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What does policy have to do with it? The political economy of Latino sex trafficking in the United States

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Abstract

Core countries, such as the United States, have created economic and trade policies which encourage Latino migration for cheap, exploitable labor and new demands for Latino sex trafficking within the United States to serve new destination male migration communities. This theory-building exercise utilizes world system and intersectional theoretical frameworks to examine the implications of geo-political policies and unequal development on lived experience affected by the intersection of massive Latino migration; poverty; gender inequalities and vulnerabilities; and Latino sex trafficking. A feminist political economy theoretical analysis is essential to a more sophisticated understanding of the historical socio- and geo-political effects of hegemonic modern world system core policies on new destination Latino migration and the lives of Latina women trafficked for sexual exploitation.

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Notes

  1. This partiular case was studied as a part of my dissertation research focusing on the social construction of Latino sex trafficking in new destination areas of the United States, which was submitted August 2014.

  2. In 2006, the Government Accountability Office [27] released a report critiquing the methods used by the US government and non-government agencies to measure the number of victims of sex trafficking both nationally and internationally and the accuracy of the statistics which resulted from these methods. Also, I agree with Feingold (2010) in his characterization that determining to extent of any number of ‘underground trades’ is difficult and care should be taken to not accept these statistics as inalienable facts and further mischaracterizations of these crimes. It is important though that researchers continue to refine research techniques to gather a better picture of the extent of sex trafficking.

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  1. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA

    Lauren Copley

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Copley, L. What does policy have to do with it? The political economy of Latino sex trafficking in the United States. Crime Law Soc Change 62, 571–584 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-014-9542-6

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