. Highlighting the humanity of her respondents, Hordge-Freeman examines how filhas de criação (raised daughters) navigate the realities of their structural constraints and in the context of pervasive norms of morality, gratitude, and kinship. In all, the author clarifies the link between contemporary and colonial forms of exploitation, while highlighting the resistance and agency of informal domestic workers.
The name Jezebel has long been associated with promiscuous and manipulative women since Biblical times. The name is now often associated with Black women and girls. In this paper, the author (1) explored the impact of the Jezebel stereotype on Black girls’ sexual victimization, (2) discussed the impact of adverse childhood experiences, and (3) examined how carceral public systems harm Black girls and make them vulnerable to being sex trafficked. The carceral public systems discussed in this paper include educational settings and child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Recommendations to redress race and racism, classism, and sexism in these three settings are offered.
This chapter examines cultural considerations applicable to sex trafficking worldwide with an emphasis on multicultural victims detected in the United States. Data, risk factors, and systemic barriers relevant to multicultural victims of sex trafficking are provided. This chapter also covers disparities in sex trafficking experiences between diverse populations of domestic and foreign nationals who are exploited for commercial sex in the United States. Transcultural, trauma-informed adaptations to victim assessment and treatment are also suggested.Keywords
Transcultural
Diversity
Immigration
Pediatricians are uniquely and well positioned to recognize risk factors for and experiences of labor and sex trafficking in children. While clinical and social interventions are well discussed in the literature, the underlying mechanisms that cause and contribute to trafficking are poorly addressed among healthcare professionals. A “colorblind” or otherwise “apolitical” approach to trafficking prevention is ineffective and may be detrimental to the patient-practitioner relationship. Pediatricians must be historico-socially aware of the contexts in which they practice to improve the health of pediatric populations. This article addresses the relevant trafficking legal terminology that may be unfamiliar to most pediatricians and focuses on a few “ism”-schisms (capitalism, racism, sexism, cis-heteronormativity, nativism, and classism) that create vulnerability to trafficking in pediatric populations. The article closes with some intervention recommendations and many more prevention-measure recommendations.
We integrated core community based participatory research (CBPR) principles in an intervention research study that aimed to address the sexual health needs of system-involved youth with histories of commercial sexual exploitation (CSE). Researchers, multidisciplinary stakeholders, and individuals with lived experience built upon each other’s strengths and resources to adapt an evidenced-based reproductive health curriculum and develop an innovative sexual health intervention. This article presents key findings and recommendations that researchers can implement prior to, during, and after engaging individuals with lived experience and multidisciplinary stakeholders to support a prosperous bi-directional relationship. It is imperative that all collaborators recognize the value of lived experience and create a culture that encourages contributions beyond one’s history of exploitation. Conducting an assessment to ensure individuals with lived experience feel mentally and emotionally prepared to participate may help reduce the potential for re-traumatization. Given the dearth of available health-related interventions for this population and strategies to guide collaboration, our findings may inform future efforts aimed at reducing health disparities, promoting equity, and improving sexual health outcomes amongst this population.
Human trafficking is the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of forced labor or sexual exploitation. It is a serious human rights violation and public health issue. The experience of a trafficked individual sits at the nexus of multiple structural factors including socioeconomic status, family structure, race, gender, the criminal justice system, and experience of adverse childhood experiences. These factors contribute to an individual’s risk of trafficking, their ability to leave trafficking, and their recovery from the various physical and psychological sequelae of trafficking. Healthcare professionals have a unique opportunity to provide services to people being trafficked, yet many feel undertrained to recognize, evaluate, and manage patients who are trafficked. To appropriately treat individuals experiencing trafficking, clinicians must identify and address their own implicit biases, understand the cultural and structural factors impacting patients, and practice cultural humility as well as trauma-informed care. Systemic changes must also occur to improve the cultural responsiveness of care for distinct populations experiencing trafficking. This chapter explores exploitation from cultural and clinical perspectives, across care delivery settings, and the criminal justice system. It examines policies and practices with a focus on distinct populations including BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color), women and children, adolescents, LGBTQ, and immigrants. Work must be done to eliminate structural racism embedded in existing mental health services and to reduce the upstream factors that put people at risk of trafficking. To achieve health equity for people at risk of trafficking, there must be increased emphasis on understanding cultural factors such as structural racism, gender discrimination, and the policies and practices in place to support and perpetuate exploitation of BIPOC.
