1. The Baby Prostitute Next Door:
The Trafficking Victim in Three Acts
Kate D‟Adamo
Thesis Workshop; N. Kruscheva
Fall, 2011

2. Outline
 Introduction and Background
 What is trafficking?
◦ Trafficking as Cultural Myth: Explanation of what it means to have
a concept as cultural myth, and the impact on it.
◦ Trafficking as Narrative: Beyond simply a concept, the idea of
trafficking has formed into a more complete story, and the
presence of narrative has had a definitive impact.
◦ Trafficking as Propaganda: This narrative, while neutral as a story,
has also been utilized by agents looking to push a legislative and
cultural agenda.
◦ Trafficking as Truth: Though these sections are loathsome, it must
be noted that despite describing the “perfect victim” narrative as a
cultural myth/propaganda, this is not to say that stories are
untrue, but instead incomplete to describe the phenomenon.
 The Relevance of the Trafficking Victim
◦ Construction of the Pathetic Victim Narrative and its place in
Trafficking Propaganda

3. Outline, cont.
 Timeline of Anti-Trafficking Narratives in the
US
◦ White Slavery (1903-1915)
 Urbanization and Immigration
 Nascent Feminism and Purity Reformers
 Mann Act (1913) and its Effects
◦ Foreign Cargo (1990 – 2006)
 Internationalization
 Second Wave Feminism and the criminalization of
alternative sexualities
◦ Baby Prostitutes (2007 – present)
 Globalization
 Backlash of third wave feminism
 Criminalization of sex and youth

4. Methodology
 Comparative Case Studies
◦ Review the three periods of anti-trafficking
discourse in the US, with reference to the
European/International movement
◦ Look at media, discourse, and related
legislation for patterns and similarities
◦ Analyze these patterns through contextual
analysis
◦ Understand the differences through other
cultural factors of
globalization/internationalization, sexuality
and feminism

5. Period White Slavery Foreign Cargo Baby Prostitutes
Time Period 1910 – 1915 1990s - 2006 2007 - Present
Legislation Mann Act/White Slave Act (1913) TVPA (2000) End Demand (IL, CO; 2010)
Description of Rural, moving to urban female. East Asian or Eastern European, usually Young female, often suburban and
Victim Naïve. White. have gender disparity in country. Young, naïve or urban and poverty-stricken.
female. Naïve as a result of desperate
poverty.
Description of Foreign john who might visit a Foreign man or network of men moving - Domestic, neighbor, “John”
Villain white prostitute. women and then “enslaving” them. - “Pimp” of color
Preceding Factors - State run brothels/system of - COYOTE, sex worker rights - RI Criminalization of indoor sex
re: Prostitution prostitution movement (1970s) work
- ACT UP, HIV & LGBTQ rights - “Swedish Model”
Feminism/Sex - Beginning of the feminist - Coming off of the anti-prostitution - Backlash against increased
Discourse movement in both Europe defeats of the 1980s. sexuality
and the US. - Second wave feminism is ending, - 1990s – Third Wave Feminism
- Purity movement third wave is still in nascent stages.
Global factors - Growing immigration - Ending of Vietnam, Soviet Union - Rise of Multi-polar world
- Low-wage to meet - Increase in immigration for - Decline in migration as issue
industrialization needs alternative reasons - Failure to pass CIR
- Push to cut back foreign policy
Internal Cultural - Industrialization - Cultural clashes with growing NIS - Economic decline/Cuts in
Factors - Rural to Urban migration population internal economic funding
growing - Economic bubbles and boom - Increased policing of female
sexuality, spec. youth
Major Groups - International Bureau - Coalition Against Trafficking in - CATW
behind “anti- - International Abolitionist Women (CATW) - Sanctuary for Families
trafficking” Federation - Shared Hope International
Major Groups Left - Was never inclusive - Migrants who show agency - Boys/Trans persons
out - Domestic sex workers - Other industries

6. White Slavery (1903-1915)
I say, yes, let her go free
when she can return to this
little girl her virtue ; when she
can turn the clock back and
make this little girl as pure in
mind and body as she was
before she was taken to this
resort. But this she cannot
do. A wrong has been
committed. She has taken
from this girl that which can
never be restored, her
chastity, her honour and
purity.
Roe, Clifford Panders and Their White Slaves (1910)

