In the past month, the State of New York has introduced 11 new Human Trafficking Intervention Courts (including Buffalo and Rochester, near where I live in upstate NY). According to the New York Times, the new courts are modeled after three pilot projects that had been established earlier in New York City, and the “initiative is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation.”

The NY law resembles the federal U.S. law in targeting force, fraud and coercion (what the national law dubs “severe forms” of trafficking). Included in its list of punishable offenses is withholding of a passport or other identity document.

The initiative follows criticism of the weak implementation of NY’s 2007 antitrafficking law. As of 2009, there had been one conviction. This seems to be reflected in anti-trafficking more generally: as of 2009 there had been 196 cases under the federal law, by contrast with the  estimate of 14,000+ trafficked persons annually into the US given by the State Department.

Anti-trafficking advocates argue that low conviction rates reflect a lack of training and understanding among conventional police forces, perhaps coupled with chauvinistic prejudice. Critics suggest that the mismatch may have more to do with the flawed and overblown data supporting the annual estimates. (The “Data Matters” section of this website contains some further discussion.)

The law, which focuses on sex trafficking (labor trafficking is also included albeit as a lesser offense), provides those charged with prostitution with a way out of direct criminal prosecution — the law reframes who is a victim versus a perpetrator – although, since prosecutions often seek testimony from trafficking victims, involvement with the criminal justice system may continue in some form. Questions around implementation will include:  what proportion of prosecutions will look at labor trafficking rather than sex trafficking? how well will victims fare following identification by the criminal justice system? what proportion of resources will be spent on victim assistance versus criminal prosecution?

Abstract: This Essay responds to an article by Hila Shamir previously published in the UCLA Law Review, in which she suggests that human rights has failed as a framework for addressing human trafficking and that instead a labor model would be more successful. Although her article identifies potentially important benefits of a labor perspective, the binary framework it establishes, pitting human rights and labor against each other, is counterproductive. Her article mischaracterizes the current antitrafficking framework and undervalues the importance of rights to a robust response to human trafficking. This Essay discusses the value of Professor Shamir’s labor paradigm and the role of human rights in antitrafficking responses. It then suggests that labor–based and human rights–based responses are not mutually exclusive, and that, ultimately, a successful response to human trafficking will need to incorporate strategies and methodologies from a range of perspectives.

This article can be accessed at: http://www.uclalawreview.org/pdf/discourse/60-10.pdf

Despite concerted efforts to combat human trafficking, the trade in persons persists and, in fact, continues to grow. This article suggests that a central reason for the limited success in preventing human trafficking is the dominant conception of the problem, which forms the basis for law developed to combat human trafficking. Specifically, the author argues that “otherness” is a root cause of both inaction and the selective nature of responses to the abusive practice of human trafficking. Othering operates across multiple dimensions, including race, gender, ethnicity, class, caste, culture, and geography, to reinforce a conception of a virtuous “Self” and a devalued “Other.” This article exposes how this Self/Other dichotomy shapes the phenomenon of human trafficking, driving demand for trafficked persons, influencing perceptions of the problem, and constraining legal initiatives to end the abuse. By examining human trafficking through an otherness-aware framework, this article aims to elucidate a deeper understanding of human trafficking and offer a prescription for reducing the adverse effects of otherness on both efforts to combat human trafficking and the individuals that now suffer such abuses.

This article can be accessed at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1362542

Executive Summary:

