Sed Dickerson Thesis Final Project

Sex Trafficking in Social Consciousness: An Overview
Goddard College
Spring 2013
Sarah “Sed” Dickerson
SED.DICKERSON@GODDARD.EDU
___________________________ ___________________________
Ralph Lutts, Advisor Date James Sparrell, 2nd Reader Date

Abstract
Keywords: prostitution, international law, public awareness, feminism, modern day
slavery
Sex trafficking is an old problem that has gained much public awareness over the past
20 years. This thesis uses qualitative and historical research methodologies to answer
questions regarding modern sex trafficking, its perpetuation, and its rise in modern
social consciousness. This thesis offers a historical overview of modern sex trafficking. It
moves on to discuss the major players involved in sex trafficking and its discourse.
From there, it examines both domestic (to the United States) and international laws and
instruments put in place to combat sex trafficking. It then moves into an examination of
a few representative groups involved in ending sex trafficking and caring for its
victims. Finally, this thesis discusses ways in which Western popular culture have
represented sex trafficking. This thesis does not attempt to offer a solution to the
problem of modern sex trafficking. Instead, it seeks to explore sex trafficking from a
critical perspective. This is important as this is an issue that is often clouded by
sensationalism.

Table of Contents
Abstract……………………………………………………………..……………………………2
Introduction………………………………………………………………..……………………4
Chapter I..………………………………………………………………………………………10
Chapter II………………………………………………………………………………….……23
Chapter III……………………………………………………………………………………...53
Chapter IV………………………………………………………………………………….......71
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………...81
Works Cited………………………….…………………………………………………………88
Annotated Bibliography……………………………………………………………………...93

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Introduction
This thesis will address sex trafficking and answer three questions. They are:
Why is sex trafficking perpetuated? Who are the important people involved? And why
does the issue of sex trafficking go in a cycle in terms of public awareness?
These questions break down into four different areas of discussion. Each will be
a chapter in this thesis. The first will cover the origins of sex trafficking. Before I could
ever hope to answer the questions, I needed a comprehensive understanding of the
problem. This section will cover the history of modern sex trafficking, as well as the
debate at the center of much of the modern sex trafficking discourse. The second
chapter will cover the major players in sex trafficking, along with the factors of supply
and demand. This section will also discuss who has been left out of modern sex
trafficking discourse and introduce some of the survivors themselves. It will also be an
overview of select organizations and agencies that focus on sex trafficking. Chapter
three will be a discussion of the legal and treaty responses to sex trafficking. This will
cover both International and United States laws. The final chapter, four, will discuss the
public response and the role of popular culture in creating awareness regarding modern
sex trafficking. Following these chapters will be my conclusion.
Sex trafficking has gone through many cycles in terms of public awareness, yet
there has been little progress in actually resolving the problem. Although many
questions will be raised and issues discussed regarding this statement throughout this
thesis, what will not be included is proposed solutions to these problems. This thesis is
not intended to solve the issues themselves. The two methods that are used in this

work are qualitative, drawing mostly upon scholarly work from across this field. The
historical method will also be used in presenting the historical events and movements
that contributed to and in some cases, eventually evolved into modern sex trafficking.
Non-scholarly and pop culture works will also be examined.
Before delving into the main issues of this thesis, I would like to speak to the
journey of how I came to these important questions. There are certain perceptions on
what it means to be a graduate student. Even before I was a college student, I had
already heard stories of what it meant to earn a Master’s degree. All of the stories had
one common element: hard work. While mastering anything takes long hours and lots
of effort, it is always met with the reward of accomplishment, of mastery. What was
missing in most the stories I had heard, however, was the sense of magic and
wonderment. Earning a Master’s at Goddard College is not an easy feat. It requires
more skill and discipline than traditional programs. It causes one to not only be
disciplined, but trans-disciplined as well. Instead of mastering one discipline from a
single perspective, Goddard allows students to master any number of subjects, tailored
to their specific area of inquiry, and challenges them to examine it from all sides and
perspectives. This is something that needs to be understood by those who read this
thesis.
One of the first Goddard mantras a student is told, and retold, is “trust the
process.” It is, in a way, the unofficial Goddard motto, but it is also a reminder and a
guide. It is because of this statement that I was able to really discover myself and my
calling across the course of my time at Goddard. I came to Goddard with a simple idea.

I wanted to help people find positive change. Leaving Goddard, I have realized that the
positive change I found was my own.
I had no intention of studying sex trafficking when I came to Goddard. It was
something that held deep interest for me on a personal level, but never something I
thought I would study. The process helped lead me here, but to honestly understand
how I got to this point, I would like to tell how I came to this topic of inquiry. When I
came to Goddard, I was trying to solve a problem. I did not realize this at the time. This
led me to have many questions. The first was what I was going to master at Goddard?
Once I came to the conclusion that sex trafficking was the answer, I found myself
looking into this issue, pulling together all the information, then making a conclusion
based on the research I uncovered. Before I discuss my findings regarding sex
trafficking, I am first going to share the process that led me to it in the first place.
I have always had a fascination with the unseen. One of the things that I have
been most passionate about in life is helping people. It did not occur to me that there
would be a day when these two aspects of my life would come together.
My urge to help people started the process. This desire led me to start a research
endeavor. I found myself at Goddard College with a group of like-minded folks with a
broad range of interests who were also engaged in various stages of critical inquiry. I
was the only new person in my first advising group. They took a keen interest in where
I saw my research going and in my personal interests as well. It was in these meetings
with my peers where the first major shift occurred.

During one of our initial sessions I was prompted to share something about
myself. The reason is unclear, but it was in that moment I started to share with these
good gentles about my fascination with the unseen. According to them, I became a
livelier person when discussing this matter than I had been when setting forth my
initial research goals. The group prompted me take on a side project of studying the
unseen. I agreed, building it into my research outline as a small part. I felt that it would
perhaps create a nice distraction.
What a distraction it was! Rather a deviation. Becoming increasingly enamored
with my new subject, I abandoned my other research plans in an effort to make the
unseen, ghosts in particular, my sole focus. Six months later I reconvened with the same
group of students. As we discussed the previous semester, I felt that a shift was coming
in my research; a call to the personal.
While I was studying haunts, I started to feel that perhaps I was being haunted
myself. Not by the unseen forces that I had been studying, but rather by some unknown
entity. Throughout the various lore and traditions that I had studied, I found an odd
phenomenon occurring. I was to be identifying with humans in these tales, but instead I
found myself identifying with the ghosts. Here is where the next stage of my research
began. My undertaking shifted to the question of “what’s haunting me?”
During the next semester, I struggled with what that question meant. I was
unsure how to go about researching it. When I finished, more questions had surfaced
than answers. Two questions in particular loomed over me. Who don’t we see, and why
don’t we see them?

I started sharing these questions with others. Each person seemed to have his or
her own take on the answer. It was not until I talked to a particular advisor that I was
challenged. This person asked, “Did you stop to think that perhaps the question is not
who we don’t see, but rather who do we ignore?” I pondered this question for days.
Sitting at my computer one afternoon, trying to distract myself from this
question, I stumbled upon a statistic regarding sex trafficking that alarmed me. I jotted
down the few lines of information that I had come across. I then sought out the advisor
who had challenged me. I knew there was not one universal answer to the question she
had presented, but I knew the particular group that I would be studying. After I left my
G3 residency, I discovered how I was going to help humanity. For the next year, I began
researching modern sex trafficking.
My interest in studying this topic started with this statement: “every year around
10,000 Nepalese girls, most between the age of nine and 16, are sold into brothels in
India” (McGirk and Adhikary). As will be discussed shortly, it is hard to have an
accurate set of statics when it comes to sex trafficking, so it is not easy to assess if this
number is accurate or not. This particular statistic was from the year 1997. Being an
American, and having been conditioned in many ways to be ethnocentric, I began
wondering why it did not appear anyone was missing these girls. Thus I started on a
quest to find out how the issue of sex trafficking could exist, yet it seemed no real
change was being made to end it.
Pondering this conundrum, I started my research. One of the major issues with
regards to sex trafficking research is the issue of methodology. The trafficked

themselves fall into what Vershinina and Rodionova refer to as a hidden population.
“Hidden populations are generally referred to as hidden because they are difficult to
find for study…” (Vershinina and Rodionova, 699). Such is the plight with modern sex
trafficking. This is a large, wide-scale problem that affects virtually every single nation
in the world. Coming from an academic discipline approach, there is no one universal
instrument or set of tools used to collect data regarding sex trafficking. What we do
have is compiled from the accounts given by those who were once involved in sex
trafficking but now are not. This is a discipline that is prone to and driven by
speculation and sensationalism. There is little in the way of actual facts, and many times
speculation gets spun into truth. These are all considerations and issues that must be
taken into account when looking at this topic of inquiry. While this thesis is an attempt
to wade through all the misinformation to find some truth about the current state of
modern sex trafficking, it also acknowledges that there are deep limitations when it
comes to finding actual truth.

