The following report describes the process by which the thesis documentary film, Complicit, was made by Michelle Nehme. The film is about domestic sex trafficking in the United States and centers around the story of one American-born survivor. The film also includes testimony from anti-trafficking leaders in Austin, TX. The report discusses the issue at large, the process behind researching, pre-production, production and post-production of the film, and the creative choices made around the film. The original treatment is included, as well as the script written for the narrative strand. The report also discusses the struggles the filmmaker faced with the dark themes and the complexity of the issue during the course of making the film. / text

Thesis advisor: Lisa Dodson / In the United States, the majority of youth who become victims of sex trafficking are U.S. citizens. Most "at-risk" are those involved in the foster care system, the sexually abused and/or those surviving without stable housing- otherwise known as the homeless. Through in depth interviews with homeless teenage mothers, this study analyzed the connection between housing vulnerability and sex trafficking. The major finding of this study suggests that young girls are pushed into homelessness and sexually exploitative situations when they experience a loss of familial support. Without familial support, young, homeless girls are forced into a patriarchal street economy that limits their options for economic opportunity: men sell drugs, women sell their body. Participants also discussed the perceived effectiveness of structural interventions, including welfare, housing shelters and educational programs. By exploring the intersection of homeless teenage mothers and domestic sex trafficking, this study adds to a stronger dialogue between the homeless and human trafficking fields. Additionally, this study brings attention to the fact that young, American girls are just as vulnerable to sex trafficking as the international victims highlighted in most of the popular media and literary scholarship. Lastly, several interventions are proposed for working at the intersection of homeless youth and sex trafficking. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Master of Science / Family Studies and Human Services / Sandra M. Stith / The purpose of this thesis is to learn from human trafficking survivors about how service providers can better help female victims of human trafficking. The paper is guided by two theories, i.e., Attention Restoration Theory (Hartig, Evans, Jamner, Davis, & Galing, 2003) and The Holistic Process Theory of Healing (Ventegodt, Andersen, & Merrick, 2003). In this paper, I refer to the participants in my research as survivors and individuals who have been or currently are victims of human trafficking as victims. To utilize the common language used by the participants of this study, sex trafficking will be referred to as the “sex industry”. The purpose of the study was to gain the perspectives of women in the process of exiting from the sex industry to answer the overarching questions of how service providers can better help women who are on the path to restoration and recovery, as well as to help service providers better identify female victims and their needs. A combined approach of Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis and Gilligan, Spencer, Weinberg and Bertsch’s (n.d.) Listening Guide was used to analyze the transcribed interviews for a better understanding of the narratives of the participants and the themes that emerged from their narratives.

Sex trafficking is a grossly misconstrued and increasing issue within the United States. The purpose of this study was to extend current knowledge regarding the public’s education on domestic sex trafficking and perceptions of domestic sex trafficking victims. The public’s awareness of domestic sex trafficking and perceptions of domestic sex trafficking victims were examined through the utilization of a 31 closed-ended question survey. The survey included questions about domestic sex trafficking and prostitution myths, domestic sex trafficking victim characteristics, domestic sex trafficking legislation, law enforcement’s involvement in domestic sex trafficking cases, and demographics. The sample consisted of 195 Criminal Justice and Criminology students at East Tennessee State University, located in Northeast Tennessee. The results showed that, despite having a mostly empirical based view on domestic sex trafficking, students misconceived domestic sex trafficking victims when comparing the age of victims, such as child victims versus adult victims.

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There has been a flurry of legislative action at the international and regional levels to address the global problem of trafficking in persons, which victimises epidemic-proportions of individuals and generates one of the largest proceeds of organised crime. The harmonisation of national legal responses based on minimum standards around prevention, prosecution, and protection as espoused by those international and regional instruments is a prerequisite for effective and wide cooperation among countries of origin, transit, and destination. However, the reluctance of states to lift to the lofty heights of international consensus the contentious policy issues surrounding trafficking, including prostitution, has resulted in the adoption of rather ambiguous anti-trafficking norms and obligations, which allow states to individually determine what constitutes 'trafficking in persons' within their own jurisdictions. The subsequent divergence in national responses reveals that legal harmonisation has not taken place. The mechanisms of enforcement, which attach directly or indirectly to those international and regional instruments, therefore, have the formidable task of assisting states in the implementation of the substantive content of anti-trafficking norms and obligations through their monitoring and reporting mandates. However, their work remains a neglected area of academic research, compared to writings on the ambiguity of the international anti-trafficking framework. The challenge to international regulation of the trafficking problem, as identified in this thesis, relates on a fundamental level to the systemic limitations of the formal processes of law based on state consent and respect for the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity. Through a comparative legal analysis of international and European legal responses to sex trafficking in women, this thesis illuminates the main systemic challenges to combating trafficking in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, the Netherlands, Romania, and Sweden, and how the work of those enforcement mechanisms remedies some of those challenges.

In this qualitative research, Turkey's nationaJ policy and practice against sex trafficking is explored by looking at the interactions between sex trafficking, prostitution and migration regimes. Turkey has adopted definitions and legislation from the UN Protocol and this research focuses upon how international discourses have been understood and practised in a local context. I refer to feminist critiques of the UN Protocol, and show how Turkey'S national counter-trafficking rhetoric is heavily influenced by prostitution regime based on 'public health' and moral concerns as well as 'irregular' migration on the basis of national security and 'illegal' working. Findings indicate that the framing of sex trafficking as a problem of organised crime rather than as a type of migration obscures the strong connection between sex trafficking and migration. Furthermore, the definition of the phenomenon apart from prostitution obscures the connection between the prostitution regime in Turkey and its effects on sex trafficking. This tendency is especially visible in national legislation and law enforcement, where attempts to distinguish between forced and voluntary prostitution can 're-victimise' trafficked women in different stages of identification and protection mechanisms. Therefore, this study focuses on sex trafficking by showing how prostitution and migration regimes inform and affect the policies and practices against sex trafficking within local settings. It argues that those regimes play an important role in policy and practice against sex trafficking; they weaken the protection system which may cause 're-victimisation' of 'victims' of sex trafficking. This research challenges institutional responses to sex trafficking and makes policy recommendations founded on empirical research. It adds to our understanding of the prostitution regime in Turkey, its effect on trafficking and the needs of trafficked women. It has wider policy implications for other migrant groups, such as migrant domestic workers, who suffer from the same policies and practices in Turkey and the findings are transferable to other countries.

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Florida has the second-highest incidence of human trafficking in the country. Sex trafficking of women into and out of the state of Florida is defined by various terms from international, national and local terms. The United Nations defines sex trafficking in Article 3, paragraph (a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime as: "Trafficking in persons: shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation". This study explores the experiences of women who have been trafficked as well as the recruitment strategies by which women are trafficked and to what extent their life changes. This study aims to understand the extent to which local nonprofits in the state of Florida have tackled the issue as well as the international, federal and state government laws are enforced. The findings will provide useful guidelines to help nonprofits in the state of Florida work together to combat the issue as well as be used as an informative research proposal for the community to push stronger legislation and raise more awareness.

This study aims to explore nursing students' knowledge and perceptions of identifying and treating victims of sexual assault and sex trafficking. Survey data was collected from second to fifth semester nursing students in Eastern Tennessee. The study aims to identify students' perceptions of medical personnel's ability to identify and treat sexual assault and sex trafficking victims, examine whether adherence to myths affects knowledge and confidence levels, determine students' confidence in identifying and treating victims, and evaluate whether demographic characteristics affect identification and treatment. Results will help improve our approach towards these issues.