Cyprus and the Global Polemics of Sex Trade and Sex Trafficking

• Published date: 01 September 2013
• Author: Angelo G. Constantinou
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567713501517
• Date: 01 September 2013
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article
International Criminal Justice Review
23(3) 280-294
Cyprus and the Global
ª 2013 Georgia State University
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DOI: 10.1177/1057567713501517
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Sex Trafficking: Colonial and
Postcolonial Connections
Angelo G. Constantinou1
Abstract
This article problematizes the burgeoning transnational attempts to homogenize the ways in which
national authorities deal with prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes. The case of
Cyprus is used as a paradigm where local socioeconomic, geopolitical, and historical parameters
indicate that they cannot be sidestepped for the purpose of implementing offshore legislations and
policies on commercial sex and human trafficking and that often enough draw upon different
interests and aim toward different ends. Rather, as is the case of Cyprus, the regulatory approach to
prostitution (that exists since the colonial epoch) allows the state to assume an ambivalent stance
toward the local sex industry and its negative corollary (sex trafficking) for the purpose of ‘‘facil-
itating’’ revenue enhancement. As such, neither the abolition nor the legalization of prostitution can
effectively deal with the issue in hand. That said, any adamant argument in support of either approach
is unquestionably, subject to criticism.
Keywords
Cyprus, human trafficking, prostitutional regulation, colonial, postcolonial
Despite of their long preexistence, the issues of sex trade and human trafficking (especially for
sexual purposes) have become the epicenter of attention since the closing of the past century. The
globewide attempt of feminist groups to define, advocate, measure, and ‘‘control’’ the sex trade, and
as a consequence the trafficking in humans, has brought to the fore particular legislations, policies,
and practices whose very basis lies in geopolitical and socioeconomic national interests. This article,
via the exploration of the case of Cyprus, considers these issues and posits them in context with the
island’s colonial past. The examination of the latter aids us in better understanding the implemen-
tation of ambivalent past and current policies to regulate traded sex and counteract sex trafficking. In
all, it is argued that complex and intertwined factors ultimately render Cyprus’ official discourse to
1 Department of Police Studies, School of Economics and Management, Open University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus
Corresponding Author:
Angelo G. Constantinou, Department of Police Studies, School of Economics and Management, Open University of Cyprus,
Nicosia, Cyprus.
Email: s0678037@ed-alumni.net