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Chapter I: The Origins of Modern Sex Trafficking
The phrase “white slavery” does not find its roots within any form of sex trade,
but rather in what is commonly referred to as the white slavery movement. This was a
labor movement which arose in England and the United States around 1830. Laborers
used this term to highlight what they felt were inhumane working conditions and
incomparable wages. At the time the white slavery movement emerged, neither
England nor the United States had abolished their respective trans-Atlantic slave trades.
This is why the distinction of race was critical. The movement wanted to distinguish
itself from the chattel slavery system yet also invoke the image of white laborers being
subjected to conditions similar to slaves. The difference, of course, is the laborers in the
white slavery movement were being compensated for their labor, though they were
seeking better wages and working conditions (Keire, 7).
Keire notes forty years passed between the time the term “white slavery” was
first introduced to the time when it gained a sexual context. French author Victor Hugo
was the first to use the term in such a way. In 1870, Hugo wrote to the British activist
and reformer Josephine Butler about his outrage over the treatment of legal prostitutes
under Britain’s Contagious Diseases Acts. By this time, the trans-Atlantic slave trade
and the institution of chattel slavery had been abolished in both Britain and the United
States. Yet Hugo felt that even though African-American women in the United States
were free, white female prostitutes in Great Britain were still being enslaved by the laws
put in place by these acts. Despite the new context in which Hugo used the term, it was
still another ten years before the morphology of the term “white slavery” from its use in

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a capitalist labor market usage to its forced brothel prostitution usage was completed.
In 1880 another acquaintance of Butler, Alfred Dryer, started using the term in its
modern, more known context (Keire, 7-8). It is at this point that the foundations for the
modern trafficking debate emerged.
It is this issue of sex, usually in the context of prostitution that tends to be the
focus in the term sex trafficking. The word “trade”, which was exchanged for the word
“traffic” in 1910, refers to not the issue of sex, but of migration. According to
Kempadoo, the gendered international migration patterns set the stage for a racialized
social panic about the “white slave trade” (Kempadoo, x). Most of the cases were
coming out of England and Germany in Western Europe, and almost as many cases
coming out of Eastern Europe. Women began migrating and crossing international
borders looking for work, and many times were kidnapped and forced to work as
unpaid prostitutes in brothels across Europe. These became the first cases of modern
sex trafficking.
By the turn of the century, the panic over white slavery had reached the United
States. It began to steadily increase in the years leading up to World War I. According to
Eileen Scully, it was not only the migration of women that caused the rise in demand
for prostitutes, which drove white slavery, but also the migration patterns of men. Once
abolition had fully taken place in the United States, there was a great demand for labor
that was no longer being filled by slaves. This attracted an influx of immigrants from
around the world. Many came as indentured servants to fill these vacancies. This also
meant that many men, who no longer found their plantations profitable once labor

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must be paid for, went seeking better business opportunities throughout the United
States and abroad. These factors meant that just as there was a rise in migration of
women across Europe, there was simultaneously a great influx in the migration of men
(Scully, 75-77).
With a seemingly endless stream of men migrating by themselves across
International borders, the demand for prostitutes arose. This meant that many women
voluntarily became paid prostitutes for one of two reasons: either because their
economic situation demanded it of them (as it was a profession that almost guaranteed
any woman a job), or as a way to increase their already comfortable economic status.
For the former, it was most economical to find work within the United States. Women
who already had sufficient means and who were looking to make even more
comfortable lives for themselves tended to travel abroad where the pay was higher.
While prostitution was certainly not limited to white women, they were seen as the
most desirable and made the most money. Thus, the demand for white prostitutes
became high (Scully, 77). Women of color accounted for most of the prostitutes at the
time, due mostly to their lower socio-economic status. This led to the practices of
kidnapping white women. Many were caught as they traveled by themselves looking
for other types of business opportunities. This became more and more frequent to fill
the demand (Bravo, 215). As this news spread across Europe and eventually reached the
United States, the practice of white slavery started to become a hysteria feared by many
middle and upper class white families (Scully, 84). Between 1907 and 1913, the
increased movement of women across borders alarmed institutions of the powerful

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middle class and elites. It should be noted it was the lower class who accounted for
much of the migration. This raised public concerns about the soliciting of white women
into prostitution against their will (Saunders and Soderlund, 16). As Scully points out
though, this focus on a single racial group in an epidemic that involved virtually every
racial group in the world, made establishing and enforcing laws regarding prostitution
very ineffective (Scully, 84).
With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the world had other things to occupy
its mind and the public outcry over white slavery died down until 1933. The League of
Nations took on this issue and redefined what was then being referred to as trafficking
in women. Trafficking was now defined as the transfer of women to another country for
immoral purposes, regardless of their consent or coercion (Derks, 4-5) as long as
trafficking had occurred across nation-state borders (Rijken, 55).
This redefinition would greatly influence much of the debate to come. It laid the
roots for the modern abolition movement, one of the two major sides of the modern sex
trafficking debate. Prior definitions set the parameter that only those who were forced
or coerced into trafficking were the victims or slaves, as it were. This definition is the
first to make the case that all women who were transferred for sexual and immoral
purposes were all victims, even those who had willingly and consciously made the
decision to migrate or be trafficked. Note that the word “immoral” is open to much
interpretation and is not clearly defined with regards to the intent of those who adopted
this definition, making this a blanket clause.

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Again other issues began to take precedence on both the International and the
United States domestic stage. The issue of trafficking receded as the world began to
prepare for its second great war. Trafficking would once again fade out of the limelight
until 1949 when the United Nations made their first attempt at regulating the problem.
Yet, it was merely a blip on the screen of concern. By that time, much of the world was
trying to recover from World War II. Some countries were still rebuilding while others
were finding a new rhythm for themselves. In the United States, the focus shifted to the
Cold War, Korean conflict, then eventually to Vietnam. Trafficking seemed a more
distant problem, relegated to those overseas. At home, many other domestic issues
were surfacing, and trafficking was moved into the background. While both trafficking
and the anti-trafficking effort can be traced back to economic concerns, economics had
little to do with the revival of interest in sex trafficking that came about in late 1987.
It was a marriage of new interests, however unlikely, that birthed resurgence in
the social consciousness of this issue. It was the union of people and organizations on
the religious right and the more radical feminist on the left. Like all unconventional
marriages, it has brought with it an ongoing controversy and debate. Just as the
libertarian on the far right of the political spectrum and the anarchist of the far left,
although they disagree on why and how it should be done, both have in mind the
eventual goal of the abolition of a governmental system. So it is with the two partners
who came together starting in the late 1980’s to fight sex trafficking. Just the same, it has
fallen to the people in the middle to take up “arms” against this new regime to fight

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against what they feel to be an exploitation of women’s rights (Saunders and Soderlund,
20).
The religious right was deeply set in the anti-prostitution stance known as
conventional morality. The moralist sees the nuclear family as being central to the
“normal” or moral way of life. This means that there is one man and one woman, who
are married to one another, and their marriage is a committed, monogamous
relationship. To the religious right, all other types of sexual relationships are thereby
deemed immoral, and should be outlawed. For many who hold this view, it is not only
the act of prostitution that is seen as immoral, but the prostitute his or her self is
deemed as immoral too (Gruen and Panichas, 88).
On the other end of the spectrum were the radical feminists. Seeking to end the
oppression women and end patriarchy are the primary concern of radical feminism,
rather than the preservation of the nuclear family. Still, radical feminists were also in
arms against prostitution. To them, it was seen as a crime against women and a way in
which the patriarchy maintains power. Prostitution reduces women to the role of a sex
machine that can be used by a man for a preset sum of money for his gratification. Also
in cases where there are pimps, it is another way in which a man can control women by
using their bodies and keep them bound to the system of prostitution by controlling
their money as well. This is a type of slavery in which the women are so controlled by
the pimp that in order to live or survive, she must do exactly what the person holding
her strings asks of her. Ericsson points out the main difference between these two
groups is that while both want to see prostitution done away with, the feminist wants

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the customer, as well as the prostitute, to take the blame (Ericsson, 349). The thought is
that the moralist puts all the blame on the prostitute, and not on the customer. This
difference, however, was not enough to keep the two groups from joining forces. It is
the marriage of these two that soon created the neo-abolitionists movement. While the
term neo-abolitionist has been applied to many different contexts, such as the American
civil rights movement, it is used here as the term adopted by those who view the
current issues of sex trafficking and prostitution as a form of slavery.
While the moralists and the radical feminists were joining forces, they were
excluding another group. Classical feminists, many of the prostitutes themselves, and
others who supported prostitution found themselves opposed to the idea that
prostitution should be criminalized. The prevailing thought among this group is that
prostitution should be legal and regulated. It was this practice in England that had
outraged Victor Hugo to the point of making the first shift from using the term white
slavery as a term for labor to a term for sexual exploitation (Keire, 8). While this group
was adamant about the fact that no woman should be forced into prostitution, nor
should she have to stay in the system against her will, those who chose to sell their
bodies to make money should be allowed the freedom. Instead of using resources to
criminalize the people involved, those resources should be used to help regulate the
system and to make sure the prostitutes are getting the proper care and treatment that
they need. This group would go on to form the pro-sex work movement, and shape
modern views toward prostitution. It was this rift in thinking which emerged in the late
1980’s, however, that would set the stage for the great debate that is currently going on

