Drawing on a study undertaken across eight Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries in 2019, this article focuses on the persistence of investment in criminal justice infrastructure and mechanisms 20 years after the Palermo Protocol came into effect. We examine the enduring challenges and limitations around counter trafficking responses that remain removed from the lived realities of women migrant workers. Building on qualitative interviews with stakeholders and women migrant workers, we argue that women's protection from migration and labor exploitation and gendered violence remains elusive. This study highlights how counter-trafficking systems undermine women's safety and argues for a move away from siloed trafficking efforts, toward a much broader commitment to upholding women migrant workers’ rights and protection.

This article examines state justifications for capital punishment in Singapore. Singapore is a unique case study because capital punishment has largely been legitimised and justified by state officials. It illustrates how Singapore justifies capital punishment by analysing official discourse. Discussion will focus on the government’s narrative on capital punishment, which has been primarily directed against drug trafficking. Discussion will focus on Singapore’s death penalty regime and associated official discourse that seeks to justify state power to exercise such penalties, rather than the ethics and proportionality of capital punishment towards drug-related crimes. Critical analysis from a criminological perspective adds to the growing body of literature that seeks to conceptualise social and political phenomena in South-East Asia.

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