7. Timeline of White Slavery
 Prostitution pre-1903: Internationally, multiple European
countries have policies to promote the use of brothels
and the institutionalization of concubinage in newly
colonized areas
 1903: International Purity reformers reach the US and
seek expansion of their work in Europe
 1907-1910: Peak of media surrounding white slavery.
 1913: The White Slave Trafficking Act is passed, which
includes criminalization of moving single women across
state borders. It if the first time the federal government
has addressed domestic prostitution in their laws.
 1915: Multiple reports emerge which show that claims
of white slavery have been highly exaggerated. As
World War 1 begins, international concerns shift off of
domestic ones and the movement loses steam

8. Creation of a White Slave
 George Kibbe Turner. "The Daughters of the Poor: A Plain
Story of the Development of New York City as a Leading
Centre of the White Slave Trade of the World, under
Tammany Hall." McClure's Magazine 34 (November 1909).
 Kaufman, Reginald Wright. The House of Bondage.
Moffat, Yard and Company: New York, 1911.
 Traffic in Souls, directed by George Loane Tucker (1913;
Independent Moving Pictures Co. of America)
 Roe, Clifford. Panders and Their White Slaves. Fleming H.
Revell Company: New York, 1910)
 Bell, Ernest [Secretary of the Illinois Vigilance Association].
Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls (Fredonia Books, 2002)
Originally published 1910
 White Slave Traffic Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2421–2424 (1910)

9. Creation of a White Slave
 Irish/English female (Agnes, Henrietta, Mona)
 Roughly 19 – 20 years old
 Rural upbringing (Illinois, Pennsylvania, Minnesota)
◦ New immigrant from Northern Europe (Traffic in Souls)
 Usually a Jewish pimp tempting them (sometimes
French)
 Naïve of alcohol, are usually tricked into imbibing
 Seeking a husband, which is the impetus to their move
to the city
 Clients, when portrayed, are usually Italian and Chinese
 Story ends with either her innocence being restored
through prosecution of traffickers, or the rejection by
society because of her lack of innocence

10. Creating the White Slave:
Cultural Factors
 Industrialization and migration
◦ Rural to Urban migration leads to an
increase in women traveling and living
independently, often disrupting the family
structure in more rural, lower-income
areas.
◦ Urban areas began seeing increases in
international immigrants responding to
increasing industrialization. Ellis Island is
ten years into its peak years of receiving
and processing new migrants.

11. Creating the White Slave:
Feminism and Purity Reform
 Multiple new groups and activists around purity
reform and growing feminism which focused on
prostitution as the most important issue to tackle.
These groups joined together on prostitution as
the nexus issue of their work.
◦ International Bureau
◦ International Abolitionist Federation
◦ Josephine Butler (European)
 The growing trend of feminism is spreading
through upper and middle class women in both
Europe and the United States, contributing to a
shift in the prostitute being represented as sullied
woman to prostitute as victim of circumstance
and trickery.

12. Foreign Cargo: 1990-2006
I met Srey Neth, a lovely, giggly wisp
of a teenager, here in the wild
smuggling town of Poipet in
northwestern Cambodia. Girls here
are bought and sold, but there is an
important difference compared with
the 19th century: many of these
modern slaves will be dead of AIDS
by their 20's.
Nicholas Kristoff, Girls for Sale, New York Times, January 17, 2004

13. Timeline of Foreign Cargo
 1989: Collapse of the Soviet Union
and creation of NIS States
 2000: US Federal government passes
the Trafficking Victims Protection Act
(TVPA), the UN passes their Protocols
on trafficking (Palermo Protocol)
 2000: R2P is institutionalized in 2000
with ICISS‟s formation/release of “The
Responsibility to Protect”

14. Unpacking the victim
 Lilya 4 Ever. DVD. Directed by Lucas Moodysson. (Memfis Film:
Sweden, 2002.)
 Nicholas Kristof Pieces from the New York Times, 2004
◦ Kristof, N. D. (2004, January 24). Bargaining for Freedom. The New York
Times.
◦ Kristof, N. D. (2004, January 17). Girls for Sale. The New York Times.
◦ Kristof, N. D. (2004, January 17). Girls for Sale. The New York Times.
◦ Kristof, N. D. (2004, January 24). Going Home, With Hope. The New York
Times.
◦ Kristof, N. D. (2004, January 28). Loss of Innocence. The New York Times.
◦ Kristof, N. D. (2004, January 31). Stopping the Traffickers. The New York
Times.
 Bucharest Express. DVD. Directed by Chuck Portz. (2004)
 Sex Slaves. Frontline. Public Broadcasting Station. 7 February 2006.
 Trafficking Cinderella. Directed by Mira Nia (2000).