The attached article explores the ways in which the private sector can help address trafficking
and exploitation of persons, including children. It examines how the private sector’s (1) position
in relation to streams of commerce, (2) focus on innovation, and (3) access to resources, position
it as a potentially valuable partner in combating trafficking and exploitation of human beings.
The article examines each of these three key features of the private sector. It does not suggest
that other entities are devoid of these traits (non-governmental organizations can and do
innovate, for example). Rather, it argues that these features are core characteristics of private
sector entities, and the fact that businesses possess all three traits simultaneously uniquely
situates them in a way that is of significant value to anti-trafficking efforts. The research for this
article focused in particular on the trafficking and exploitation of children.
This research finds that the private sector can play a particularly important role in advancing
efforts to prevent such exploitation of children. Law enforcement and social services engaged in
combating child trafficking and exploitation frequently encounter the problem after the harm has
occurred. The private sector’s unique position enables it to prevent some of these harms from
occurring in the first place.
The article also discusses legal responses to the problem. It finds that, in responding to
human rights and social justice issues, states frequently focus solely on criminal sanctions.
Criminal law is necessary but not sufficient. The article discusses ways in which states parties
can use law and policy to incentivize the private sector to take positive steps to prevent
trafficking and exploitation of children. It highlights one recent example from the State of
California that requires certain businesses to disclose their policies on, and measures undertaken
to, combat forced labor and trafficked persons in their supply chains. This new law has the
potential to provide human rights organizations, consumers, and investors with important
information about the practices of businesses that can inform not only human rights advocacy but
also purchasing and investment decisions. In summary, this article helps identify ways in which
States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols can foster
private sector engagement in protecting and ensuring children’s rights.

This article can be accessed at: http://www.californialawreview.org/assets/circuit/Todres_3-80.pdf

Scholars and advocates across several movements have attempted to develop approaches to human trafficking that would best serve the needs and support the rights of all migrant workers and survivors of trafficking. Many U.S.-based and international groups organizing for immigrant, labor, sex worker, and sexual and reproductive health rights, understand the need for collaborations among them. Yet, such connections have been largely obstructed by the U.S. federal government approach to trafficking, which emphasizes sex trafficking over other forms of labor. There is a growing consensus among advocates that current U.S. anti-trafficking policies and practices that focus on law enforcement and anti-prostitution efforts detrimentally impact the rights of trafficked persons. Advocates increasingly witness a prosecutorial approach to trafficking narrowly focused on criminalizing prostitution as a purported means to stop trafficking. Meanwhile, enforcement agencies largely neglect the broader phenomenon of trafficking into agriculture, domestic service, restaurants, hotels, manufacturing, and construction. This article discusses the local and global consequences of the United States government approach toward human trafficking. This article also evaluates U.S. policies and practices across multiple sectors that relate to human trafficking including prostitution, labor migration, and sexual and reproductive health rights. By providing an overview of current issues, problems, and concerns within the anti-trafficking movement and within related rights-based movements, this article seeks to facilitate the development of a new anti-trafficking paradigm. This paradigm evaluates trafficking within a broader framework and provides the foundation for a cross-sectoral alliance to challenge mainstream approaches to human trafficking and to create new strategies to protect the rights of trafficked persons, migrant workers, and women against the negative impact of United States policies and practices.

View the full PDF here: Reconceptualizing Approaches to Human Trafficking- New Directions and Perspectives from the Field(s) by Kathleen Kim and Grace Chang

This Article seeks to prioritize the civil workplace rights of undocumented immigrants over the goals of immigration enforcement by placing primacy on the role of the immigrant undocumented worker as private attorney general. In developing this concept, this Article draws from the legal framework addressing human trafficking. In theory, undocumented workers victimized by exploitive employment practices may act as private attorneys general in the enforcement of workplace harms and may sue their employers under many of the same civil rights laws that protect citizen workers. Regardless of whether workers are foreign-born, the substantive guarantees of our civil rights laws protect all workers against exploitation. The Thirteenth Amendment guarantees freedom from slavery and involuntary servitude, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment provides all individuals with equal protection of the laws, and various civil rights statutes, most prominently the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibit discrimination in a variety of settings. In practice, however, the goals of immigration enforcement take precedence over the individual rights of undocumented workers. These workers are often deported and deprived of access to civil courts. As a result, workplace violations are not prosecuted and basic workplace protections are undermined. Consequently, both the workers and the nation suffer deterioration in civil rights. In the human trafficking context, undocumented workers forced to labor in exploitive conditions may sue their traffickers and may also obtain immigration status pursuant to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, thereby ameliorating the divergent goals of immigration enforcement and civil rights laws that adversely impact other undocumented workers. This Article examines the ways in which the trafficked plaintiff fulfills the role of private attorney general by not only obtaining individual relief, but by also vindicating important societal interests in the advancement of constitutional and civil rights. A comparative analysis of litigation in the undocumented worker context demonstrates similar individual and societal benefits. This analysis supports an additional policy objective: The trafficked worker as private attorney general represents a model of civil rights enforcement. If replicated by other undocumented victims of workplace abuse, this model would allow these victims, unimpeded by restrictive immigration laws, to advance civil rights imperatives. Read the full PDF at: 01-Trafficked_Worker_as_Private_Attorney_General-_A_Model_for_Undocumented_Workers.pdf.Pdf