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in sex trafficking discourse. The origins of modern sex trafficking cannot be discussed
without talking about the issue of legalizing prostitution. With this discussion comes
the issue of defining terms.
Shakespeare knew the importance terms and labels carry. In his play Romeo and
Juliet, he offers his classic line, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any
other name would smell as sweet” (II, ii, 1-2). This iconic line was meant to symbolize
the fact that it does not matter what name one carries, although this rarely seems to be
the case. Much can be associated with a name, and while Romeo proposes to transcend
what he deems to be an arbitrary label, many argue that labels exist for a reason,
regardless if they should or not, and that it is impossible to transcend them. There is a
third idea which exists. It is the one current sex trafficking discourse finds itself. There
is not a question of should there be a label, but rather what label should something be
given? Naming, to many, is a very important gesture, and naming within the current
sex trafficking discourse automatically puts one on a side of the ever tension filled
debate.
When it comes to defining the two sides of the issue, economist Leah Platt breaks
it down this way in her article “Regulating the Global Brothel”:
On one side are the abolitionists, who call prostitution a crime against
women, akin to rape or domestic violence; on the other side are…[the pro-
sex workers], for whom the rhetoric of victimization is itself demeaning,
and who say that women should be able to do whatever they want with
their own bodies, including renting them out for pay (Platt, 10).

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The main issue when it comes to defining sex trafficking has largely to do with the issue
of prostitution. Should those who willingly become prostitutes be included among
those who are considered sex slaves? While this is not an either/or issue, those involved
in modern sex trafficking discourse tend to treat it as one. This issue has been a dividing
point among many. The neo-abolitionists consist mainly of the people who are involved
in or support the views held by the union of more radical feminists and the Christian
right. The neo-abolitionists define sex trafficking as “any practice that involves moving
people within and across local or national borders for the purpose of sexual
exploitation” (Hughes, 10). The term “exploitation” is non-specific and can be used as a
blanket term to cover a multitude of things. This is much like the United Nations’ use of
the word immoral.
On the other side of the debate is the pro-sex work movement. It has come about
largely as an opposing force to the neo-abolitionist movement. While the pro-sex work
movement does not have a formal definition of sex trafficking, they feel that it should
include women who are forced into sex work against their will, but should also be
expanded to include other forms of forced labor and exploitation (Saunders and
Soderlund, 22). They feel that those who choose to prostitute and work within the
commercial sex industry should not be treated as victims, and thus should not be
targets of the anti-trafficking movement (Saunders and Soderlund, 22).
These two sides also have another conflict with one another: should sex
trafficking be called slavery? The reason it is important to discuss this issue is that it
provides a great foundation for the questions of why sex trafficking is perpetuated as

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well as who are the trafficked, traffickers, and other important people involved. I will
first present this debate, and then further unpack the ways in which it helps to answer
these questions.
The idea of modern day slavery is not just used within the realm of sex
trafficking. It is applied to the larger problem of human trafficking, which includes sex
trafficking. It also includes people of both genders who are trafficked for the purpose of
forced labor of any kind. It is not just limited to sex work. Sex trafficking, however, will
be the exclusive focus of this thesis. I mention this to help illustrate the larger context in
which the parallels between the trans-Atlantic slave trade and sex trafficking are drawn.
Language and imagery are some of the major tools used by the neo–abolition
movement. It is possible to have slavery without trafficking. It is something that must
be considered when it comes to creating laws and instruments to help combat modern
sex trafficking. It is not, however, a consideration given by this side of the debate.
John Miller notes this.
“Language is as important in fighting modern-day slavery, also known as
human trafficking, as it was in fighting historic slavery…People called
‘sex workers’ did not choose prostitution the way most of us choose work
occupations…To abolish modern-day slavery we must not be afraid to call
slavery by its real, despicable name” (Miller).
There are two important things to note about Miller’s own language in this
statement. The first is his quotations around the term “sex worker”. This implies that
“sex worker” is simply a label these people are given, but it is really not what they are.
“Worker” here implies that the person has a choice. In reality, according to Miller, these
people have no choice at all. The term is on the same level of irony as “Arbeit Macht

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Frei” (Labor Brings Freedom) being displayed over the gate to Auschwitz. This harkens
back to the original connotation of white slavery, which was seen as a labor movement.
It dealt mostly with factory workers during the beginning of the industrial revolution. It
did not encompass all forms of work, including prostitution (Keire, 7).
The second thing to note is Miller’s appeal to sentiment, particularly in the last
line where he says, “We must not be afraid to call slavery by its real, despicable, name”
(Miller). This implies that calling trafficking anything other than slavery helps it to
continue its course, which is exactly the point he is making. As Goldman pointed out,
economics is one of the major motivating factors when it comes to motivating people to
care about a cause (Goldman, 183-200). Miller taps into the other: appeal to emotion.
Very few people claim that slavery was a good thing or that it should continue.
In America, where labeling sex trafficking as slavery is a predominant view, it is
generally accepted that slavery is always bad and should always be abolished. Miller is
not the only one on this side of the debate who uses a strong appeal to sentiment. This
will be discussed more when looking at modern sex trafficking in popular culture.
While the neo-abolitionist side of the debate has the appeal to sentiment on their
side, especially due to the term slavery, this is not something that the pro-sex work
movement shares. Just the title “pro-sex work” causes there to be an immediate flood of
misconceptions about the people involved in this movement and what they believe.
While this side contends that prostitution should be legal, they do not actively
advocate or promote that activity. Activists on this side believe that prostitution is a
victimless evil that should be controlled by the state. This does not mean promoting

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prostitution as a life-style choice or supporting prostitution in that way. This
perspective simply says that it is better to make it legal and control it than to drive it
underground (Seagrave, Milivojevic, and Pickering, 3). They do not think that women
should join the profession. Rather they know that prostitution will happen regardless of
its legality, and it would be better for all of those involved if it were regulated rather
than outlawed. Criminalizing sex work drives it underground and opens it up for more
corruption and more trafficking (Jordan, 31).
Many on this side also believe that regulating prostitution will reduce the level of
illicit prostitution. The result will be to drive down the need for trafficking and make it
harder to traffic. Plus, when sex workers feel supported, and it is no longer an Illegal
profession, more women will perhaps join the ranks. The thought being this would
make the demand for trafficked women plummet. The pro-sex work movement is most
predominant in the United States where prostitution is largely illegal. Kangaspunta
notes the reason many of the international instruments that have been constructed by
organizations such as the League of Nations, and later the United Nations, regarding
sex trafficking, have largely not be ratified. She asserts this is due to the fact that other
countries do not want to criminalize prostitution, which has historically been the
prescription these instruments have offered when it comes to eradicating the problem
(Kangaspunta, 5).
Kangaspunta goes on to point out the flawed thinking in the rationale that
legalizing prostitution drives down the demand for trafficked people. She sheds light
on the fact that the countries who have the largest problems with sex trafficking are

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countries where prostitution is legal. The demand for trafficked prostitutes is no less in
the countries where prostitution is legal. What actually happens is that it becomes
harder in these countries to differentiate between those who have entered into the
world of prostitution by choice and those who were trafficked into it. In a large number
of cases, those who have been trafficked have been threatened and bullied into being
silent about what has happened to them. They lose hope and eventually prostitute
willingly, as they see no other available alternative (Kangaspunta, 5).
While the background discussed in this chapter only leads to the 1990’s, I am
leaving the history there. The only part of the landscape that has changed from the
rebirth of social consciousness surrounding sex trafficking in the late 1980’s up until the
writing of this Thesis in the spring of 2013 is legislation. Those issues will be discussed
in chapter three. With this background established, it is now important to take a closer
look at all those who are involved in the perpetuation of modern sex trafficking.

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Chapter II: The Major Players in Trafficking and The factors of Supply and Demand
Having a better understanding of what sex trafficking is, and an overview of the
beliefs of those trying to stop it, I will now discuss those who are actually involved in
the trafficking cycle. I am starting with the pimps and madams. These are the often
overlooked people that have one of the biggest roles in sex trafficking, although they
are not necessarily the ones making the most profit.
Since there is a lack of major, reliable data regarding pimps solely involved in sex
trafficking, I decided to look into pimps in general. One thing to note about sex
trafficking is it is hard to distinguish from regular prostitution. It is not always easy to
tell who decided to become a prostitute by their own will and who was forced. This
applies not only to the countries with legalized prostitution, as Kangaspunta points out,
but also to countries where it is illegal. As discussed previously in chapter one,
trafficking is a crime related to migration, and thus it is better for traffickers to be
busted for charges related to prostitution than charges related to trafficking. Also
previously discussed, most of those who have been trafficked have been intimidated to
the point of not reaching out or letting others know that they are being forced into
prostitution. Thankfully Raphael and Myers-Powell were able to sit down with and
interview ex-pimps in Chicago to get a better understanding of who these critical
players are. There are very few studies where primary accounts from pimps themselves
are included.

