Will the Real Sex Slave Please Stand Up?

Abstract

This paper critically explores the way in which 'trafficking' has been framed as a problem involving organized criminals and 'sex slaves', noting that this approach obscures both the relationship between migration policy and 'trafficking', and that between prostitution policy and forced labour in the sex sector. Focusing on the UK, it argues that far from representing a step forward in terms of securing rights and protections for those who are subject to exploitative employment relations and poor working conditions in the sex trade, the current policy emphasis on sex slaves and 'victims of trafficking' limits the state's obligations towards them.

Shifting Sands? Consent, Context and Vulnerability in Contemporary Sexual Offences Policy in England and Wales

“…There has been a tendency to infantilise all sex workers, and in form if not in practice, the law has demanded extremely high levels of freedom from them if their clients are to avoid criminalisation. And while the recent Home Affairs Select Committee Report might be seen to mark a shift in tone, underscoring the need to "discriminate between prostitution which occurs between two consenting adults, and that which involves exploitation " (2016: 27) This arguably over-inclusive approach can be -and indeed has been -criticised by those who emphasise the complexity of the socio-economic contexts within which sex work is entered into, the continuum of conditions of choice that may pertain therein, and the myth that any one of us has unconstrained freedom (Campbell, 2013;Phoenix, 2009;O'Connell-Davidson, 2006). Moreover, even for those who see inequality as etched upon the foundations of prostitution in a way that makes consent non-sensical, there is cause for concern regarding the extent to which conferral of the status of 'vulnerable' on broad constituencies of those who sell sex has promoted any significant reduction in their precariousness.…”

“…In the past two decades, discourses of vulnerability have been laced through domestic policies on prostitution, with sex work and sex trafficking being drawn increasingly closely together and at times conflated (Carline, 2012;FitzGerald, 2011;Phoenix, 2009;O'Connell-Davidson, 2006;Brooks-Gordon, 2006). In the 'Paying the Price' consultation, for example, the UK government asserted that "vulnerability is the key" to young people's and adult's entry into prostitution, albeit acknowledging that its specific forms may differ since "for adults, economic vulnerability is likely to play as significant a part as emotional vulnerability" (Home Office, 2004: 33).…”

“…In the midst of long-standing (and often hostile) debates over the legitimacy that can be afforded to tokens of consent to prostitution made by individual sex workers (see, for example, Jeffreys, 1997;O'Connell-Davidson, 1998;Phoenix, 1999Phoenix, , 2009Campbell & O'Neill, 2006;Scoular, 2015) has been an acknowledgment on all sides of the complex conditions and constraints under which commercial sex is often sold. Though the act of selling sex itself continues to attract no criminal liability in England and Wales, there has been an increased policy preoccupation with the ways in which those who facilitate a person's prostitution and those who purchase sexual services might be held to higher account.…”

Embodiment and Abjection

“…Further debate has been generated in feminist circles which remain divided on the conflation of women who have been trafficked and sexually exploited with migrant sex workers (Agustín, 2006;O'Connell-Davidson, 2006) and the response to trafficking as a thinly veiled method for migration control (Andrijasevic, 2003(Andrijasevic, , 2010Aradau, 2008). While trafficking is clearly a form of gender based violence it has not been engaged with theoretically to the extent that other forms, such as rape during warfare, have been (Bracewell, 2000;Campbell, 2007;Diken and Laustsen, 2005).…”

Researching illegality and labour migration

“…Being undocumented, it is argued, renders migrants vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. In this way, states and some civil society actors (particularly radical feminists, anti-slavery activists, labour and migrants' rights groups), have found common ground, at least in theory, over concerns about 'traffi cking', though some academics and NGOs have also questioned its usefulness (Sharma, 2003;O'Connell Davidson, 2006).…”