Farr's definition:

"Any practice that involves moving people within and across local or national boundaries for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Trafficking may be the result of force, coercion, manipulation, deception, abuse of authority, initial consent, family pressure, past and present family and community violence, economic deprivation, or other conditions of inequality for women and children (Donna Hughes)"

Some basic concepts

• Imbalance of power and other resources
• Source and destination sites
• Power differentials within household, cultures, between countries
• Women's/girls' status within their own cultures/societies/economies
• Role of men
• Corruption
• role of organized crime groups
• "Consumers"
  • mostly men from destination countries
• buying power (drives growth in sex tourism and in-country slavery

Some statistics and geography:

'Source' countries characteristics?

'Destination' countries

Growth areas:

• Italy
• South Africa (tenfold increase in 3 years)
• Dominican Republic (tourism from US?)
• Balkans (formerly Yugoslavia--3-4-fold increase in last 3-4 years)
• Israel: 250 brothels (2/3 increase from 3 years ago)
• In the U.S.? 250 brothels known in 26 cities
• NIS (Newly independent states of the East bloc countries, former Soviet Union)

The business: Profits:

At least $12 billion/yr

• "low cost, reusable nature of the commodity"
• LOW risk
• Little public attention
• Debt bondage:
  • Bait and switch
  • Women have to 'purchase their freedom'
  • Disclosure
  • Indefinite nature
  • Living/working conditions

What is driving this social problem?

• Economic changes, globalization, 'free trade'
• Status of women
• Role of informal sector, economic opportunity structures
• What happens when the 'supply' of women run out
• Logistics, cooperation of authorities, corruption
• Growth of organized crime (again, spurred on by free trade)

Living conditions

• work, violence, health issues

Sex trafficker roles include:

• recruitment
• broker (agent, buys women from recruiter)
• contractor-organizes the transaction-often done through organized crime groups
• employment/travel agent (part of the bait, 'lures' women with legitimate front businesses)
• document thief/forger
• transporter
• employer ('procurer')-the pimp
• enforcer-the guards, the ones who enforce threats of violence
• Resembles a legitimate business
• Requires a fairly complex network and plenty of government cooperation
• Organized crime rings (Russia, Japan, China are more established), Taiwan, Albania, Kosovo, etc., Central and Eastern Europe, Moldova, Czech Republic