Domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) is a significant issue that affects children, families, and communities throughout the United States. Due to the illegal nature of the problem, it is difficult for law enforcement to identify victims of DMST and when they are identified it is challenging to provide them with services. Because law enforcement often encounter DMST victims through first response calls or within juvenile hall, it is important to understand the collaboration efforts between social workers and law enforcement in order to provide effective services for this population. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of the perceptions of law enforcement officers regarding the involvement of social workers in DMST cases. This study used a qualitative design by collecting data through face-to-face interviews with 10 law enforcement officers from Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County. This design allowed participants the opportunity to provide a more in-depth explanation regarding the involvement of social workers in DMST cases. The study found that there is a need for social workers to collaborate with law enforcement agencies to provide and advocate for services for victims of DMST. The study also indicated the need for transitional housing or other placement options for youth because the current alternative is incarceration.

In Los Angeles County, California, approximately 2,245 victims of child sex trafficking were identified between 1997 and 2012. Several authors believed that poverty was linked to child sex trafficking because it increased the vulnerability of victims. The purpose of this nonexperimental, correlational study was to explore the question of how poverty was related to child sex trafficking in Los Angeles County, California. Intersectionality from the third wave of feminist theory was used as the theoretical underpinning of this study. Using data from the United States Census Bureau and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, information was collected on 97 counties in the southwestern portion of the United States that had a minimum population of 100,000 people and at least 1 arrest of a minor for prostitution between the years of 1997 and 2012. Analysis of the nonnormal data through a Friedman test indicated that differences in the medians existed in the levels of the child sex trafficking variable, but follow up tests did not reveal the sources of the differences. Kendall's W test results indicated a lack of concordance, and Spearman's correlation did not indicate that a monotonic relationship existed between the variables when tested by year, except for 1998. These results failed to provide the evidence needed to reject the null hypothesis. The relationship between poverty and child sex trafficking at the county level could not be measured by income and through a portion of the victim population. Differing measurements of poverty, varying levels of analysis, and diverse applications of intersectionality may yield different results. Ultimately, this study was a first step, rather than a final step, in creating positive social change through increased knowledge and more effective policies against sex trafficking.

Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal activities in today’s world and a violation of human rights. Sex trafficking of women from Russia and Ukraine was enabled by the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the incorporation of the new countries into the global economy. At the same time, this social problem generated a series of anti-trafficking campaigns in Russia, Ukraine, and internationally. This research analyzes social responses to the risks of sex trafficking of women from Russia and Ukraine. The analysis is based on sixteen-month multi-sited field research in Russia and Ukraine. I collected data through participant observation, interviewing, and document analysis. The research provides insight into the supply and demand sides of sex-trafficking markets and describes how sex trafficking of women is integrated into the overall organization of the global sex trade. I use institutional ethnography to map out different anti-trafficking institutions (NGOs, governmental offices, international organizations) and examine social relations engendered by anti-trafficking mobilizations. My research analyzes institutional interventions aimed at minimizing the risks to sex trafficking victims. I explore how the institutional actors form transnational regulatory spaces to combat the problem of sex trafficking. Finally, I analyze how female trafficking survivors negotiate their identities in response to the institutional power of anti-trafficking NGOs that assist them.

The theme of this thesis regards power manifestations in sex trafficking in Greece, through the context of a particular women’s NGO situated in Athens, Greece. The stories that are analysed here are in one way or the other drawn from that NGO context, specifically: the story of the president of the NGO, the story of an activist in that NGO and the story of a woman who has been sex trafficked. What this thesis explores, under a poststructuralist road, influenced by a genealogical approach and inspired by Foucault’s notions of power, is how power can be productive in sex trafficking and the relevant anti-sex trafficking activism. Additionally, using intersectionality as an analytical tool, it explores which social markers are part of that productive play. Situated in crisis Greece, where several issues/problems are intensified, entangled, spread and spilled over in several areas, I find that there is relevance in research concerning how power, in the respective context, can work in productive ways. What is shown through the stories are several contradictions regarding conceptualizations of the role of the police, law, justice, and their relation with rights, religion, ethnicity, race, sex and gender. I treat these contradictions as key illustrators of the productive power play, visualized as a network that entangles different elements and draws its power through their relations. Productive power is seen through corrupt police officers; the accusation of the president of the NGO; through subjects of law, religion and debt; through gender performances; through prolific captivity and so on. What is shown is that the manifestations of power through these stories vary according to the context, but the productive element of power is their joint effect.

abstract: This study uses the ontological lenses of discourse theory to conduct a critical mixed-methods analysis of state statutes related to prostitution and sex trafficking. The primary research question of the study was, "How do state laws communicate and reinforce discourses related to sex trafficking and prostitution and how do these discourses reinforce hegemony and define the role of the state?" A mixed methods approach was used to analyze prostitution and sex trafficking related annotated and Shepardized statutes from all fifty states. The analysis found that not all prostitution related discourses found in the literature were present in state statutes. Instead, statutes could be organized around five different themes: child abuse, exploitation, criminalization, place, and licensing and regulation. A deeper analysis of discourses present across and within each of these themes illustrated an inconsistent understanding of prostitution as a social problem and an inconsistent understanding of the legitimate role of the state in regulating or criminalizing prostitution. The inconsistencies in the law suggest concerns for equal protection under the law based upon a person's perceived deservingness, which often hinges on his or her race, class, gender identity, sexuality, age, ability, and nationality. Implications for the field include insights into a substantive policy area rarely studied by policy and administration scholars, a unique approach to mixed methods research, and the use of a new technique for analyzing vast quantities of unstructured data. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Public Administration 2014