American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) land rights, sovereignty conflicts, and health outcomes have been significantly influenced by settler colonialism. This principle has driven the numerous relocations and forced assimilation of AI/AN children as well as the claiming of AI/AN lands across the United States. As tribes across the country begin to reclaim these lands and others continue to struggle for sovereignty, it is imperative to recognize that land rights are a determinant of health in AI/AN children. Aside from the demonstrated biological risks of environmental health injustices including exposure to air pollution, heavy metals, and lack of running water, AI/AN children must also face the challenges of historical trauma, the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples crisis, and health care inequity based on land allocation. Although there is an undeniable relationship between land rights and the health of AI/AN children, there is a need for extensive research into the impacts of land rights and recognition of sovereignty on the health of AI/AN children. In this article we aim to summarize existing evidence describing the impact of these factors on the health of AI/AN children and provide strateg ies that can help pediatricians care and advocate for this population.
It is being increasingly recognized that providing human trafficking education (HTE) in schools is an effective prevention tool. Yet, the strategies that may be utilized in delivering these programs have not been fully established. The purpose of this paper is two fold. First, the paper discusses the importance of providing human trafficking education in schools, with a particular emphasis on urban schools. Second, the paper utilizes an attachment theory perspective to suggest strategies for trauma informed human trafficking education in schools. This work draws upon recent research in trauma-informed education and practice, and uses an attachment theory perspective to discuss ways to incorporate well-researched strategies and tools into potential curricula for human trafficking education. In the absence of trauma informed strategies incorporated into school education, the effectiveness of anti-trafficking initiatives may be highly compromised.
Children from every demographic have experienced sex trafficking; however, research has repeatedly shown that girls, children who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color), and children who identify as LGBTQ2S+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, Two-Spirit, and other) are overrepresented among this population. Historically, the anti-trafficking field has referred to this overrepresentation by identifying gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation as individual risk factors. However, less attention has been paid to the identity trauma and historical trauma often experienced by these populations, or the role that systemic and internalized oppression (sexism, racism, ethnocentrism, homophobia, and transphobia) plays in these children’s vulnerabilities. This chapter addresses gaps in current literature by discussing the role of trauma and oppression as risk factors for child sex trafficking and the disproportionate impact trauma and oppression have on girls, children who identify as BIPOC, and children who identify as LGBTQ2S+. It then examines the role that child-serving systems have played in responding to childhood trauma and the manner in which current responses may further contribute to the oppression of these populations and their overrepresentation among trafficked children. Finally, recommendations are made for how the anti-trafficking field and child-serving systems can move forward to address trauma and oppression, especially among overrepresented populations and provide better foundational prevention so that children are not trafficked in the first place.
The human rights violation of sex trafficking continues to occur in the United States at alarming rates. Although sex trafficking affects individuals across various demographic groups, this crime disproportionately affects children. Counselors who work with children and adolescents are uniquely positioned to identify, support, and advocate on behalf of sex trafficked youth who may experience barriers to emotional and physical wellness. Extant literature on counseling sex trafficking survivors remain scarce and illuminate the need for victim identification, trauma-informed interventions, and advocacy strategies that support the unique needs of child sex trafficking survivors. To address these disparities, this article describes victim identification techniques, outlines trauma-focused interventions for counseling sex trafficked youth, and presents advocacy strategies. The implications for counseling child sex trafficking survivors are illuminated through a case study.
