ABSTRACT

Human trafficking has moved from relative obscurity to a major area of research, policy and teaching over the past ten years. Research has sprung from criminology, public policy, women’s and gender studies, sociology, anthropology, and law, but has been somewhat hindered by the failure of scholars to engage beyond their own disciplines and favoured methodologies. Recent research has begun to improve efforts to understand the causes of the problem, the experiences of victims, policy efforts, and their consequences in specific cultural and historical contexts.

Global Human Trafficking: Critical issues and contexts foregrounds recent empirical work on human trafficking from an interdisciplinary, critical perspective. The collection includes classroom-friendly features, such as introductory chapters that provide essential background for understanding the trafficking literature, textboxes explaining key concepts, discussion questions for each chapter, and lists of additional resources, including films, websites, and additional readings for each chapter.

The authors include both eminent and emerging scholars from around the world, drawn from law, anthropology, criminology, sociology, cultural studies, and political science and the book will be useful for undergraduate and graduate courses in these areas, as well as for scholars interested in trafficking.

chapter |4 pages

Introduction

part |34 pages

Critical contexts for thinking about trafficking

chapter |16 pages

Data matters

Issues and challenges for research on trafficking

part |81 pages

Key issues in trafficking research

chapter |14 pages

Sex, violence, and the border

Trafficking for sex work from Mexico to the U.S.

chapter |15 pages

Bride traffic

Trafficking for marriage to Australia*

part |45 pages

Trafficking policy: Intent and outcomes

chapter |15 pages

Clinton, Bush, and Obama

Changing policy and rhetoric in the United States Annual Trafficking in Persons Report

chapter |13 pages

On broken chains and missing links

Tackling the “demand side of trafficking”?

part |32 pages

Moving forward

chapter |12 pages

“We have the right not to be ‘rescued'…” *

When anti-trafficking programs undermine the health and well-being of sex workers**

chapter |14 pages

Nothing like chocolate

Sex trafficking and child labor trafficking

chapter |4 pages

Conclusion

The future of human trafficking research