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The sample size of this particular study is small. It consisted of 25 pimps. This,
however, is a 400% increase from the sample size of their previous study. As they state
in their report, “the pimps located by Ms. Myers-Powell represent a variety of
involvement in the sex trade industry, and thus…provide useful information…to
reduce the amount of sexual exploitation in our society” (Raphael and Myers-Powell, i).
The name of the study itself is “From Victims to Victimizers” because of the
somewhat predictable results found. Many of those who became pimps were victimized
themselves. “The overwhelming majority of ex-pimps suffered physical abuse and
sexual assault while growing up and watched their mother being physically assaulted
by their fathers, stepfathers or boyfriends” (Raphael and Myers-Powell, 2). One
unnamed female pimp recounted how she was sexually abused from the time she was
six years old, “by whoever my mom, a prostituted heroin addict, wanted to sell me to.”
It is not clear from her account if this meets the requirements of movement across a
border, which is needed to classify a case as trafficking. The abuse was not just limited
to those outside of her family. She also recalled of her mother, “whenever she got high,
she would stick things in me until I ran away” (Raphael and Myers-Powell, 2). This type
of behavior was not an isolated event. 76% of the people interviewed had gone through
sexual assault as a child, with the average age of onset being nine and a half years of
age (Raphael and Myers-Powell, 1). The reasons given for pimping, however, break
down into four different categories.
The first category is simply, “one thing led to another” (Raphael and Myers-
Powell, 3). Since 68% of the sample had actually sold their bodies for money prior to

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pimping, it naturally seemed like the next step to some. Several found out that they
were good at business or could easily run the technology that led them to recruiting
girls and making a nice profit (Raphael and Myers-Powell, 3). The next category was
survival. They needed to pimp to have money in which to live (Raphael and Myers-
Powell, 3). The third category pimps gave was coercion. This was the largest category,
and the one with the highest female representation. The coercion ranges from gang
activity, where pimping was either a rite of passage in being received into the gang, or
an ongoing membership requirement, where the gang itself ran a prostitution ring.
Other types of coercion included having the business bestowed upon them, or
running it in the absence of another pimp (Raphael and Myers-Powell, 3-4). The final
reason given was power and control. About 88% of those in the sample were physically
abused growing up, and many also fell into the 76% who had been sexually assaulted as
children. As one unnamed participant stated, “First it gave me power. Then it gave me
respect, because everyone couldn’t do it and it gave you a sense of love. And last but
not least; it gave me money and fame” (Raphael and Myers-Powell, 4). There is not an
abundance of research about pimps, as it is often hard to gather information from
people directly involved with illicit activity. This again is an issue related to studying
hidden populations. A study similar to Raphael and Myers-Powell’s was conducted in
Great Britain. May et al. found similar results to those found by Raphael and Myers-
Powell. Their survey of 16 pimps had results so similar to those found in Chicago, that
it would be redundant to repeat the findings.

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Pimps are not often discussed when it comes to sex trafficking, although they
often play a central role. When talking about trafficking, much more attention is paid to
the traffickers, those whose job it is to gather those who are to be trafficked. They are
responsible for their transport. While not all prostitution requires a pimp, as May et al.
describe in their research, all prostitution that is considered to be trafficking does. If
there is no pimp, there is no reason for any people who do not wish to be prostitutes
from leaving the industry as soon as they get there. While pimps in the above study are
one person in charge of the management of at least one prostitute, the term is being
used here to cover a wide variety of people involved in the management of prostitutes
in the sex trade industry. This includes, but is not limited to pimps, madams, brothel
owners, massage parlor owners, those in charge of escort services, etc.
Other than the pimps, the next major players I looked into were the johns. While
there are exceptions to this rule, as individual cases go, there seems to be one
straightforward answer to why sex trafficking is perpetuated. As Samarasinghe points
out, the root causes of female sex trafficking “are embedded within an intricate web,
which combine historical dimensions, socially entrenched cultural norms as well as
socio-economic and political structures.” The reason that this problem gets perpetuated
is simply demand (Samarasinghe, 1). There is a demand for prostitutes, regardless if
they are trafficked or not. Samarasinghe goes on to point out,
Demand is a manifestation of a desire to procure a certain good or service.
In human trafficking the demand is centered, mainly, if not exclusively on
the male customers, who, by and large finance the sex industry
(Samarasinghe, 1).

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The UN Protocol on Trafficking in 2000 points out that demand is the cause for
every aspect of human trafficking (Samarasinghe, 2).
Donna Hughes asserts there are three players involved in the demand cycle that
perpetuates commercial sex acts. The first two players are those who profit from the sex
industry (which includes but is not limited to pimps, brothel owners, traffickers, self-
managed prostitutes, corrupted law enforcement, etc.) and societies, as a whole, who
accept prostitution as a normality and thus indirectly create a demand. The third group
on which the other two feed is the johns themselves, who are traditionally men, but can
also include women, and people who do not define themselves in gender binary terms.
Hughes feels that it is this third group that contribute the most to the problem, and that
the other two groups even exist because of the demand created by the johns (Hughes,
2).
When I first started looking at research regarding who the johns are (this is the
group for which the least available amount of research exists), I came across an article in
a magazine about one man’s rather surprising experience of sitting next to two sexual
tourists (people who travel abroad to regions where prostitution is legal to engage in
sex acts) on a plane. While this account was not found within the realm of scholarly
research, I am including it here to help paint a broader, more clear picture of who some
of the perpetuators of sex trafficking are.
Traveling to Thailand in June, 2012 to visit a home for those rescued from human
trafficking, Gaz Kishere of Love146 (an organization that works to rescue victims sex
trafficking) found himself sitting next to two men who he assumed were co-workers

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traveling together. They pointed to a tabloid picture accompanying the article Gaz was
reading, which showed a sex bar in Thailand. Automatically assuming that Kishere was
a sex tourist as well, they started chatting about the exploits in which they planned to
soon embark. Kishere recalls of the older of the gentlemen sitting next to him, “this was
[his]…fourth trip to Bangkok. This occasion it was to be a celebration of his divorce… I
could tell I was in the presence of a genuine stereotype: a guy who travels for sex
because it’s easy, uncomplicated, and no longer on his moral compass as even
questionable behavior” (Kishere). While this is Kishere’s personal assessment, this tends
to be a common stereotype. His surprise continued further in the flight when he
discovered “these weren’t rough tough co-workers. It was a father and son.” He found
he was “rattled by the normality of it all for them” (Kishere).
While the above experience is the encounter of an anti-trafficking activist with a
couple of johns on a plane is anecdotal, it still provides a glimpse into who some of the
johns are. Hughes offers a more research based approach to this question. She contends
that johns do not distinguish between those prostitutes who have been trafficked and
those who came to prostitution of their own volition (Hughes, 4). Høigård and Finstad
assertion that johns are usually “faceless and nameless” (Høigård and Finstad, 25) is
echoed by both Hughes and Samarasinghe. Hughes points out that johns have, for the
most part, been invisible players who fly under the radar of the social consciousness
concerning prostitution. Most of the available research on the subject focuses on the
prostitutes themselves (Hughes, 6). This accounts for why studies on pimps and those

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who sell the service of prostitutes are limited, and primary accounts concerning johns
are even rarer.
While there is no universally accepted reason for why this is, the best
explanation may be tied to a point made in chapter one. The other main difference
between the moralists and the radical feminists, though they have forged a union, is
that moralists, like many traditional thinkers, simply look at the criminalization of the
prostitutes. The radical feminists, the group with the smallest number of proponents,
feel that both the prostitute and the john should be subject to reproach. Prostitution as a
larger institution, and sex trafficking within it, are both subject to patriarchy. Thus
traditionally prostitution is seen as a crime of the woman, not against the woman. The
johns who solicit the services are either largely ignored, or even seen, in rare cases, as
victims who were lured and tempted by the whiles of corrupt women. Regardless of the
reason, the fact remains that johns are the group most directly responsible for the
demand that perpetuates both prostitution in general, and sex trafficking as a subgroup,
and yet are the group subjected to the least amount of scrutiny.
Before discussing the trafficked themselves, there is somewhat of an overlooked
component in the demand cycle. Most pimps, madams, brothel owners, etc. do not
traffic those they use as prostitutes themselves. It therefore becomes necessary to look
at who the traffickers, those who actively acquire, move, and distribute the trafficked,
are. There tends to be a popular assumption that this is a deed done by other players in
the sex trade, but in most cases, the traffickers are people whose sole job in the cycle is
to acquire and distribute the trafficked.

