Broadening the Scope of Human Trafficking Research: A Reader by Nichols Andrea J. & Heil Erin C

Author:Nichols, Andrea J. & Heil, Erin C.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Carolina Academic Press
Published: 2016-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

Part II: The Default Victim, Erasing Race, and Masking Racism

Due to its covert and high-risk nature, statistics and figures on human trafficking are difficult to obtain. A frequently cited source from Duren Banks and Tracey Kyckelhahn (2011), two Bureau of Justice statisticians, is the “Characteristics of Human Trafficking Incidences, 2008–2010.” In their report, Banks and Kyckelhahn found that “confirmed sex trafficking victims were more likely to be white (26%) or black (40%)” (p. 1). The number of confirmed Black victims of sex trafficking totaled 161 compared to Whites total of 102 (Banks and Kyckelhahn, 2011, p. 6). However, race and gender were separated in this report, so it is not known how many of these totals of confirmed sex trafficking cases were men or women, or their individual ages.

Age is particularly important because the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) considers anyone under the age of eighteen to be a victim of trafficking without the requirement of showing proof of force, fraud, or coercion (OCMTP, 2015; Phillips, 2015). However, trafficking victims under the age of eighteen are still arrested for prostitution, despite not being of legal age to consent to such activities. It is touted within the United States that children are to be considered special cases and victims due to their need to be protected. Unfortunately, teens and children are still arrested for engaging in acts of prostitution; the majority of them are Black youth under the age of eighteen:

In the United States, Black youth account for approximately 62 percent of minors arrested for prostitution offences even though Black youth only make up 13.2 percent of the population ... It appears that for Black girls, however, the label of “victim” is not only rebuttable, but is also never presumed to begin with (Phillips, 2015, p. 1645).

Age is codified into trafficking law as a significant factor for discerning of victimhood (Phillips, 2015), but Black youth are at a greater risk of being criminalized. Race, as well as other identities such as class and sexual orientation, serves to hinder pathways to victimhood and increase likelihoods of further victimization and criminalization.

The question is then, why are certain groups so disadvantaged within anti-trafficking efforts? One answer is the how the evolution of the definition of “slavery” and “slave” has influenced the current anti-trafficking movement. Simply put, the history of trafficking of citizens within its own borders has fluctuated dependent on pervasive fears around threats to the hegemonic moral order of racial purity, sexual danger, and public outcry to control these menaces. Even after the official abolishment of chattel slavery, there were still exploiters and pimps who profited from forced labor and prostitution, with a significant representation of people of Color (Pliley, 2014). A second possible answer is the influence of Radical and Liberal feminisms on movements against gender violence, of which sex trafficking is considered a manifestation. Specifically, these groups ignore intersectionality within the context of sex trafficking, resulting in the marginalization of women of Color in such movements.

The term “slave” has gradually evolved since the mid-nineteenth century though it is still racially coded.

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