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Constantinou
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‘‘curb’’ the sex trade and sex trafficking problematic. Also, it is underscored that colonial construc-
tions of prostitutional policies by the metropolis (Britain) and the periphery (Cyprus) are still rele-
vant in today’s domestic politics on prostitution and sex trafficking.
Sex Work Versus Prostitution
At present, feminist movements and their supporters are caught in two main contradictory dog-
mas. The one holds that female prostitution is detrimental to individuals who practice it, hence
should be banned (Barry, 1979; Dworkin, 1981; Jeffreys, 1997), whereas the other opposes such pro-
hibitions and argues for a more liberal approach, the stipulation of prostitution as regulated sex work
(Chapkis, 1997; McLeod, 1982; Sullivan, 1997). Much academic discussion and political confron-
tation have surfaced over this antithesis that seems to be a priority in the feminist agenda on a global
scale nowadays, often producing more heat than light.
Indeed, prostitution is not a homogeneous phenomenon worldwide and demands analysis that
takes into consideration various relevant local and particular aspects. While it is one thing to talk
about Cambodian prostitutes who have been sold to a brothel keeper and fear for their lives while
forced to have unprotected sex (Marten, 2005); it is another when dealing with elite prostitutes in
California who consider their profession a lucrative business (Lucas, 2005), Melbournian students
who prefer to engage in prostitution because it is flexible and highly profitable (Lantz, 2005), and
middle-class Canadian high school students who engage in it to obtain trendy merchandise (Azam,
2009). A prostitute’s vulnerability and potential for risk or harm is circumstantial, temporal, and
situational, depending on the degree to which funds are needed.
In fact, prostitution subsists due to both micro and macro interwoven factors. A meta-analysis of
prostitution research findings depicts that individual experiences or traits such as mental illness, abu-
sive childhoods, defective familial relations, and juvenile delinquency as well as structural elements
such as poverty, gender inequality, political instability, unemployment, and inadequate education
are involved in leading some women toward prostitution (Cusick, 2006). As these factors might
be intertwined with how gender is dealt with in the respective societies (Raymond, 2004), economic
asymmetries between nations, social groups, and individuals, must not be left unexamined.
The antidote to exploitative prostitution is unlikely to be found in legislative frameworks, such as
conservative policies in Sweden that penalize clients, or the Dutch liberal approach to sex entrepre-
neurship. The issue of prostitution is a much-perplexed one, entrenched in social, cultural, and eco-
nomic apparatuses. It is not solely confined to issues of supply and demand, or gender and sexuality
manifestations, but in economic interests supported by global capitalism too.
As it is true that male sexual demand propels prostitution, it should also be apparent that oppres-
sive global economies—that benefit from toiled and impoverished nations—produce an increasing
number of women who offer it. In one way or another, transactions of the ‘‘exploitative’’ sort will
always be accomplished insofar as there are consenting actors that—although exploited—profit and
benefit from such actions, whether they are of a sexual, domestic, or menial nature. This is a thesis
held by feminist groups who appear to be unallied with both proprostitution and antiprostitution
groups and ‘‘straddle in the middle’’ (Bertone, 2004, p. 18).
Sex Politics and Prostitutional Approaches
Dominant feminist circles tend to unfailingly disregard the multilayered character of human traf-
ficking. Hence, the burgeoning feminist tendencies to solely concentrate on the dualism of prostitu-
tion versus sex work. It is often argued that Western feminist movements known as ‘‘first world,’’
appear to dictate ‘‘third world’’ governing politics and policies regarding prostitution (Doezema &
Kempadoo, 1998), a notion that is not new, given that inaugural action toward curtailing prostitution

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International Criminal Justice Review 23(3)
and the White slave trade originated in the western hemisphere (Bertone, 2004). No doubt, debates
regarding the abolition of prostitution or its decriminalization remain intense, and opposing feminist
groups have long been engaged in political discussions, activism, and lobbying, often being able to
influence international and national legal actions toward human trafficking (Outshoorn, 2005), ren-
dering, thus, human trafficking and prostitution ambiguously connected (Munro, 2005).
As such, depending on which view on prostitution is more prevalent and how the former is locally
politicized, state administrations appear to adopt a scale of policies whose context falls under four
taxonomies; namely, regulation, decriminalization, legalization, and prohibition (Matthews, 2008,
p. 95), usually reflecting either or both liberal and conservative domestic attitudes on sex. As a
result, national discourses oscillate between policies that focus on sex workers’ protection, apathy,
neutrality, or suppression of demand for paid sex. For instance, in Australia and New Zealand, pros-
titution is decriminalized (i.e., devoid of any laws or regulations), whereas in Sweden, Norway, and
Iceland, paying for sex is prohibited. By contrast, in the Netherlands and Germany, commercial sex
is legalized, and sex enterprises adhere to legal stipulations. In Cyprus, like England,1 prostitution
is to some extent regulated; nuisances accrued from prostituted spaces,2 procurement,3 public soli-
citing for the purposes of prostitution,4 and all sorts of pertinent commercial undertakings are pena-
lized,5 rendering only individual and volitional prostitution as not illegal. However, the regulationist
approach of Cyprus neither penalizes nor legalizes prostitution per se. On the contrary, it allows
authorities to maintain an ambiguous stance toward commercial sex (an endorsement that gives way
to unrestrained clandestine functions within the entire domestic sex industry), and in a way, to
nurture the political economy of sex. While it is true that when considering the political economy
of sex, other issues such as gender, class, and race play a major role, it is also true that the role
of the state and its structural impact are no less important (Altman, 2001, p. 34).
The very existence of different models of human trafficking is a testament to how circumstances
(created by sociopolitical and economic driving forces) shape the various formulations of the traf-
ficking in humans. A case in point is Shelley’s (2003) reference to different models of trafficking in
humans (the natural resource, the trade and development, the supermarket, the violent...