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Troshynski and Blank did a study in 2007 in which they interviewed traffickers
themselves to get a clearer picture of this often missing piece of the puzzle. As they
point out, the research that exists on both human trafficking as a whole and sex
trafficking within that larger arena, is very victim-centric. The research focuses on the
trafficked, and does so mostly by interviewing those who have been rescued
(Troshynski and Blank, 32). Much like research on pimps, the available research on the
traffickers themselves has been minimal. There has not been any major research on how
trafficking in humans is organized and structured. There is not as of yet, enough
conclusive research as to why people enter into the illegal trade in persons, although
there are prevailing stereotypes and clichés (Troshynski and Blank, 32). They did not
feel, for reasons undisclosed, that they could publish the research about what they
found.
The reason that I wanted to discuss Troshynski and Blank is that they did not
publish their results. Much like the interviews with pimps conducted by Raphael and
Myers-Powell, those interviewed were aware of the purposes of the interview, and
assured that discretion would be used so that those who would choose to speak would
not be incriminating themselves. Given this, they found subjects who were willing to be
interviewed, and in their paper discuss how to interview these people. It was intended
to be a guide for those who would conduct further research. There was a promise that
some of their research may be published in the future, but at the time of the writing of
this thesis, no such publication has yet been released. Speculation could be made as to
why these researchers did not feel they could publish their findings, but it would be just

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that. Instead I mention this as part of the ongoing problem with studying sex
trafficking. There is always an incomplete picture being drawn. This is one of the
reasons this issue will never fully be resolved. At best, the symptoms of the problem
can be treated, but there will never be a cure.
Liao Yiwu also had an interest in those who traffic in the commercial sex trade.
In 1994, he conducted a one on one interview with a Chinese trafficker named Qian
Guiabo. While this is one interview and is colloquial in nature, much like Kishere’swith
sex tourists, I am including the findings here because it is one of the few examples of
primary accounts of a trafficker available. Although not academic in nature and
extremely limited in scope, it still gives insight into one man’s role in the human
trafficking industry.
Qian relates that his story is one that is not uncommon. He was a poor peasant in
rural China in the 1970’ and 80’s with a wife and three daughters he could not take care
of due to hard economic times. He saved what money he was able to salvage and
boarded a bus with many other young, idealistic men from his village, heading to other
parts of China to find honest work in hopes of making money that could then be taken
back to their families. When he arrived in Northwestern China, Qian found that he was
not among the first group of men to venture away for home looking for prosperity. He
was in a country of men who were lonely, and noted there were not many women in
this particular area. He recounts, “I felt so sorry for them. Each time they saw a woman
their eyes would brighten up with lust….With this in mind, I saw a money-making
opportunity” (Liao, 100-101).

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His first idea was to marry off two of his daughters for what he felt at the time
was a rather lucrative bride price. He not only was exhilarated with the wealth he had
acquired, but also felt powerful. This was until his daughters reported back to him that
they had met other wives in the village. Instead of being married off by their families,
they had been trafficked into the village, where they were sold to local men for a much
higher price than Qian had received for his daughters. He felt then he had lost money
and been cheated by marrying his daughters off for what he now considered to be a
modest price. This was when he felt that he had a knack for this particular business and
found a way to expand it.
At first he did not take up the life of a trafficker. He decided that he would be a
matchmaker. He found, however, that it was hard to find women to consent to traveling
long distances, away from their families, to marry strangers. Even threats did not seem
to move these women. So, he decided to try other tactics. He tried lying to the girls,
promising them good jobs and better opportunities in the Northwestern provinces. It
took him awhile to find lies that would convince the girls from his village to go, but
eventually he had success. At that point, he started making contacts and taking out
contracts with people he referred to as distributors in the Northwestern provinces. He
made it a point to say these girls were like any other goods. They were not seen as
human beings. His job was to acquire and transport.
I would like to interject an observation here before continuing with Qian’s
account of his life as a trafficker. As previously mentioned, these women being sold into
the commercial sex industry were not seen as human beings. They were considered

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goods that were in need of distributing. A brief part of the exchange between
interviewer and interviewee: Liao: “You were trading human flesh.” Qian: “Comrade
that is certainly not a nice way to describe it. I didn’t run a brothel” (Liao, 102). I find it
interesting to note that he does not see himself as responsible for trafficking these
women, as he is not the brothel owner. He, however, was the trafficker. As pointed out,
he toke these women to the distribution center. He was the one who was acquiring,
transporting, and trading these women for profit. This way he was able to justify what
he was doing by removing responsibility from himself and shifting it to other parties
involved in the process. This is an interesting insight into how one trafficker rationalizes
his actions.
This is not the only way he tries to remove all responsibility from himself. In the
next part of the interview, he talks about how a woman of sound morals would never
prostitute herself, no matter what types of threats were made against her or harm that
she may suffer. He therefore reasons that any women who eventually become trafficked
do so because they lack virtue, and thus are only getting what such people of loose
morality deserve. After awhile, he did not even need to coerce women into going with
him on his trips in the Northwestern provinces. While they were under the wrong
assumptions of what was waiting for them at the end of their journey, they started
coming to him, asking to be taken on his expeditions. Qian again sees this as a way in
which he is not at fault. It is the women’s own fault for asking to come with him. Rather
than exploiting women, he sees himself as offering a valuable service to the lonely men
in the Northwestern provinces. While he noted that at first, these women were

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physically abused and forcibly raped by the men they were sold to, most eventually
learned not to protest, or even in some cases after several suicide attempts, decided it
was better to cooperate. Thus he reasons, their lives became much easier after they
accepted their new roles and no longer tried to fight it. He then relates a story of a
particular time when he beat, then raped, his wife while she was trying to drown
herself. Qian then offers this antidote, “Beatings and quarrels make good couples”
(Liao, 103).
Qian offers other ways in which he tries to justify what he was doing. He tied his
services to the Daoist philosophy of yin-yang, saying that what he was doing helped to
balance out the forces of dark and light in the region he was transporting women to. He
saw this as a service to his country. This is another way in which he rationalizes his
oppressive behavior. He then said that the law did not apply to the poor peasants in
which he was helping, although by the time this interview was being conducted, Qian
was serving a life sentence for trafficking. He divulges that out of the ten people in his
specific trafficking ring, at the time of the interview, seven in all had been arrested, with
two of the seven having been executed.
In the final part of the interview, Qian goes on to boast about how gifted he was
as a trafficker. While admitting that poor peasants comprised the majority of the
women he targeted, he felt skilled enough to acquire any good woman he wanted. He
boasts of some college educated women he coerced, including one who was a doctoral
candidate. He then discussed how he had to appeal to their intellect and ego, rather
than the promise of a good factory job and better life, in order for them to follow him to

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his village where they were promptly trafficked. In an interesting change of character,
however, as for up until the end of the interview Qian is very boastful and proud of his
exploits, when Liao suggest that he deserves a much more severe punishment than life
imprisonment, the interview concludes with Qian admitting that he agreed (Liao, 106).
While the reader is not given any particular insight to Qian’s comment, perhaps this
comes as an acceptance of what he had done. Most of the interview is spent with
rationalizations and boastings, however, the extent against which his actions go against
a moral fiber were in fact not lost on him.
Again, this is just one account of many. The interviewer was extremely biased as
to how he felt about the man he was interviewing at the onset of the interview, and thus
colored the questions in which he chose to ask. Beside the fact that this is one of the few
primary sources that exists when it comes to traffickers, this account has been included
for another reason. According to the information that exists based on interviews with
those who have been rescued from trafficking, Qian’s account of how he lured the
women into going with him in the first place match up to the almost universal narrative
that has been given as to the modern trafficking recruitment process. While it is his own
assessment, Qian states that his story is not uncommon and matches that of others he
knew that were also involved in sex trafficking. It is by far not enough information to
make generalizations and conclusions on what traffickers, as a larger group, are like. It
did, however, offer some clues as to who traffickers are, and at least the motives of
some such individuals. Much like Troshynski and Blank, I hope that including what I
could here will inspire those who come behind me to conduct more research into who

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the traffickers are, as there will never be an even semi-complete picture of the modern
sex trafficking system until some of the gaps left by the lack of primary sources are at
least partially filled.
Now I will discuss those who are generally excluded when talking about the
victims of sex trafficking: men. While traditionally prostitution has been thought of to
be a profession of women, there are plenty of male prostitutes as well. This struck me as
odd that the only time males were entering the modern sex trafficking discourse were
either as solicitors or traffickers. It occurred to me that within sex trafficking, even if the
predominance was toward females, it seemed unlikely that there would be no males
being trafficked for sex. I almost dismissed this notion, as males are more commonly
sought out as forced laborers in non-sexual labor markets rather than in the sex trade.
The more I dwelt on this, however, the more uneasy I got about just accepting that
answer.
This is when I came across Jones. His argument was not only that there are men
being trafficked as forced sex slaves, but their neglect in the current discourse
surrounding sex trafficking, is in fact, conscious. One of the reasons he gives for this is
that in the United States, for example, most of the male victims of sex trafficking are
young boys who are recruited for the purpose of child pornography (Jones, 1149). It is
the purpose of pornography that is the sticking point in recognizing these boys as
victims.
The majority of sex trafficking research is based upon the idea that females are
trafficked for the purposes of prostitution. There is not as much research looking into