15. Unpacking the Victims
 Late teens, early 20s and female
 Women, generally from NIS States
◦ Lesser proportion from Eastern Europe
 Stricken by poverty
 Told they will be waitresses or topless
dancers in a new country
 Trafficked by rings of men from the NIS
States
 Often end in the contracting of HIV/AIDS
either through unprotected sex or IV drug use
 In best case scenarios, they are repatriated o
their country of origin.

16. Unpacking the cargo:
The US and the world
 A growing and thriving economy meant that there was
ample opportunity for international economic migration
into the US. One element of this was the creation of
temporary worker visas, which created a state-
sponsored circular migration system.
 Increase in attention to state control of migration. Five
of the most wide-reaching immigration bills were
passed in the 30 years leading up to this wave,
including the definition and policy for acceptance of
refugees and the repeal of the quota system, which had
specifically minimized the numbers of migrants coming
from Asia.
 Populations from Eastern Europe were migrating into
the US, including a number of unaccompanied women.

17. Unpacking the Cargo:
Feminism and Sexual Freedom
 By 1990, second wave feminism was in full swing, with many of the same
advocates both leading the movement and pushing an anti-trafficking agenda,
including Kathleen Barry, Catherine McKinnon, and Dorchen Leighthold, founder
of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW).
 These same organizations had recently seen the end of their movement to
increase criminalization around pornography, a relationship which led to a close
partnership between strongly conservative religious organizations who shared
their anti-porn focus. It is right on the heels of this failure that the focus shifted to
prostitution and trafficking.
 CATW was a leading influence for both the Palermo Protocols, and the TVPA.
 Additionally, much of this work came directly on the heels of increased
recognition, but decreased protection of LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS rights. While
community groups such as ACT UP were in the height of their actions, the
government was systematically marginalizing sexual freedom with cases such as
Bowers v Hardwick, 1986.
 In an interesting nexus of the issues, Washington state passed a law criminalizing
the distribution of sexually explicit material to minors after ACT UP had passed out
500 illustrated packets on safer sex practices to high school students.

18. Saving the Victims: The TVPA
 Criminalized the labor or sexual exploitation of anyone using
force fraud or coercion.
 Criminalized minors involved in sex work.
 Instituted the T-Visa, which was to be used for survivors of
trafficking to stay in the country to testify against their
traffickers. While the numbers of possible victims ranged in
the hundreds of thousands, the number which could be
received per year was capped at 5,000, as congress feared
that the visa would be exploited.
◦ To receive a T-visa, the individual was required to act as a
material witness and support the efforts of the investigation.
During this time, they are held in immigration detention centers,
and a failure to cooperate to the fullest will result in the rejection
of their visa application, or a rescinding of their recommendation
from the supporting department. The visas remain skewed
towards passive victims who never attempt escape, and are
rescued by law enforcement. As law enforcement chooses which
cases to pursue and which not to, recipients are highly skewed
towards women from the sex industry.

19. Saving the Victims: The TVPA
 The TVPA, created out of the pathetic
victim narrative, reinforces this structure
in its text and execution.
◦ Women
◦ Sex Industry
◦ Willing and ready to testify against traffickers
◦ Passive until law enforcement arrives, has
made no attempt to escape
 If she escape, she must immediately leave the
country of her own volition
◦ Need/Want to repatriate
◦ No previous crimes, work in the sex industry

20. Baby Prostitutes Next Door
Many of us have been exploited by our peers,
society and often by the people that we trust.
When we're the most vulnerable pimps attack,
promising us stability, a family life, a future.
They reel us in. He becomes our father, and our
boyfriend, until we see what he really wants.
Then he intimidates us and reminds us
constantly about the consequences if we leave.
Most tell us that they'll find and kill us, no matter
where we go. We're afraid of being afraid.
Resources are limited and many of us do not
see a way out.
Anonymous, GEMS website

