Sex Trafficking Into The United States: A Literature Review

• Author: Edward J. Schauer,Elizabeth M. Wheaton
• Date: 01 June 2006
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016806290136
• Published date: 01 June 2006
• Subject Matter: Articles

146

Sex Trafficking Into

The United States:

A Literature Review

Edward J. Schauer

Prairie View A&M University

Elizabeth M. Wheaton

Temple University

This study is an investigation of the literature relating to the trafficking of women and children

into the United States for sexual exploitation. The intent is to discover the extent and com-

plexity of the problem, the cost in both human and economic terms, and research directions

toward the development of probable political, legal, economic, and social solutions. A subject

rife with research possibilities and probable solutions, trafficking is poorly defined, differen-

tially and intermittently quantified, and handicapped by obsolete legal codes and a sexist pros-

titution enforcement paradigm. Recommended are state statute creation, police training and

paradigm change, and increased/broadened victims’ services.

Keywords: sex trafficking; economics; sex work; feminism; United States

The United States of America ranks as the world’s second largest destination/market

country (after Germany) for women and children trafficked for purposes of sexual

exploitation in the sex industry (Mizus, Moody, Privado, & Douglas, 2003). By conserva-

tive estimates, there are 18,000 persons trafficked into the United States per year. Ninety-

six percent of these are females, and almost half are children (both males and females;

Mizus et al., 2003). Some estimates are as high as 50,000 persons trafficked into the United

States annually. The CIA estimates that 700,000 people are trafficked annually worldwide

(Office on Violence Against Women [OVAW], 2000).

The U.S. government defines trafficking as a modern type of slavery. It is estimated that

between 100,000 to 150,000 persons, mainly women and children, are kept under slavery

in the United States. Slavery, again conservatively estimated, controls the lives of three mil-

lion persons worldwide.

Human trafficking and sexual exploitation are “part and parcel” of the larger worldwide,

and exponentially increasing, slave trade. Trafficking is slavery because it includes fraud or

extortion in recruitment and coercion, restraint, gang rape, threat of physical harm, loss of

liberty, and loss of self-determination on arrival in the destination industry. Incidence of

slavery, in its sex trafficking form, appears to be directly correlated with the increasing uni-

versal marginalization of women.

Criminal Justice Review

Volume 31 Number 2

June 2006 146-169

© 2006 Georgia State University

Research Foundation, Inc.

10.1177/0734016806290136

http://cjr.sagepub.com

hosted at

http://online.sagepub.com

Authors’ Note: An earlier version of this article was presented to the Annual Meeting of the Academy of

Criminal Justice Sciences, Chicago, in March 2005.

Schauer, Wheaton / Sex Trafficking Into The United States 147

Initially the authors believed that the issues relating to the trafficking of children would

prove to be similar to those relating to the trafficking of adult women. However, after

further investigation, it appears that although the logistics of international trafficking are

similar for both women and children, the attendant circumstances of children in their source

countries, the logistics of their travel (e.g., usually accompanied by bogus “parents”), and

the milieu of a well-established commercial child sexual exploitation industry in the United

States argue for a separate research agenda for each, while still admitting areas of overlap

(cf. Estes & Weiner, 2001).

The merger of the interests of criminal justicians and economists in this study should

come as no surprise: Criminal justicians themselves describe the interrelated crimes of traf-

ficking, prostitution, extortion, and slavery in economic terms. We assert that worldwide

slavery and human trafficking cannot be greatly affected without changing worldwide eco-

nomic convention.

The joint fields of juvenile justice and criminal justice must become intimately aware of

the seriousness of human trafficking, its impact on human rights, and its probable future

impact on justice practice. Experts presently sense a shift in international crime: International

criminals appear to be increasingly shifting from drug trafficking to human trafficking.

Profits from human trafficking are higher, the humans are easier to move and store, and

there are fewer risks incurred in the practice of human trafficking over drug trafficking.

It is therefore possible, maybe even probable, that human trafficking will supercede drug

trafficking as the Number 1 international crime within the next 10 years.

Method

This study represents an attempt to bring together the scientific literature available in the

English language on the subject of sex trafficking of women into the United States for the

purpose of illuminating trafficking’s negative impacts; the need for further research and

lawmaking; for insight into improving interdiction, enforcement, and prosecution of traf-

fickers; and for knowledge relating to the victims’ needs for support and services. Many

documents exist on the subject, produced by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and

by governmental agencies; however, most of this information is at best “allegorical” in

nature, and some are produced with decided political or dogmatic bias. It is difficult to sort

out the proverbial wheat from the chaff in the process of reading and reviewing the mass of

these documents to discover their scientific and legal value.

On the other hand, there exists a small, growing body of scientific literature, yet this does

not as yet display a disciplinary concentration or orientation. A few articles are found in the

criminal justice, legal, and economics collections. A few more are found in the social sci-

ences and human rights fields. There is a modest collection in the field of women’s studies.

And the U.S. government has commissioned several scientific studies to bolster its knowledge

for the purposes of lawmaking, interdiction, enforcement, and victim rescue and services

(viz., Estes & Weiner, 2001; Protection Project, 2002; Raymond & Hughes, 2001; Richard,

2000). Last, the International Office of Migration (IOM) has collected data and published

documents concerning human trafficking.

This study attempts to avoid the documents that are not directly related to the sex traf-

ficking problem within and relating to the United States. This is however somewhat illogical