“Human trafficking” has become part of the everyday lexicon in the United States and globally over the last fifteen years. The issue has made its way into political platforms, scholarly work, church congregations, and international aid agendas. Florida is currently recognized as third in the nation for number of cases of human trafficking. This thesis employs ethnographic interviews and observations to understand one portion of Florida’s human trafficking problem referred to as domestic minor sex trafficking. This type of trafficking affects mostly teenage girls from marginalized populations, such as those that have experienced the child welfare system, homelessness, and impoverished circumstances. In 2013 the state passed the Florida Safe Harbor Act, modeled after the New York State Safe Harbour for Exploited Children Act, to address the needs of this population through legislation. The Act specifies certain policy and procedural changes, as well as the role of the Department of Children and Families. Further, it prohibits minors from facing prostitution charges, recognizing that they cannot consent to commercial sex because of their age. This study investigates the Safe Harbor Act’s impact on agencies and the public in terms of raising awareness about domestic minor sex trafficking. With no immediate funding attached to the bill, or dedicated in the state budget, Florida is still struggling to provide adequate care for this population. In addition to policy analysis, this study examined existing services, assessed current needs in the field, and created an interactive map to locate services for professionals working in the field. While Florida has clearly improved its ability to manage these cases over the last three years, there is still much work to be done to address domestic minor sex trafficking. Based on these findings, this thesis offers recommendations for policy and further research on successful practices in working with this population’s specific needs.

Trafficking for sexual exploitation is a phenomenon that greatly affects the individual as well as society. The effect is grim for the victims and their families, as sex trafficking violates their basic human rights, can shatter families, and cause severe psychological trauma. Sex trafficking has also negative effects on societies, it can adversely affect the economy, public health, national security, and gender equality. Policies have been implemented in response to sex trafficking, both in Sweden and in Europe. The thesis aims to show how sex trafficking is framed by the Swedish Government and the European Commission, based on the application of framing theory integrated with Bacchi's WPR-approach. The research method used is a qualitative, descriptive, comparative, small-N case study with a qualitative content analysis of textual data. Through this method, 11 different documents provided by the Swedish Government and the European Commission were analyzed. The result of the analysis shows that the documents from the Swedish Government use a more prominent frame of human rights, while for European Commission the most significant was organized crime. When it comes to Bacchi’s WPR-approach, the underlying assumptions behind these frames can be argued to be influenced by the national versus supra-national level and how many actors are involved, as well as ideological and legislative differences. Silences were complicated to find in the European Commission, while in the Swedish Government, sovereignty was not discussed. There could also be seen a difference in trend over time, where the European Commissionshifted more towards ‘human rights’ as recently as 2020-2021, while the Swedish Government was more constant in their frame of ‘human rights’.

By working with an anti-human trafficking organization in Sarasota, Florida, and sex-worker activists based in St. Petersburg, Florida, this research focuses on the process by which trafficking victims and sex workers are identified and dealt with by the criminal justice system and NGO rehabilitation programs. The study focused on understanding how stakeholders decide between identifying someone as a criminal or a victim of sex trafficking and how women identify themselves and subjectively experience their interaction with the criminal justice system and a faith-based rehabilitation program. By exploring the victims’ process of going through the criminal justice system, this study problematizes the ideas of victim certification, diversion programming, and the idea that sex work is inherently exploitative and never agentive. Due to anti-prostitution laws in the United States (US), the lack of trauma-informed care within the criminal justice system, and the stigma surrounding sex work that stems from dominant American culture, sex workers and trafficking victims are often further harmed when they become involved with the criminal justice system. My findings reveal narratives produced around the “innocent victim” perpetuate an image of human trafficking that focuses on White women and children in forced prostitution. This image contributes to constructions of ‘deservingness’ for different populations involved in exchanging sex and alters whether or not individuals are identified as victims of sex trafficking depending on their adherence to this narrative. Common narratives surrounding trafficking can also harm sex workers who want to be recognized as agentive adults in the sex industry. I present the multiple realities that exist in the criminal/legal systems surrounding sex trafficking and consensual sex work in Florida and how participants perceive their treatment by various organizations such as law enforcement, the court system, diversion programs, and NGOs by conducting interview analysis, participant observation, and performance ethnography through the production of a fictionalized scene written with research participants and stakeholders.

This thesis explores to what extent prostitution policy can influence human trafficking for sexual purposes. It questions if criminalization of prostitution and legalization of prostitution can result in different outcomes, interfering with sex trafficking. This research is conducted as a comparative case study where Sweden illustrates the criminalization of prostitution and the Netherlands legalization of prostitution.  This study will focus on three main theories to understand the complexity behind the issue and the background of the different policy designs. First, the three-pronged approach commonly used in trafficking legislation will be implemented as a framework to analyze the national action plans to combat human trafficking. Moreover, the prostitution policies will be explored from a sexual liberal and radical feminist perspective. The main findings are that both criminalization and legalization of prostitution affect the establishment of sex trafficking within the country. Sweden and the Netherlands share the aim of combatting human trafficking by implementing their prostitution policy. However, they disagree on how to do so effectively. The conclusion will suggest that both approaches can succeed if enough resources and funding are put towards the issue.

In the relatively sparse field of economics of prostitution, studies have in recent years investigated the relationship between prostitution legislation and the presence of sex trafficking. This study investigates the issue further by using both a cross country model with time fixed effects and a country fixed effect model to estimate the effect on the amount of sex trafficking of changing legislation to the so-called Nordic Model, something no other known study has managed to do. In contrast to what previous research has estimated, this thesis finds no significant effect on sex trafficking from changing legislation to the Nordic Model. The obvious difficulties of presenting reliable data on an illegal activity such as sex trafficking and the fact that few countries have changed their legislation to the Nordic Model are likely reasons to the insignificant results and cautions against a causal interpretation.