Prostitution and Human Trafficking

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer notes that tackling the issue of human trafficking and prostitution in Europe is a difficult one because the information available is rarely comprehensive or complete. The writer points out that prostitution is, for the most part, an underground economy, which is harder to collect statistical information about, and illegal immigrant prostitution is an even murkier research landscape. This paper attempts to deconstruct arguments made about human trafficking and prostitution in Europe. Sources used are academic texts and journals, as well as some more mainstream content. This paper imparts some idea as to how awkwardly large the question is, as well as the challenges that researchers will face when collecting data and suggesting new policies that might ease the suffering of women caught up in the vicious circles of immigrant prostitution in Europe.

From the Paper:

"Bort believes that it is important to discuss the existing correlations will help people discern how the connection of crime and illegal immigration is forged by poverty. He supports this view by discussing the issues surrounding the quality of life at two sides of a border where one nation enjoys a higher standard of living than the other, with the obvious point that the tendency is for women to be shipped west from less affluent eastern countries. Ultimately, he points to financial despair and disparity, along with cloudy ideas about border policy as being primary sources of the existing problem. The evidence he presents sounds plausible, but it is all cited as secondary sources, with little hard data for the reader to digest. Though the sources are from respectable government and academic institutions, there are no hard numbers crunched in Bort's report."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bort, Eberhard. "Illegal migration and cross-border crime: challenges at the eastern frontier of the European Union." In Europe Unbound: Enlarging and Reshaping the Boundaries of the European Union, edited by Jan Zielonka, 191-212. Oxford: Routledge, 2002.
• Feingold, David A. "Human Trafficking." In Foreign Policy, No. 150, September-October 2005, 26-32.
• Cwikel, Julie, Elizabeth Hoban. "Contentious Issues in Research on Trafficked Women Working in the Sex Industry: Study Design, Ethics, and Methodology." The Journal of Sex Research, Vol. 42, 2005. pp. 19-47.
• Mendenhall, Preston. "Infiltrating Europe's shameful trade in human beings." MSNBC, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3071965/, (accessed April 18, 2007).
• Davis, Nanette J. Prostitution: An International Handbook on Trends, Problems, and Policies. Oxford: Greenwood Press, 1993.

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