Law Commons^™

The Harmful Prioritization Of “Sex Trafficking” In U.S. Anti-Trafficking Discourse, Spencer Pennybacker

Honors Theses

In recent years, the issue of “human trafficking,” or what some have deemed “modern slavery” has become increasingly salient in the United States. No doubt, human trafficking is a major humanitarian crisis, with the International Labor Organization estimating some 5.4 victims caught in trafficking networks for every 1,000 people in the world. And yet, the dominant discourse in the US tends to allude solely to the sex trafficking of women. This sex trafficking hysteria in the United States is the backdrop of my research.

This Senior Thesis examines how anti-trafficking organizations leave out survivors by addressing human trafficking through selective …