Redirecting the Debate over Trafficking in Women: Definitions, Paradigms, and Contexts

This article asserts that the narrow portrayal of trafficking denies the complexity of the problem by focusing mainly on women and children recruited for the purpose of prostitution. The author provides an overview of the experiences of women who are trafficked or forced into labor/slavery-like practices. She then surveys international anti-trafficking law and proposed changes and ends by analyzing the interaction between international anti-trafficking law, domestic immigration policies and anti-prostitution laws. The analysis demonstrates that the capacity of international law to combat trafficking and forced labor/slavery-like practices turns on its ability to respond to the complexities of the range of circumstances that characterize experiences faced by victims. [Descriptors: Migration - Trafficking, International]