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other possible forms of sexual exploitation such as the production of pornography. That
is one of the other major problems when it comes to combating modern sex trafficking.
There is one prevailing narrative of what modern sex trafficking is. Simply put, it is that
females who are coerced into prostitution. While the neo-abolitionists and the pro-sex
worker’s movements continue to debate exactly who is included when it comes to
prostitution, there is not much discussion about other forms of sexual exploitation that
victims of trafficking find themselves in. From what can be gathered from the interview
with Qian, the women he was trafficking were not being sold into prostitution, but
rather being tricked into becoming mail-order brides. Again, however, these narratives
are built around exclusively female victims.
Jones examined the role pornography plays in the sex trafficking of boys,
although he does not spend much time discussing the actual trafficking component
itself. Following this, Jones cites two different sex trafficking rings that have been
recently busted yet have received very little publicity. In the end, the only reason that
Jones is able to give to why male victims are missing in modern sex trafficking
discourse is that in the media, as well as the law, females make a better story. They
show more vulnerability, and thus the males tend to be ignored.
The idea of building trafficking narratives around a good story is one that Hua
takes on in her book, Trafficking Women’s Human Rights. She reports on the idea that
many women are prompted to create more embellished narratives when testifying in
court against those being charged with trafficking violations. Also, many women who
did not feel that they were trafficked (although they met the legal definition as such)

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were many times pressured by advocates and lawyers to testify about their experiences
of being trafficked (Hua, 49-69).
Jones is virtually the only scholarly source on male victims of sex trafficking. He
is in the dangerous realm of being the sole authority on his subject, which causes one to
be critical of his arguments. It should also be noted that while males tend to be excluded
or underreported, whatever the reason for such may be, they are represented largely in
the greater human trafficking narrative, as they are those who are most exploited for
non-sexual labor. Perhaps that is a reason for their absence in the prevailing literature
and theories regarding modern sex trafficking.
Toward the beginning of this chapter, I talked about Hugh’s idea of the demand
cycle that perpetuates trafficking. While I have found that I agree demand is one of the
biggest ways in which sex trafficking is perpetuated, it should be noted that this is not a
universally accepted theory.
Berger writes extensively on why the demand theory is simplistic and does not
give an accurate picture of the complexities of what really drive drives sex trafficking,
and who the johns are. She feels that there is a complex set of factors, beyond male
demand for commercial sex acts that drives trafficking. In addition to there being a
demand side, Berger asserts that there is also a supply side, which is the list of factors
for which women sell sex in the first place. These factors include socio-economic issues
stemming from poverty and inequality. Because of these factors, according to Berger,
women “may migrate voluntarily, be trafficked involuntarily, or experience a
combination of both voluntary decisions and coercive circumstance” (Berger, 543).

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These differences in views again hearken back to the debate on prostitution and who
gets counted when it comes to ending sex trafficking. Berger is on the side of the pro sex
workers, who feel that abolition is not the answer for ending the problem (see chapter
one).
While Berger first criticizes the abolitionists for ignoring the supply side of the
argument, she also lambasts the abolitionists’, what she feels as single minded, views on
the demand side. According to Berger, abolitionists only see the demand side as the
desire of men that purchase commercial sex acts. She states that the reasons for demand
are far more complex, encompassing the needs of some pimps for power and the
demand of sex trafficking clients for unpaid labor (Berger, 543).
Berger is just one of many voices in the modern sex trafficking discourses who
feels this way. Belinda Brooks-Gordon perhaps summarizes the beliefs of this side of
the argument best in the following statement:
The exploitation message gathered currency with a new generation of
feminists and it provided a fertile climate for pressure groups to conflate
sex work with exploitation, adultery, and trafficking; a parallel world
where the mere act of being a client was thought to cause ‘demand’ for
trafficking, and ordinary economic migration patterns were conflated as
campaigners argued that the influx of migrants…faced with
discrimination and poor pay in other sectors, chose sex work over other
forms of employment. Other studies, however…showed sex workers…to
be motivated more by the flexibility of sex work for balancing childcare
responsibilities, lifestyle choice, freedom, and the relatively high pay
compared to other sectors…[I]n more marginalized spheres, sex work can
be a free choice or a rational ‘resistance’ and courageous choice in the face
of poverty (Brooks-Gordon, 158).

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While this side of the argument shows that the abolitionist movement does tend
to go for a simpler approach, it tends to spend most of its time diverting away from the
issue of what is driving the demand for sex trafficking, by trying to create a sympathetic
argument for why prostitution should be legalized. In effect, they are entering an
argument by preparing statements that divert and detract from the argument at hand
and try to make the issue something else. Regardless of what side one is on, however,
the people involved and their reasons for being involved are complex, and cannot be
reduced down into simple stereotypes or clichés, which is what happens when the
debate is translated into simpler terms for the general public.
When it comes to sex trafficking, it is easy to look at the individuals involved,
such as pimps, johns, etc. It would be remiss, however, not to briefly mention the
organizational response to sex trafficking. As mentioned in chapter one, the late 1980’s
saw a renewed interest by certain women’s groups in the issue of sex trafficking, which
were also joined later by the religious right. During the 1990’s, labor concerns,
especially in the wake of globalization, begin to arise. Journalists and others started
investigating into who makes the products that America imports from overseas and in
what conditions these people live and work. This led in the late 1990’s to the growing
idea of human trafficking for non-sexual labor purposes. As awareness has spread,
hundreds of groups, both domestic to certain countries, and international, have sprung
up to combat this problem. I am offering an overview of three different organizations
involved in combating sex trafficking. All are neo-abolitionist in focus, because the vast
majority of organizations fighting sex trafficking are.

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The first organization I will be highlighting is the Polaris Project. The reason for
this including this organization is that they are, in many ways, a model of what the new
crop of anti-trafficking organizations that came to life in the early 2000’s looks like.
Second, it has a four (out of four) star ranking from Charity Navigator, which is the
largest American-based independent charity evaluator. It ranks charities based on how
they spend their money (the more money that is actually spent doing work for the cause
the charity promotes, the higher the score). It also provides a score for how transparent
the charity is with the public about how funds are spent (Charity Navagator).
The second organization that highlighted is Love146. The reason for looking at
this particular charity is that it is the one Kishere, the man who sat next to sex tourist on
the airplane, work for. He was on assignment for them at the time of his encounter. The
final charity included is the Somaly Mam foundation. The reason for including this
particular organization is that it was founded by a rescued victim of sex trafficking (the
charity’s namesake).
Polaris Project
The Polaris project was founded in 2002 by Katherine Chon and Derek Ellerman.
It takes its name for the North Star, which was a point of reference used by slaves
traveling on the Underground Railroad. Their initial introduction to the issue of sex
trafficking came when they ran across an article about a massage parlor in Providence,
Rhode Island that was really a front for a brothel.
This organization opened its first office in Washington D.C. and were quickly
awarded a federal grant to launch a victims outreach program. This eventually

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developed into the national Human Rights Trafficking Resource Center. The goal of the
center is to identify and provide support to trafficking victims (Polaris Project). The
main achievement of the center is their national toll-free hotline, established in 2008. It
is centered on victims but can be used by anyone who has information on identifying
trafficking victims. The hotline is available at all times and never closes. It is supported
by call specialists who, combined, are able to communicate in 170 languages. According
to the statistics provided by the organization, the calls concerning sex trafficking can be
broken down as follows: 50% pimp-controlled trafficking, 7% Asian massage parlors,
6% intimate partner/familial sex trafficking, and 4% Latino residential brothels (Polaris
Project). This organization has partnered with other organizations and individuals
across the country that helps with both legal responses and meeting the physical needs
of victims.
Other than the hotline, the Polaris project offers the following services to victims
throughout New Jersey and Washington D.C.: emergency services, comprehensive case
management, individual and group therapy, transitional housing, and job training. It
has also opened up offices to help combat trafficking in Japan as well. In addition to
their services that are directed at helping aid the survivors in recovery, the Polaris
Project also lobbies for stronger laws both at the state and federal levels of the United
States government and has developed education programs with trained leaders in all 50
states to help educate people on the ever growing impact of human trafficking.
The main criticisms against the Polaris Project do not concern themselves with
the work being done by the organization, but rather from where they receive their