Background
Sex trafficking is a public health and social justice issue that has traditionally been addressed with criminal justice solutions. Because many sex trafficking survivors are incarcerated for crimes related to their exploitation, specialty, human trafficking courts were developed to offer resources and assistance to labor and sex trafficking survivors. This study assessed justice-involved youth participating in a specialty, anti-trafficking court program. The purpose of this study was to investigate justice-related outcomes of participants in a specialty court program. We examined: (1) the relationship between age at first citation and justice characteristics (number of bench warrants, number of citations, number placements, and number of times ran away); and (2) the number of months between first citation and enrollment into the program with the aforementioned justice characteristics. We used negative binomial models to estimate the relationships between age at first citation, number of months between first citation and program enrollment, with the four justice characteristics ( n = 181).
Results
Adjusted models showed that younger age at first citation was associated with significantly more bench warrants and citations while in the program. Likewise, fewer months between first citation and program entry was related to more bench warrants and citations.
Conclusions
There is a need to evaluate the appropriateness of specialty, trafficking court programs in reducing continued justice involvement and these programs ability to meet the evolving needs of sex trafficking survivors over time. We recommend universal screening for trafficking indicators for all systems-involved youth and relocating trafficking specialty courts out of juvenile courts to dependency courts.
Ending all forms of labor trafficking by 2030 has been prioritized within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Target 8.7), yet progress in combatting trafficking has been limited. Human trafficking is recognized as a global public health concern because of its widespread negative impacts on individual and population level health. This has led researchers, policymakers, and NGOs to frequently claim that trafficking has reached “epidemic proportions”. If such is the case, then using tools from public health and epidemiology can help to generate novel insights in the way we conceptualize, research, and address the problem of trafficking. Using a methodological framework known as the Epidemiologic Problem Oriented Approach (EPOA), we analyze the various components of labor trafficking identification and response, drawing contextualized comparisons with infectious disease epidemiology to characterize labor trafficking as a “disease”. This cross-disciplinary approach provides a well-defined conceptual organization of the components that play a role in understanding trafficking dynamics. Epidemiology is highly relevant in the study of trafficking and contributes to the growing research interest surrounding the intersection of public health and human trafficking.
Human sex trafficking has gained greater awareness in recent decades. The literature surrounding sex trafficking has largely applied a model of supply and demand or model of sexual aggression to the issue; however, this understanding is limited. An application of Relational-Cultural Theory (RCT) simultaneously reveals the deeply anti-relational aspects of this human rights abuse and counseling approaches that facilitate healing. An RCT approach, including working with authenticity, mutual empathy, empowerment, relational images, as well as connection and disconnection, can be engaged by counselors to culminate in relational experiences of “the five good things” for survivors of sex trafficking.
Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) refers to sex trafficking of minors under the age of 18 and involves engagement in any sexual act in exchange for anything of value, irrespective of force, fraud, or coercion. Force, fraud, or coercion do not have to exist or be proven to consider transactional sexual acts with minors as CSEC. This chapter focuses on the characteristics of CSEC and the medical care for young people who have been trafficked for sex.
China’s program for inter-regional economic connectivity, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), will develop new trade routes and production chains linking developing world economies with the Chinese market, making a unique contribution to gloabl economic devewlopment. At the same time, problems with debt servicing, corruption and a range of other political risks have emerged in some BRI partner countries and with some projects, which have encouraged an increasingly geopolitical commentary, particularly since the shift of the United States’ rhetoric since 2017 characterizing China as a strategic competitor. Whether the benefits of the BRI projects will be evenly shared or will accrue disproportionately to China will be an important area for future study. It is clear that the BRI raises a range of risks and that these are distributed between China and its partners. For China, the BRI can be understood as a giant risk mitigation strategy to support its economic restructuring and development of Western China, by deploying surplus capital and construction capabilities to diversify global supply chains and markets. As many of the BRI partner countries are high risk locations for investment and infrastructure development, China and its partners are also taking signficant risks. There is a need for more empirical study of Chinese initiatives, finance and investment in diverse international business environments. This discussion of the political risk for Chinese businesses and their partners in the developing world reviews the recent discussions of three broad categories of risk factors: geopolitical, country-level and project-level.
