PO280 - Methods of Political Research - Dean: Human Trafficking Resources

This open access edited collection examines representations of human trafficking in media ranging from British and Serbian newspapers, British and Scandinavian crime novels, and a documentary series, and questions the extent to which these portrayals reflect the realities of trafficking. It tackles the problematic tendency to under-report particular types of victim and forms of trafficking, and seeks to explore both dominant and marginalised points of view. The authors take a cross-disciplinary approach, utilising analytical tools from across the humanities and social sciences, including linguistics, literary and media studies, and cultural criminology. It will appeal to students, academics and policy-makers with an interest in human trafficking and its depiction in the modern day.

"The book examines film and media representations of the social, political, and economic issue of human trafficking, one of the most dramatic challenges of today's globalized world. Hashamova productively combines fieldwork in NGOs in southeastern Europe, social science data, and the analysis of Western and East European anti-trafficking films and media, and their reception in the United States and the Balkans. Her book identifies a disconnect between the global flow of trafficking images and their local comprehension. The critical analysis of documentaries, feature films, video clips, and NGOs' media materials and the responses they elicit from spectators reveals the flaws of these products and the ideological structures present both in them and in their audiences."--Dust jacket.

Chapter: Blame Narratives: News Discourses of Sex Trafficking, by Barbara Friedman and Anne Johnston

"Examining the latest research in discourse and content analyses trending in both domestic and international circles, Media Disparity: A Gender Battleground highlights the progress--or lack thereof--in media regarding portrayals of women, across genres and cultures within the twenty-first-century. Blending both original studies and descriptive overviews of current media platforms, top scholars evaluate the portrayals of women in contemporary venues, including advertisements, videogames, political stories, health communication, and reality television."--Publisher description.

Chapter 3. Representing Traffi cking: Media in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada / Gulati, Girish J. "Jeff"

Over the last decade, public, political, and scholarly attention has focused on human trafficking and contemporary forms of slavery. Yet as human rights scholars Alison Brysk and Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick argue, most current work tends to be more descriptive and focused on trafficking for sexual exploitation.In From Human Trafficking to Human Rights, Brysk, Choi-Fitzpatrick, and a cast of experts demonstrate that it is time to recognize human trafficking as more a matter of human rights and social justice, rooted in larger structural issues relating to the global economy, human security, U.S. foreign policy, and labor and gender relations. Such reframing involves overcoming several of the most difficult barriers to the development of human rights discourse: women's rights as human rights, labor rights as a confluence of structure and agency, the interdependence of migration and discrimination, the ideological and policy hegemony of the United States in setting the terms of debate, and a politics of global justice and governance.Throughout this volume, the argument is clear: a deep human rights approach can improve analysis and response by recovering human rights principles that match protection with empowerment and recognize the interdependence of social rights and personal freedoms. Together, contributors to the volume conclude that rethinking trafficking requires moving our orientation from sex to slavery, from prostitution to power relations, and from rescue to rights. On the basis of this argument, From Human Trafficking to Human Rights offers concrete policy approaches to improve the global response necessary to end slavery responsibly.

Trafficked children are portrayed by the media-and even by child welfare specialists-as hapless victims who are forced to migrate from a poor country to the United States, where they serve as sex slaves. But as Elzbieta M. Gozdziak reveals in Trafficked Children in the United States, the picture is far more complex. Basing her observations on research with 140 children, most of them girls, from countries all over the globe, Gozdziak debunks many myths and uncovers the realities of the captivity, rescue, and rehabilitation of trafficked children. She shows, for instance, that none of the girls and boys portrayed in this book were kidnapped or physically forced to accompany their traffickers. In many instances, parents, or smugglers paid by family members, brought the girls to the U.S. Without exception, the girls and boys in this study believed they were coming to the States to find employment and in some cases educational opportunities. Following them from the time they were trafficked to their years as young adults, Gozdziak gives the children a voice so they can offer their own perspective on rebuilding their lives-getting jobs, learning English, developing friendships, and finding love. Gozdziak looks too at how the children's perspectives compare to the ideas of child welfare programs, noting that the children focus on survival techniques while the institutions focus, not helpfully, on vulnerability and pathology. Gozdziak concludes that the services provided by institutions are in effect a one-size-fits-all, trauma-based model, one that ignores the diversity of experience among trafficked children. Breaking new ground, Trafficked Children in the United States offers a fresh take on what matters most to these young people as they rebuild their lives in America.

What is human trafficking? This volume critically examines the competing discourses surrounding human trafficking, the conceptual basis of global responses and the impact of these horrific acts worldwide.