-
funding. While the organization takes donations from the general public, some of its
major finical supporters include the Home Depot, which has drawn criticism from labor
practices to environmental and sustainability practices. One of its other major financial
backers is the Japanese software company ORACLE, who has been lambasted for the
way in which it takes over companies (Hetherington). It should be noted, however, that
these criticisms are from individuals and not from more reputable sources. In fact, the
Polaris Project has been the recipient of many awards for the work it does.
The issue with the Polaris Project is that with any other. In order to turn a small,
grass-roots organization into a large, internationally know NGO, it takes financial
backing. Almost any organization that has corporate backers is going to come under fire
for the practices of those who help to fund it. It is to be expected. In the end, the Polaris
Project is an organization that seems to be making a large, positive impact to help the
victims of sex trafficking, and to help spread awareness regarding the issue.
Love 146
Love 146 is another neo-abolitionist charity. It was founded in 2004 by Rob
Morris, Lamont Hiebert, Desirea Rodgers, and Caroline Hahm as Justice for Children
International. Unlike organizations such as the Polaris Project, the cofounders of this
organization were already well aware of the issue of child sex trafficking when they
became inspired to start their organization. In 2002, they went on a trip to Southeast
Asia to better understand the issue first hand and to find ways in which they could help
combat the problem. On this trip they witnessed girls being bought and sold in
brothels, and also had a chance to bond with rescued victims in safe houses. After they

-
returned from the trip, the cofounders spent 18 months in research and networking.
They officially became a public charity in 2004. In 2007, they decided to change their
name to Love 146, based on a child they met in a Thai brothel whose identification
number was 146. By using this story, they have used an appeal to sentiment as a way to
get others to donate and help with their efforts (Love 146).
There are three main types of work this organization engages in. Aftercare, by
providing safe homes for newly rescued trafficking victims, and other holistic programs
assisting victims with their biological, psychological and social needs. They train
grassroots teams to help deliver this care, and engage in academic research as a way of
spreading their biopshychosocil model of treatment and care (Love 146).
The next type of work Love146 engages in is prevention programs. The three
main geographical areas where they target their work are Asia, the United States, and
Europe. Their Asian prevention program should be commended for something very
unique that is not found in other programs. As discussed in chapter two, while boys are
victims of sex trafficking, just as girls, they often do not get the attention they deserve.
Love146 has set up boy prevention in Asia to help find and meet the needs of boys and
young men who are at risk for sexual exploitation. In addition, they also have an urgent
intervention program that works to fight against the sexual exploitation of children.
Thirdly their Asian prevention program helps reach out and work with other grassroots
organizations in the areas they serve to build a network of prevention.
The main goal of their prevention work in the United States is to educate people
that sex trafficking exists and that it is not just a problem that happens somewhere else.

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This particular program helps raise awareness that sex trafficking is a large problem in
the United States. It seeks to help equip people to recognize and report any signs of sex
trafficking they come across. Education is also one of the primary focuses of their
prevention arm in Europe, as well as efforts to help shape government policy and
working toward better survivor care (Love 146). In addition to aftercare and prevention,
Love146 has ongoing research in both aftercare and prevention (Love146).
The main criticism that this organization has faced comes with their major effort
to help pass the Safe Harbor Act in the state of Connecticut. This is a law that prevents
children under the age of 16 from being charged with crimes of prostitution (as the law
states that they are not of the legal age to consent to sex). Opponents of this bill have
voiced concern saying that it is the threat of criminal charges that often gets these
children to testify against their pimps (NY Times).
All in all, I think this particular organization is to be commended. Not only does
it have a wide net it uses to engage in rescue, but also in prevention and ongoing
research. There is a need for organizations who take time to look into the problems
facing male victims of sex trafficking as well.
Somaly Mam
The Somaly Mam foundation was founded by Americans Jared Greenburg and
Nicholas Lumpp. Having become aware of the issue of sex trafficking, they started
researching what was being done to combat this issue. During this time, they ran across
an Interview with Cambodian activist fighting against sex trafficking. She had once
been a victim herself, and was now ready to reach out to others.

-
Greenburg and Lumpp contacted Mam and made arrangements to meet her.
Flying to Cambodia, they quickly got a glimpse of the rescuing efforts that had been
made by various Cambodian anti-trafficking groups in rescuing and rehabilitating
trafficking victims. It was then that Mam expressed her vision to start an organization
in the United States that would use grass-roots campaigns to raise awareness for this
issue, while also providing education and offering services for the victims. Shortly after,
Greenburg, Lumpp, and Mam partnered together and formed the Somaly Mam
Foundation (Somaly Mam).
This organization has a five-fold approach to their work. The first way they fight
modern sex trafficking is through outreach and advocacy programs. The foundation
sends out social workers who make contacts with identified victims and those who are
at risk of becoming victims. They educate them on issues ranging from personal
hygiene and sexually transmitted diseases to human rights and domestic violence
issues. They also reach out to johns, educating them on their role in sex trafficking, and
the responsibility they carry (Somaly Mam). This arm of their organization also runs a
free medical clinic and reaches out to other NGO’s to create a network of support.
Their next approach is through supplies. They distributed condoms and soap to
prostitutes, to promote better personal hygiene and to help in the prevention of disease.
In addition, they have supplied a shelter for victims and at-risk youth with computers.
They are used to train the residents in basic computer skills and to provide job training
that prepares them to work in an administrative field. Land was purchased in an effort
to provide basic agricultural training to those living at the center.

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The foundation educates those at the centers it provides support for in basic
literacy skills. These programs also teach the students English. In addition, they have
built a community library. They offer community members courses in small business
management and home gardening. Through their reintegration program, they have
provided micro-loans to survivors that help them establish their own small business.
This part of the program is also responsible for making sure those who have been
rescued receive follow up medical, legal, and psychological support. In addition to all
these things, the foundation directs part of its funds to other victim service providers in
Southeast Asia, Haiti, and the U.S. (Somaly Mam).
The criticisms against the Somaly Mam foundation are directed at Mam herself,
and the AFESIP, her Cambodian-based anti-trafficking agency. She has been accused by
Cambodia’s newspaper, The Cambodian Daily for greatly embellishing stories about
raids she has led in liberating trafficking victims (Marks).
While a quick internet search will bring up a whole host of organizations that are
working to abolish sex trafficking, it pays to look into an organization before jumping
on board. One way to do this is by running them through charity rating websites, such
as charity navigator, to see how they rank. Also, just a quick internet search of the
organization followed by the word criticism can in many cases uncover a wealth of
information as well. There are many great charities providing help for the trafficked, it
just requires a little time to sort them all out.
The last group to be looked at is the trafficked themselves. When it comes to
talking about the trafficked, it would be easy to share bits and pieces of different

-
narratives, trying to weave a clear picture of who these people are. The issue, and this is
why it is difficult many times to even identify trafficking victims in the first place, is
that there is not one universal victim. One cannot pinpoint down a list of criteria that
makes a person a candidate for being a potential sex trafficking victim. I will do this
here. Instead, I offer a different approach.
The poet Muriel Rukeyser once said, “What would happen if one woman told
the truth about her life? The world would split open” (Rukeyser). While not all sex
trafficking victims are women, and as stated, there is not one universal set of criteria for
who these people are, and what their experience being trafficked were like, I am going
to include some women’s account of their stories. Women telling the truth of their life.
The first story come from a woman named Dai. Having experienced abuse as a
child, she was resolute that she would not suffer again as an adult. She, however, fell in
love and married a man who was very abusive to her. When she was finally able to get
away from him, she ran into a problem. He had stolen all of her important papers and
documents. This caused her to be unable to get a job. Because of this, she found herself
moving around to various homeless shelters.
During this time, she was approached by a female pimp who recruited her to
work for an escort service. She was eventually sent to a trafficker in Nevada. She recalls
being forced to have sex in basements in various locations in Las Vegas. She was
tortured on the occasions she refused to service customers. Dai considers herself lucky
in the fact she was able to create an alternative mentality that allowed her to survive.