One of the biggest failings of contemporary regimes governing human exploitation is their treatment of 'victims'. This paper roots narratives of victimhood and agency in the legal frameworks through analysis of the right to effective remedy in human rights and international law. Dominant characterisations of 'victimisation' are problematised and an alternative formulation-the 'victim-agent'-proposed in order to recognise agency and its abrogation, advocate for participation consistent with the demands of procedural justice, and contribute to meaningful redress.
Domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) is the commercial sexual exploitation of a child under the age of 18 within the borders of the United States. The purpose of the present study is to explore how various forms of oppression and risk predict DMST victimization, particularly specific subcategories of DMST victimization by traffickers. This study focuses on whether risk factors can predict victims’ trafficking by a family member, friend, romantic partner, or stranger. Utilizing intersectionality theory and odds ratios analyses, the results of this cross-sectional analysis of secondary data suggest that the presence of certain risk factors in adolescents’ lives can, indeed, predict the type of relationship victims have with their traffickers. In the final odds ratio model, child welfare involvement and juvenile justice involvement are the strongest predictors of specific victim-trafficker relationship types. The results of this study provide insight into targeted prevention and intervention programs for specific subpopulations of youth who are identified as at-risk for DMST. Results may also provide advocates with information about how best to lobby policymakers to make the systemic changes that are necessary to prevent DMST from occurring in the first place.
Domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) is the commercial sexual exploitation of a minor citizen or legal resident within United States borders. Officials often view DMST as a monolithic crime, rather than a problem driven by victims’ variable experiences with poverty, racism, and family dysfunction. The purpose of this study is to explore how various risk factors are associated with one another and with DMST victimization, particularly within specific subcategories of DMST, such as trafficking by a family member, stranger, friend, or romantic partner. This study utilizes the archival data from 242 sex trafficked minors. The author coded the case files for the presence of risk factors, such as race, child welfare involvement, juvenile justice involvement, poverty, and more. Then, the author employed chi-square procedures to explore the association between risk factors, and between risk factors and victim-trafficker relationship type. Findings suggest that DMST victimization is not a uniform phenomenon, in which all victims share the same risks. There appears to be variations between the risk factors experienced by victims prior to entering specific relationship dynamics. Counter-trafficking advocates need to articulate these variations to the range of professionals who work within the systems that may prevent, identify, and remediate DMST.
One of the biggest failings of contemporary regimes governing human exploitation is their treatment of ‘victims’. This paper roots narratives of victimhood and agency in the legal frameworks through analysis of the right to effective remedy in human rights and international law. Dominant characterisations of ‘victimisation’ are problematised and an alternative formulation - the ‘victim-agent’ - proposed in order to recognise agency and its abrogation, advocate for participation consistent with the demands of procedural justice, and contribute to meaningful redress.
Empiricism and the application of human behavior theory to inquiry are regarded as markers of high-quality research. Unfortunately, scholars have noted that there are many gaps in theory and empiricism within the human trafficking literature, calling into question the legitimacy of policies and practices that are derived from the available data. To date, there has not been an analysis of the extent to which empirical methods and human behavior theory have been applied to domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) research as a subcategory of human trafficking inquiry. To fill this gap in the literature, this systematic review was designed to assess the degree to which DMST publications are a) empirical, and b) apply human behavior theory to inquiry. This analysis also focuses on answering research questions related to patterns within DMST study data sources, and patterns of human behavior theory application. The results of this review indicate that a minority of sampled DMST publications are empirical, a minority of those articles that were empirical apply a specific human behavior theory within the research design and reporting of results, a minority of articles utilize data collected directly from DMST victims, and that there are no discernible patterns in the application of human behavior theory to DMST research. This research note suggests that DMST research is limited by the same challenges as the larger body of human trafficking scholarship. Based upon these overarching findings, specific recommendations are offered to DMST researchers who are committed to enhancing the quality of DMST scholarship.
