Victims Of Domestic Sex Trafficking Research Articles

Capital Accrual and Constraints: Domestic Sex Trafficking Victims’ Negotiation of Vicarious and Feminized Capital

Domestic sex trafficking has yet to appear on the policy agenda in Aotearoa New Zealand, and yet to be met with a law enforcement response. Accordingly, we have minimal knowledge about the contexts in which sex trafficking is perpetrated and what victims’ experiences involve. This article focuses specifically on the attainment and negotiation of social capital by victims whose access to traditional capital is at least partially restricted by their social and familial contexts. Sixteen victims of domestic sex trafficking participated in semistructured interviews. The data were analyzed using an adapted version of Clanindin and Connelly’s (2000) three-dimensional structure of narrative analysis. Three of the themes emerging from this are discussed here; namely abuse and mistreatment in early life, the negotiation of survival within the trafficking context, and sexuality as a bargaining tool. We argue that victims’ access to traditional mechanisms of social capital accrual may be precluded by the multiple sites of gendered disadvantage that collude to entrap victims in a subordinate and exploited position. However, to negotiate their continued survival despite the constraints to their agency, they appear to access both vicarious physical capital and feminized (and usually sexualised) capital by instrumentalizing their sexual appeal or prowess and the protection of the subjectively more powerful male “partner.”

Moving to Restoration: The Experiences of Women Exiting Sex Trafficking

ABSTRACTIn this article, we use qualitative interviews to learn from three sex-trafficking survivors how service providers can better help female victims of domestic sex trafficking with restoration and recovery, along with how to better identify female victims of sex trafficking and their needs. In this article, participants are referred to as survivors of sex trafficking because they are no longer being trafficked, and individuals who are currently being trafficked are referred to as victims of sex trafficking. Participants reported that therapy, having financial assistance and services provided at no cost, services that focused on rehabilitation to a more independent living and social support were services identified as most helpful for rehabilitation. Participants also discussed barriers to and resources that helped them exit sex trafficking. Implications for future research and for providers are offered.

Gendered violence and victim blame: subject perceptions of blame and the appropriateness of services for survivors of domestic sex trafficking, sexual assault, and intimate partner violence

The last decade has seen advances in both scholarship and advocacy efforts regarding the domestic sex trafficking (DST) of women and children, culminating in federal and state legislation addressing this human rights issue. Despite these advances, prostituted women and girls continue to face stigma and blame for victimization, similar to female survivors of other forms of gendered violence, specifically intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual assault. Studies have yet to fully explore perceptions of DST as it intersects with these forms of gendered violence, particularly with regard to victim and perpetrator culpability. The current study uses a student sample of survey questionnaires to examine subject perceptions of gendered violence, with a focus on victim and perpetrator blame and appropriate social service responses for victims of DST, sexual assault, and IPV. Future research directions and policy implications are discussed.