-
Other women were not so lucky. “Repeatedly, I witnessed the beatings, rapes and
murders of innocent women” (New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition).
Dai was eventually able to escape her captors when one of her clients bought her
to be his own personal companion. He was nice to her and showed compassion. He also
taught her how to be a madam. She then found herself recruiting other women into the
same circumstances she had recently escaped. Eventually she had a mental breakdown
over the anguish she was causing other women. She was then able to reach out to an
advocate who was able to help her in the recovery process. She now speaks to others
about the real dangers of the sex trafficking industry (New York State Anti-Trafficking
Coalition).
Tripp Fuller, a podcaster and doctoral divinity student at Wake Forest relays this
story from a teenage girl who was trafficked that he met on a 2012 mission trip to
Tijuana, Mexico.
This girl was 13 years old and had a baby when her sister sold her to a man who
promised to take care of both her and her son. Upon being taken into his “care,” her
baby was taken away. She was sent to what she refers to as a prison in Anchorage,
Alaska. She was kept in isolation for long periods of time. Then, she was forced to have
sex with men and women. This continued for almost two years. After that time, she was
sold to another trafficker who prostituted her out to other women.
Out of concern for her baby, she was able to escape and eventually found him.
Soon afterwards, the child died and was cremated. She contacted the police and was
put into a shelter for teens over the next few months. Eventually her trafficker tracked

-
her down. He posed as a relative and took her into his custody. It was at this time she
discovered that she was pregnant again.
Her trafficker cared for her well until she had her baby. Once she delivered, he
took the baby and moved to San Diego. He promised that he would move her in with
them, but instead turned her over to immigration authorities. She was quickly deported
back to Tijuana. This is where her story ends, as she became too distraught in its telling
and could not continue to the finish (Fuller).
The last voice that will be shared comes from Ruth Kamara. After her high school
graduation in Sierra Leone in 1987, she became sorrowful when her boyfriend’s parents
did not choose her to be his wife. She lamented to a neighbor named Edna who quickly
suggested they take a trip to Liberia as a way to relieve Ruth’s heartache. Thinking she
would only be gone a few weeks, she quickly left with Edna. She did not even have the
chance to tell her family she would be gone.
Once in Liberia, Edna introduced Ruth to a man named Bob who would
eventually become her pimp. Edna quickly came up with an excuse to continue to travel
with Bob, promising to return shortly. Believing her friend would be coming back, she
accompanied Bob to what he called his family home. Upon arrival, she was introduced
as his wife. She was taken to a small room within a large complex where she was kept.
Bob raped her that night. Afterwards, he informed her that he bought her from Edna
and she was now his.

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She was kept in this room and forced to have sex with as many as 10 men a day.
Eventually she ventured out of her room and met other women who were also
trafficked and living in the compound. This was her existence for two years.
One day a john came in who spoke her dialect. She was overcome with emotion,
and decided to talk to him. She told him of how she was trafficked. He kept coming
back and requested Ruth each time, although they never had sex. She was able to share
her story with him, and he finally convinced the owners of the compound to sell Ruth
to him. She was pregnant at the time, but soon miscarried. This man eventually asked to
marry her. She felt she had no choice, so she obliged. She quickly became pregnant with
a son.
Two years into the relationship, civil war broke out in Liberia. Because of this,
Ruth was able to convince her husband to file for a separation. At this point, she was
able to return to Sierra Leone. Upon returning, she started to create a new life for
herself. She was so overcome with shame about her past, however, and she left her son
with a family she had met and fled to Guinea where no one knew her. Eventually, she
went back to Sierra Leone and travels through the villages warning women about the
dangers of trafficking (Today’s Christian Woman).
These of course are just a few of the millions of stories. Each person has his or her
own experience in sex trafficking, and it would be impossible to gather even an
example of each type of story. By including these, however, I hope to give a voice to
some of those who have gone through the process. My hope is that while sharing each
story, at least a small piece of earth will split open.

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Chapter III: Legal Responses
While chapter one covered the origins of modern day sex slavery, and discussed
its roots in the problem of white slavery, chapter three will paint a picture of the legal
responses (both International and domestic to the United States) to first white slavery,
then to modern day sex and human trafficking. (The reason that human trafficking as a
whole will be discussed in the latter part of this chapter is that in modern legal
instruments, there tends to be no separation of sex trafficking from other forms of non-
sexual labor trafficking, and so it is looked at as a whole). This chapter, however, could
not hope to cover every law in every country, even in the last century, that has been put
in place regarding sex trafficking. Instead what follows is a presentation and discussion
of some of the most influential of these responses.
In 1902, The International Agreement for the Suppression of the White Slave Trade was
drafted. It was ratified in Paris by twelve countries in 1904 (Woolf). Those countries are:
Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, the
United Kingdom’s of Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. This
was the first international document that defined trafficking as the involuntary
procurement of women or girls for immoral purposes (Rijken, 54).
In 1910, the International Agreement for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic
redefined its 1904 definition of trafficking to include trafficking within national borders
(Derks, 4). This redefinition is worthy of note, as large portions of sex trafficking are
domestic in nature. By this I mean that those who are being trafficked are being
trafficked within the borders of either their country of origin, or the country in which

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they were residing at the time of the trafficking (Derks, 4). Prior to this, a person had to
be trafficked across an international border in order to be considered a trafficking
victim. This now made it possible to target domestic trafficking as well.
This same year, the United States passed the Mann Act of 1910 which “forbids
transporting a person across state or international lines for prostitution or other
immoral purposes” (Woolf). This is particularly important to note since the United
States was not one of the countries who ratified International Agreement for the
Suppression of the White Slave Traffic, and thus this became the first legal document put
out by the United States in order to combat this problem.
White slavery received its next transformation in 1921 at the League of Nations
international conference in Geneva. It was asked that the term “white slavery” be
replaced by “traffic in women and children”. This now meant that this problem was not
only a women’s problem, but it also involved children of both sexes. It also was no
longer a white problem. It allowed for women and children of any race who were
victims of trafficking to now be recognized as victims (Kangaspunta, 3).
The interesting part about this particular piece of legislation is that it was
expanded to allow for children of both sexes. As discussed in chapter two, modern sex
trafficking tends to focus exclusively on women. Jones gives reasons for why this is.
What is unclear is when the boys disappeared from the discourse. Also interesting is
that while it includes children of both sexes, it excludes adult males. While Jones talks
about the absence of boys in modern sex trafficking research, there is certainly no one
speaking about men as victims. This is not to say that such victims do not exist, it is

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only to say that when talking about male victims of human trafficking, they are almost
exclusively relegated to the realm of non-sexual labor trafficking. There has never been
room in sex trafficking discourse to allow for an adult male victim, and that is one of the
places where researchers and law-makers alike tend to be silent.
In 1933, The International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women
redefined its definitions of trafficking for a third time by excluding the requirement that
coercion or fraud had occurred in the process of recruitment of victims of trafficking.
Trafficking was now defined as a transfer of women to another country for immoral
purposes, regardless of their consent or coercion (Derks, 4-5) as long as trafficking had
occurred across nation-state borders (Rijken, 55).
This redefinition would greatly influence much of the debate to come. It laid the
roots for the modern abolition movement. Prior definitions set the parameter that only
those who were forced or coerced into trafficking were the victims or slaves, as it were.
This definition is the first to make the case that all women who were transferred for
sexual and immoral (note that the word “immoral” is open to much interpretation and
is not clearly defined with regards to the intent of those who adopted this definition,
making this a blanket clause) purposes were all victims, even those who had willingly
and consciously made the decision to migrate or be trafficked.
There is also another major implication that comes with this redefinition. Not
only did it give moral implication to the law (by stating that even those who willingly
went could now be considered trafficked), it went back to the idea that was in place
prior to the 1910 redefinition. This incarnation asserted that the victim must be

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trafficked across national borders. This does nothing to help those women and children
who are trafficked within their own nation.
Although the first several decades of the twentieth century saw several different
incarnations of laws, acts, and international agreements with regard to white slavery
and trafficking, the arguably most important change came in 1949. This was the year of
the UN Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the
Prostitution of Others. It was a legal turning point since it was the first instrument that
was legally binding for those nations who ratified it. Now there was an international
governing body who oversaw the enforcement of this instrument. The UN definition of
trafficking keeps with the International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in
Women 1933 definition that trafficking can be prosecuted regardless if the victim
consented to being trafficked. This instrument was also neo-abolitionist in nature,
declaring prostitution to be “incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human
person” (Saunders and Soderlund, 19). This last sentiment is rather vague. It is
something common that has happened with many of the documents regarding sex
trafficking. As of today, only 66 countries have ratified it. One of the reasons for the low
ratification rate is that several countries that currently have legal prostitution did not
want to criminalize prostitution as required in the Convention (Kangaspunta, 5).
This convention would remain the main governing document for the next 50
years. In 2000, the United Nations developed the current International governing
instrument regarding human trafficking (including sex trafficking). It is the U.N.
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons. It is most often referred to

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as the U.N. protocol, and thus any mention of it in this thesis from here on out will refer
to it as such. The same year, the U.N. also developed the Optional Protocol to the
Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child
pornography.
The 1990’s saw a rise in the movement against child labor and as a by-product,
there was a rediscovery of the prevalence of sex trafficking. This is why the U.N. added
this optional protocol to its convection on The Rights of the Child. The original
document concerns non-sexual child labor practices. Rise in awareness of sex trafficking
tends to follow the same cycles as the awareness of labor trafficking (U.N. Protocol to
Suppress Trafficking in Persons).
2000 also saw the United States pass the Victims of Trafficking and Violence
Protection Act. The act is an effort to curb human trafficking, including those trafficked
into the sex trade, as well as a means to fund programs that combat violence against
women (U.S. Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act).
In 2001, the U.S. Department of State started publishing an annual Trafficking In
Persons report. The main objectives of this report are to state what the problem of
Trafficking in Persons is, followed by what is currently being done about the problem.
According the U.S. Department of state, “The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report is the
U.S. Government’s principal diplomatic tool to engage in foreign governments on
human trafficking” (TIP, 2001). The report also ranks each nation using a three tier
system as to their compliance with the guidelines of TIP. According to the U.S.

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