The article, based on policy analysis, institutional interviews and community fieldwork, looks at why children in prostitution and victims of trafficking remain practically without state support and institutional assistance. It also explores to what extent the decriminalisation of the system assisting child victims of prostitution and trafficking, or the shift from the ‘punishment’ to the ‘welfare model’, has taken place. The ethnic aspect of the problem is addressed as well given that the majority of victims are of Roma origin. While Hungary has ratified all important international conventions that oblige the country to protect child victims, neither its policies and legislation nor its institutions including child protection, law enforcement and the judiciary, seem to have adequate structural frameworks and institutional practices to attend to these children and prosecute offenders. Policy gaps, institutional procedures and practices are identified and it is concluded that the country is still much closer to the ‘punishment model’.
Domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) is one type of human trafficking, in which a minor American citizen or resident alien is commercially sexually exploited within United States borders. One of the areas of DMST inquiry that may benefit from additional attention are the domains of vulnerability and risk. The risk factors that are often named in the literature as predictive of DMST include youth runaway status, homelessness, involvement with the child welfare system, belonging to a sexual or racial minority group, and a history of child physical or sexual abuse. However, none of these named factors has yet achieved predictive validity in the literature, and the field appears confused about how to position and validate these hypothesized risk factors into a DMST vulnerability measurement tool. Within the present systematic review, a search for relevant publications occurred within numerous databases. A full text review of the articles that met inclusion criteria revealed that none of the empirical articles within the sampling frame utilized a validated measurement of DMST vulnerability. The articles, however, provided insight into the associations between risk factors and DMST victimization. The results of this review fill a sizable gap in the literature by assessing available publications for an operationalization of youth vulnerability to DMST. The review concludes with recommendations for the next steps that are required for the development and implementation of a DMST vulnerability measurement tool with predictive validity.
Over the last twenty years, domestic sexual trafficking of children has received increased attention from state and national policymakers and advocates. Indeed, states across the country have enacted laws establishing harsh new penalties for individuals convicted of domestic sexual trafficking. At the same time, arrest and conviction rates for Black girls within the juvenile justice system are increasing, often as a result of prostitutionrelated offenses. In this Article, I explore the race, gender, and class dynamics that animate these trends. In particular, I highlight the ways in which historic constructions of childhood, innocence, and sexuality shape antitrafficking law enforcement practices and how they have functioned in racialized and gendered ways to exclude Black girls from protection. Consequently, Black girls who are subject to sexual exploitation in the contemporary era are often labeled as offenders rather than victims. In sum, I contend that the intersectional identities of poor Black girls at once render them vulnerable to sexual exploitation and deny them access to protective antitrafficking regimes. To combat the discrimination that Black girls experience as a result of this exclusion, I propose decriminalization of girls who are subject to trafficking and robust investment in supportive race- and gender-conscious institutions that can prevent sexual exploitation.
Little research has examined the specific healing needs of prostituted African American women. In this qualitative research study, eight African American women who were receiving culturally specific services at an Afrocentric agency participated in a focus group and in-depth semistructured interviews.. The analysis revealed seven categories of experience: (1) a legacy of violence and underreporting, (2) family and self-preservation, (3) kinship support and spirituality, (4) hitting rock bottom, (5) barriers to recovery, (6) helpful and harmful services, and (7) a prism of oppression. Implications for social workers, policy makers, advocates, and further research are discussed.
