Female Sex Trafficking: Conceptual Issues, Current Debates, and Future Directions

Abstract

Female sex trafficking is a pressing concern. In this article, we provide a comprehensive overview of relevant issues regarding the concept of female sex trafficking and research in the field of human trafficking, drawing on a variety of disciplines, including economics, gender and sexuality studies, psychology, sociology, law, and social work. We discuss the debates surrounding the definition of human trafficking, compare and contrast it with human smuggling, and outline connections between female sex trafficking and the issue of sex work and prostitution. We further discuss the history and current estimations of female sex trafficking. We then outline the main actors in female sex trafficking, including trafficked persons, traffickers, clients, and service providers, and we overview the trafficking process from recruitment to identification, recovery, and (re)integration. Finally, we conclude with recommendations for future research that tie together the concepts of vulnerability, exploitation, and long-term recovery and (re)integration.

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“…Recent findings show that structural or external factors are not immediate indicators of the risk to become victim of TIP, and internal, personality features need to be taken into account since not all TIP victims see themselves as ones, and may resist to enter support system (Mai, 2013;Salisbury et al, 2014). Some researchers conclude that there is a need to look deeper into relations between vulnerability and exploitation, taking into account not only economical, demographical or psychosocial factors, but also neglected psychological needs of the potential victim (Elzbieta Gozdziak, Micah Bump & Loiselle, 2006;Meshkovska et al, 2015;Reid, 2011) or the extent to which external risk factors contribute to higher vulnerability to being sexually exploited.…”

Child and Adolescent Commercial Sexual Exploitation in Mexico: The Exploiters and the State

“…Men represent the great majority of traffickers and exploiters; however, women also appear to play a prominent role (Meshkovska et al, 2015;Negrete, 2005;Torres Falcón, 2011). Traffickers and exploiters' typical ploys are creative and ruthless, designed to trick, coerce, and win the confidence of potential victims.…”

“…Chin and Finckenauer (2011) have questioned this view because traffickers recruit their victims using a variety of methods. Methods may include seduction (developing a romantic relationship), fake job offers (as dancers, hostesses or models), finesse pimping (manipulating victims to make them believe they had to pay back kindnesses shown to them through commercial sex), trading, and abduction, as well as guerrilla pimping (the exploitation of victims through the use of threat, intimidation and/or physical violence) (Kara, 2009;Meshkovska et al, 2015;Pinheiro, 2006;Williamson & Prior, 2009). The most common technique worldwide is based on seduction.…”

“…However, campaigns should also raise awareness in boys, male teenagers, and adults about the violence that traffickers, exploiters, sex buyers and others perpetrate on victims of CSEC. In order to prevent the problem, public interventions need to address some of the factors associated with CSEC, such as poverty, and the occurrence of other forms of victimization linked to CSEC such as CSA and parental neglect (see Meshkovska et al, 2015).…”

“…ICTIMS ARE EXPLOITED EVERY DAY in the global market of human trafficking (International Labour Organization, 2012; U.S. Department of State, 2014; United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2009); yet the exact number is unknown (Meshkovska, Siegel, Sutterheim, & Bos, 2015). Among trafficked persons, children and teenagers are especially vulnerable because they are exploited in the making of child sexual abuse images (child pornography), sold into sex tourism, and prostituted.…”