"According to UNICEF, human trafficking generates a staggering $32 billion in profits each year. Human trafficking takes place all around the world, affecting nearly every country, rich and poor. Women, girls, and migrants are extremely vulnerable to traffickers, who coerce them into sexual exploitation and forced labor. How can the international community allow such terrible criminal networks to flourish? This informative volume offers a diverse array of case studies, first-person accounts, and analyses from experts in the field to provide a full picture of what has been called a pandemic of the twenty-first century"-- Provided by publisher.

"In Sex Trafficking: A Global Perspective, sex trafficking is discussed in terms of its multiple purposes and its victims. The essays provide information to build upon the limited knowledge based on the subject of sex trafficking and the legislative responses to human trafficking by the various highlighted countries. This collection is unique because it serves the needs of those studying human trafficking from a global perspective by targeting the issue within every geographic region; it provides a general profile of geographic regions in terms of demographic characteristics and political conditions that may support the growth of sex trafficking; and it is written on a basic information-supply level to provide readers with a foundation on human trafficking throughout the world."--Jacket.

"This title addresses controversies related to The US Libertarian Movement including: What are the issues surrounding contemporary slavery? Is sex trafficking a serious problem? How does legal policy toward sex work affect sex trafficking? How does immigration policy affect human trafficking?"-- Publisher's website.

Offering a perceptive study of the urgent human rights issue of trafficking in persons, this important book analyses the development and effectiveness of public policies across Eurasia. Drawing on multi-method research in the region, Laura A. Dean explores the factors behind anti-trafficking strategies and the role of governments and activists in combating labour and sexual exploitation. She examines the intersection of global strategies and state-by-state approaches, and uses the diffusion of innovation framework to cast a new light on the impetus and implementation of different policy typologies. Identifying the strengths, weaknesses, and best practices in human trafficking policies around Eurasia, Dean's book will appeal to a wide range of students scholars, practitioners, and policy makers.

What happens at the nexus of the digital divide and human trafficking? This book examines the impact of the introduction of new digital information and communication technology (ICT) - as well as lack of access to digital connectivity - on human trafficking. The different studies presented in the chapters show the realities for people moving along the Central Mediterranean route from the Horn of Africa through Libya to Europe. The authors warn against an over-optimistic view of innovation as a solution and highlight the relationship between technology and the crimes committed against vulnerable people in search of protection. In this volume, the third in a four-part series 'Connected and Mobile: Migration and Human Trafficking in Africa', relevant new theories are proposed as tools to understand the dynamics that appear in mobile Africa. Most importantly, the editors identify critical ethical issues in relation to both technology and human trafficking and the nexus between them, helping explore the dimensions of new responsibilities that need to be defined. The chapters in this book represent a collection of well-documented empirical investigations by a young and diverse group of researchers, addressing critical issues in relation to innovation and the perils of our time.

Human trafficking has garnered a significant and growing amount of attention from the U.S. government since the 1990's, culminating in the passage of the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000. There is also a growing body of research on human trafficking, but most of it has focused on trying to show that human trafficking is a problem. Wilson and Dalton explore the extent and characteristics of concrete cases of human trafficking in Columbus and Toledo, Ohio, as well as the awareness of and response to the problem by the justice systems and social service provider communities

"The horrific world of modern slavery is exposed in this book based on the first-hand experiences of victims of human trafficking. Through the stories of three remarkable individuals who share how they fell victim to traffickers and how their bodies and souls resisted an enterprise of total destruction, Monique Villa takes us around the world--from Ohio to Tokyo, London to India, Qatar to Colombia--to uncover a parallel world where men, women, and children are dehumanized and reduced to obedient machines. Written by a global leader in the fight against human trafficking, this powerful book uncovers the hidden world of slaves--no longer physically in chains--who walk among us, trapped in a cycle of exploitation. Despite significant progress in the fight for human rights, slavery continues to flourish. In fact, there are more slaves today, in countries rich and poor, than at any point in the past. By giving voice to survivors of this horrific trade, Villa vividly illustrates dire situations we can do something about. Her call to action outlines concrete steps to safeguard the vulnerable among us and to eliminate slavery in our time."-- Provided by publisher.

"Campaigns against prostitution of young people in the United States have surged and ebbed multiple times over the last fifty years. Fighting the U.S. Youth Sex Trade: Race, Gender, and Politics examines how politically and ideologically diverse activists joined together to change perceptions and public policies on youth involvement in the sex trade over time, reframing "juvenile prostitution" of the 1970s as "commercial sexual exploitation of children" in the 1990s, and then as "domestic minor sex trafficking" in the 2000s. Based on organizational archives and interviews with activists, Baker shows that these campaigns were fundamentally shaped by the politics of gender, race and class, and global anti-trafficking campaigns. The author argues that the very frames that have made these movements so successful in achieving new laws and programs for youth have limited their ability to achieve systematic reforms that could decrease youth vulnerability to involvement in the sex trade"-- Provided by publisher.