Challenges to Reintegration: A Qualitative Intrinsic Case-Study of Convicted Female Sex Traffickers

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/15570851211045042
• Published date: 01 January 2023
• Date: 01 January 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Feminist Criminology

2023, Vol. 18(1) 24–44

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/15570851211045042

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Challenges to Reintegration:

A Qualitative Intrinsic

Case-Study of Convicted

Female Sex Traff‌ickers

Debra A. Love

1

, Annie I. Fukushima

2

, Tiana N. Rogers

3

,

Ethan Petersen

4

, Ellen Brooks

4

, and Charles R. Rogers

4

Abstract

Limited research focuses on the nature of the lived experiences of women engaged in

sex traff‌icking. This study employed qualitative methods of in-depth structured in-

terviews with 10 convicted sex traff‌ickers (ages 24–56; 100% identifying as female).

Participants’lived experiences revealed circumstances that led them to traff‌icking,

specif‌ic needs, and the stigmatization they faced after exiting economies tied to

traff‌icking. Inductive analysis yielded three key barriers to reintegration success: limited

choice; negative labeling; and unmet physical, emotional, and social needs. These

f‌indings enhance understanding of the factors inf‌luencing the successful reintegration of

convicted female sex traff‌ickers into mainstream society.

Keywords

criminality, human traff‌icking, qualitative research, sexual assault, victimization,

women’s rights

1

Department of Criminal Justice, Lone Star College–University Park, Houston, TX, USA

2

School for Cultural and Social Transformation, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

3

David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

4

Department of Family & Preventive Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

Corresponding Author:

Debra A. Love, Department of Criminal Justice, Lone Star College–University Park, Houston, 20515 TX-249

S, Houston, TX 77070, USA.

Email: drdebralove1939@yahoo.com

Introduction

The U.S. Traff‌icking Victims Protection Act of 2000 def‌ines sex traff‌icking as “the

recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting

of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act in which the commercial sex act is

induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or which the person induced to perform such an act

has not attained 18 years of age.”Any person who experiences sexual exploitation as a

child is considered traff‌icked by legal def‌inition.

Traff‌icking is diff‌icult to identify due to challenges with tracking victims, mis-

identif‌ication, plea agreements, decisions to not prosecute, and communication issues

(Jordan et al., 2013;Smith et al., 2009). Additionally, a duality in anti-traff‌icking

response creates additional barriers for traff‌icking victims by furthering the notion of a

“perfect victim”and criminalization (Fukushima, 2019). Consequently, many victims

of sex traff‌icking are arrested and prosecuted, illuminating an overlap between traf-

f‌ickers and traff‌icked victims (Mogulescu, 2012). Moreover, in cases where victims

entering the criminal justice system are seen as “sources of evidence”or “offenders,”or

when victims participated in criminalized activities, they are less likely to be identif‌ied

as victims of traff‌icking (Villacampa & Torres, 2019). Sex traff‌icking remains a

complex phenomenon with a wide range of theoretical perspectives that leads to myriad

physical, psychological, social, and f‌inancial harms (Barnert et al., 2017;Kara, 2009;

Lange, 2011;Musto, 2009;Ottisova et al., 2016;Parreñas et al., 2012).

This study focuses on convicted female sex traff‌ickers, some of whom also identify

as survivors of traff‌icking, poverty, and intersecting forms of abuse such as child abuse,

domestic violence, and assault. Treated as offenders within the criminal justice system,

they often participated in the exploitation of others. This study focuses not on the

participants’offenses but on their lived experiences and survival strategies. We rec-

ognize the dual identities of some participants as both traff‌ickers and traff‌icking

survivors; however, it is not our intent to conf‌late all traff‌ickers with victims of

traff‌icking.

Research on sex traff‌icking has largely focused on exploring male traff‌ickers’at-

titudes toward their clients and those whom they traff‌ic, their interactions with those

whom they traff‌ic, physical and sexual violence, and their perceived place in the sex

traff‌icking economy (Bales, 2005;Farr, 2005;Troshynski & Blank, 2008,2017). Few

studies have addressed the specif‌ic issues faced by convicted female sex traff‌ickers,

such as separation from family, inability to obtain other employment, poor housing

conditions, substance abuse, poor medical services, poor social skills, lack of edu-

cation, and the role of stigma in their continued marginalization after retur ning to the

community (Belenko, 2006;Bloom et al., 2003;Broad, 2015;Celinska & Siegel, 2010;

Cobbina, 2010;Davidson & Chesney-Lind, 2009;Hipp et al., 2008;Iacono, 2014;

Leverentz, 2011;Wijkman & Kleemans, 2019;Yea, 2020).

For many convicted female traff‌ickers, their victimization serves as an entryway to

the practice (Broad, 2015) and they begin selling/trading other women and children to

exit their own traff‌icking and prostitution (Iacono, 2014). Because traff‌icked women

Love et al. 25