Human Trafficking and Contemporary Slavery

Weitzer, Ronald

doi:10.1146/annurev-soc-073014-112506

Cited by 128 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…As we have no reliable data on the extent of, or trends in trafficking, there is no conclusive answer to this question. However, based on the best possible estimates outside the remit of the ideology wars around neo-abolitionism, the most likely answer is that in the advanced democracies of North-Western Europe the prevalence of trafficking has been low to begin with (Weitzer 2015;Wagenaar et al 2017). Perhaps the most obvious conclusion from our research is that all countries under study have-and throughout history, have had-a prostitution market.…”

Section: Comparing Prostitution Policy In Europementioning

confidence: 87%

“…For practical and conceptual reasons precise and reliable numbers are hard to obtain. Practical reasons include high mobility of sex workers and a difficult to access social milieu; conceptual reasons include ill-defined key categories such as "forced prostitution" or "trafficking" Weitzer 2015). As a result, not one of the 21 countries under study enjoyed precise and reliable data about prostitution to inform policy making.…”

Section: Challenges To Prostitution Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Why Prostitution Policy (Usually) Fails and What to Do about It?

Wagenaar

2017

Social Sciences

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This article describes and discusses the results of two comparative studies of prostitution policy in Europe that are complementary in their design and methodology. One is a comparison of 21 countries using a most different systems design; the other an in-depth comparison of Austria and The Netherlands, using a most similar systems design. The two studies found a remarkable continuity in the inherent approach to the regulation of prostitution and its effects. Despite differences in political regime, administrative organization, and national cultures, since the middle of the 19th century, the purpose of prostitution policy has been to impose strict controls on sex workers and to a lesser extent their work sites. The effects of this approach have been disappointing: despite rhetorical claims to the contrary the control of sex workers has no discernable effect on the prevalence of prostitution in society. The effects of policies aimed at control are mostly negative in that they corrode the human and labor rights of sex workers. The article discusses several challenges to the regulation of prostitution (such as its deeply moral nature and the lack of precise and reliable data) as well a number of other important outcomes (such as the importance of local policy implementation for the effects of regulation). The article concludes with the empirically substantiated suggestion that a form of collaborative governance in which sex worker advocacy organizations participate in the design and implementation of prostitution policy offers real prospects for an effective and humane prostitution policy.

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Section: Comparing Prostitution Policy In Europementioning

confidence: 87%

Section: Challenges To Prostitution Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Prostitution Policy (Usually) Fails and What to Do about It?

Wagenaar

2017

Social Sciences

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“…One of the most virulent criticisms of anti-trafficking efforts has been that the U.S. Department of State overestimates the number of victims in the country (Weitzer, 2015). One possibility is that the number of victims has not been overestimated, but that the majority remain undetected by law enforcement (Farrell et al, 2010), which has been the principal entity charged with their identification.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this document, we referred to all trafficked persons as victims for consistency. 4 the U.S. has been criticized for expending hundreds of millions of dollars to combat the issue when only hundreds of confirmed victims are identified in the nation each year (Weitzer, 2015).…”

Section: S President Barak Obama and The Clinton Globalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health Care Providers’ Experience with a Protocol for the Identification, Treatment, and Referral of Human-Trafficking Victims

Stoklosa

Showalter

Melnick

et al. 2016

Journal of Human Trafficking

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The healthcare setting is thought to be one of the most promising places to identify victims of human trafficking. The present study was designed to relay the experiences of a sample of 10 healthcare providers and hospital administrators who developed and have used a protocol to identify victims of human trafficking since February 2014. To our knowledge, the protocol was one of the first to be adopted by any healthcare system in the U.S. Three primary themes emerged from the participant interviews. First, developing the protocol was challenging because at the time there were no predecessor examples. Second, providers reported that the protocol is simple to use and victim identification is easier because of it. Third, identifying and serving victims of human trafficking remains challenging, because there is still a deficit of trained providers and a lack of community resources for survivors. The field needs evidence that this and similar protocols improve users' knowledge and skills, result in the better identification and treatment of trafficking victims, and ultimately improve public safety and public health.

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“…There are two arguments why precise and reliable numbers are important in prostitution policy. The first is that without a good understanding of the size, age and composition of the population of sex workers in a 27 See Weitzer (2015) for a number of instructive examples in which researchers have used creative methods to arrive at more precise estimates of the number of victims of trafficking. It almost goes without saying that their estimates are much lower than the numbers of 'victims' the neo-abolitionists and the anti-trafficking industry put forward.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%