ABSTRACT
Sex trafficking may be a benchmark for assessing peace as a broad-based and sustainable societal “state of well-being” where both social justice and the absence of violence are included in the definition of peace. Siddarth Kara describes camps he visited in Thailand where the persecuted indigenous Karen hill tribes have fled military oppression, rape, incarceration, and murder. According to the National Center on Sexual Exploitation’s project stoptraffickingdemand.com, many practices reported by performers who have left the industry could easily fit this definition, particularly the fraud and deception elements as well as the payments to achieve consent for the purpose of exploitation. Peace and conflict studies activists and scholars looking for the cause of violence are like fish swimming around looking for water. Democracy rests on the twin pillars of peace and justice. Fear, domination, and control destroy caring, empathetic connections, and foster dispassionate psychic isolation and authoritarianism, the ultimate political expression of patriarchy.