Theories of coercion exist across multiple disciplines to explicate the ability of one actor, the coercer, to diminish the free will of another, the coercee, in the absence of overt physical force. A valid claim of coercion places legal blame on the coercer or relinquishes the coercee from legal responsibility for a coerced act or omission. Defining the point at which coercion occurs, however, is the conceptually more difficult task. Recently, coercion has emerged as a significant source of analytic concern in a developing area of the law—contemporary involuntary labor or human trafficking. It is in this setting where coercion is explicitly codified as a fundamental legal element in human-trafficking crimes. However, the laws addressing human trafficking continue to struggle with delineating the dimensions of coercion. Legal scholars, moreover, have not yet engaged in a focused exploration of this issue to bring efficacy and substantive meaning to coercion within the human-trafficking framework. This Article examines the empirical and normative scope of coercion in the laws addressing contemporary involuntary labor. Incorporating perspectives from modern philosophy, this Article critiques older standards of coercion within Thirteenth Amendment doctrine and advances a new theory of coercion sensitive to the intricate power dynamics that characterize many humantrafficking cases. Called “situational coercion,” this new paradigm recognizes that instead of experiencing coercion through direct threats of harm from their traffickers, many trafficked workers comply with abusive working conditions due to circumstances that render them vulnerable to the exploitation, such as a lack of legal immigration status and poverty. By more accurately capturing the sociological realities of human trafficking, which victimize workers in subtle ways, the situational coercion framework advances the Thirteenth Amendment’s aim to ensure free labor and protect a broad category of coerced workers. Read the full article here: The Coercion of Trafficked Workers

By Ronald Weizer

Abstract The issue of sex trafficking has become increasingly politicized in recent years due to the efforts of an influential moral crusade. This article examines the social construction of sex trafficking (and prostitution more generally) in the discourse of leading activists and organizations within the crusade, and concludes that the
central claims are problematic, unsubstantiated, or demonstrably false. The analysis documents the increasing endorsement and institutionalization of crusade ideology in U.S. government policy and practice.

Read the full article here: P&S 2007

By Ronald Weitzer

Abstract Over the past decade, public policies on prostitution and other types of sex work have been increasingly contested, both in academia and in popular debates. One perspective, the oppression paradigm, is increasingly reflected in media reporting on the sex industry and is steadily being articulated by government officials in the USA, Europe, and elsewhere. The proliferation of myths based on the oppression paradigm is responsible for the rise of a resurgent mythology of prostitution. This article examines the claims made by organizations, activists, and scholars who embrace the oppression paradigm, evaluates the reasoning and evidence used in support of their claims, and highlights some of the ways in which this perspective has influenced recent legislation and public policy in selected nations. The author presents an alternative perspective, the polymorphous paradigm, and suggests that public policy on prostitution would be better informed by this evidence-based perspective.

Read the full article here: Mythology of prostit

By Ronald Weitzer

From the introduction:

Under U.S. law, sex trafficking is defined as “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act.”1 To be punishable, the offense must involve a “severe form” of trafficking involving (1) a person under age eighteen who has been induced to perform a commercial sex act or (2) an adult who has been so induced by the use of “force, fraud, or coercion.”2 Adults who sell sex willingly, with some kind of assistance, are not considered trafficking victims under U.S. law.3 Trafficking that involves underage persons or adults subjected to force, fraud, or coercion is a serious violation of human rights, and the growing international awareness of the problem and efforts to punish perpetrators and assist victims are welcome developments.

Read full article here: JCLC artl.