2 delivered a speech to a chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution on the decision's consequences. Brady's speech, later published and popularized throughout the South, 3 de- clared that the ruling's ultimate goal was not educational equality, but racial amalgamation: 4 Let's get one thing unmistakably clear, the leaders of the three mil- lion block-voting negroes of the North and East and of California, together with segments of the Communist-front organizations of our
The 2008 Presidential campaign highlighted three strong, interesting, and very different women -- Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Michelle Obama -- who negotiated identity performances in the political limelight. Because of their diverse backgrounds, experience, and ages, an examination of how these three women performed their identities and the public response to them offers a rich understanding of the changing nature of gender, gender roles, age, sexuality and race in our culture. This essay suggests that optimism that Obama's race and gender performances may have removed the stigma from "the feminine" may be misplaced, at least when it comes to women aspiring to high public office. Indeed, a review of the public's reaction to the gender, race, and class performances of these three women confirms that women aspiring to high public office continue to suffer intense public scrutiny of their gender performances.
This article reexamines the well-known debate over the origins of de jure segregation in the American South, which began in 1955 with the publication of C. Vann Woodward's The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Arguing that the debate over Woodward's thesis implicates familiar but outmoded ways of looking at sociolegal change and Southern society, the article proposes a reorientation of this debate using theoretical perspectives taken from recent work by legal historians, critical race theorists, and historians of race, class, and gender. This article examines the advent of railroad segregation in Tennessee (the state that enacted the nation's first railroad segregation statute) in order to sketch out these themes, arguing that de jure segregation was brought about by a dialectic between legal, social, and identity-based phenomena. This dialectic did not die out with the coming of de jure segregation; rather it continued into the modem era.
In this article the authors provide a general overview of the controversies associated with urban street fiction, a brief introduction to the genre and an introduction to the complex representations of Black adolescent femininity within two contemporary titles, Black and Ugly (Styles, 2006) and Bitch (King, 2006). The authors provide a critical textual analysis that focuses on how women authors of urban street fiction rely upon and resist popular stereotypical representations of Black adolescent girls in their work. The authors argue that reading urban street fiction is a powerful out-of-school literacy practice that invites critical attention from educators.
Mack : pimp; talk someone into something
“Pimptionary,” Ice-T
Mack man : Short for Mackerel man, a pimp. Possibly from the French maquereau . Connotes the working side of pimping, especially the line, the “rap,” the psychological game.
“Pimp Talk,” Christina and Richard Milner
Mack , as these definitions attest, is synonymous with pimp and is so deployed in gangsta rap as both noun and verb. From this denotative meaning, the term has assumed secondary meanings: to persuade, or as Ice-T says “to talk someone into.” The mack comes to mean the persuader, the trickster, the rapper. This semantic shift strikes at the centre of the equivalencies between rap artist and pimp. As music critic S. H. Fernando asserts, “the one specific quality that pimps and rappers share is their way with words.” If broad parallels can be drawn between pimping and rapping, what is distinctive about the notorious and highly successful subgenre of gangsta rap, which emerged in late-1980s urban California, is that here this equivalence is literalized. Many gangsta rappers actually assume pimp personae, presenting oral narratives which fulfil both denotative and connotative meanings of the word mack.
In recent years, there has been much media attention and increased law reform efforts to address the phenomenon of the international trafficking of women and children for the purposes of sexual exploitation. In contrast to international trafficking, however, we know very little about, and have done almost nothing to address, domestic trafficking since the passage of the Mann Act in 1910. This article explores the domestic trafficking of girls for the commercial sex industry. It argues that the motives as to why girls end up in the sex industry is often misunderstood. The domestic trafficking of girls is symptomatic of a much larger problem in American life and politics. Much of the feminist-inspired literature on children and the sex industry has been enormously helpful in identifying the many ways in which girls, and increasingly boys, are exploited. But it also has had the tendency to ignore the fact that path leading from bad boyfriend to self-medication, to addiction, to turning tricks, and, in some cases, to death, is paved with hope that she will one day find love in a good man.
Invisible man: The conscious neglect of men and boys in the war on human trafficking
- Jones S.V.