21. Baby Prostitutes: Media
 Very Young Girls (2007)
◦ Documentary featuring Rachel Lloyd, director of Girls Education and Mentoring Services (GEMS), a
non profit which works with cis-female-identified trafficking survivors.
 Trade (2007)
◦ Narrative film starring Kevin Kline where he saves a 13 year old Mexican girl from border-based
trafficking ring.
 Taken (2008)
◦ Narrative film starring Liam Neeson as a retired spy who must save his 17 year old daughter from an
Albanian trafficking ring.
 CNN‟s Project Freedom: Ending Modern-Day Slavery (2010)
◦ CNN‟s pet advocacy project which posts short narratives of individual instances of “modern-day
slavery.” While the stories have begun to diversify, most involve the sex industry and almost all
“solutions” involve invading and forcibly “rescuing” sex workers from brothels. In the nascent stages
of this project, reporters targeted their attacks almost exclusively on Craigslist. Section includes a
“How you Can Help” which promotes donating to charities, learning about trafficking, and teaching
others about trafficking. Most of the organizations listed are expressly anti-prostitution.
 Call + Response (2008)
◦ It is promoted as a documentary, but includes primarily staged footage, interviews with prominent
academics, and assorted celebrity musical numbers to raise awareness about trafficking incite
people to act, often using additional networks of media. The project itself also presents a
complication of both functioning an independent NGO, though it was originally funded by the State
Department, who is charged with addressing trafficking domestically.

22. Creating a Baby Prostitute
 Minors, the younger the better
 Either young women of color from urban areas, or white
young women from middle/upper-middle class homes
 Young WOC are often driven to prostitution through
desperate circumstances, street-based living, and drug use. If
white, they are drugged and abducted, or lured with the
promise of rebellion into the city.
 More frequent discussion of a pimp who directly interacts with
the victim, as opposed to the previous era where the
traffickers were more removed from the activities.
 Instead of brothel-based work (as in the previous era), street
and online-based prostitution are the main methods of
engagement.
 Clients are more frequently discussed, and are more often
described as domestic men. Terminology changes to focus on
“Johns.”

23. Creating a Baby Prostitute:
Globalization and the Turn Inward
 The financial crisis of 2008 forced the US to turn its focus to
domestic policies, especially those which addressed domestic
poverty.
 An increasingly multi-polar world is leading to new pushes to
change foreign policy strategy. Scaling back and re-focusing
on the challenges at home are all major themes.
 Despite its prominence in rhetoric, Comprehensive
Immigration Reforms fails to become an important agenda
item for the Obama administration.
 Migration discussions regarding the Financial Crisis note that
while there is no mass exodus, there is a noted emigration to
home countries, and migrants are choosing not to come into
the US.
 Attack ads begin on the temporary worker program,
demanding that US jobs be held be US-born workers and the
country rescinds the program to keep out new economic
migrants.

24. Creating a Baby Prostitute:
Feminism, Sex, and Youth
 While second wave feminism has been
collapsing in on its anti-sex self, its
reactionary forms of feminism (ie. Lipstick
feminism) are finding a strong backlash.
 Criminalization of sexuality, especially around
youth, is still a prominent subject. The 2000s
saw a proliferation of state bills which
increased the age of consent for minors
(predominantly young women), while at the
same time the lowering of ages prosecuted in
criminal court as adults (and the increased
criminalization of younger and younger men).

25. Saving Baby Prostitutes: End
Demand
 End Demand Legislation higher criminalizes the procurement
activities not just around minors, but all sex workers. Policies
are state-based.
 Falling within this method is also the criminalization of third
parties who work or live with the sex industry as “pimps,”
including advertisers, taxi drivers, landlords, partners and
adult children.
 While it is promoted as “saving the victim” while trying to
criminalize the patron, all laws passed and promoted in the
US have neglected to decriminalize sex work, even for those
under the age of 18.
◦ After an End Demand-style law was passed for New York City,
rates of arrest for patronizing a prostitute declined while arrests
for loitering and soliciting for the purpose of prostitution increased
in records amounts in almost every borough.
 State-wide End Demand legislation was passed in Colorado
and Illinois in 2010.

26. Baby Prostitutes: The Harms of a
Pathetic Victim
 Important Populations Left out: A recent study of street-
based, youth populations engaged in sexual exchange found
that half identified as male. Young men as well as trans youth
are often specifically excluded from support and service
programs which serve “trafficking victims.” Both populations
are more likely to face criminalization for their behavior, which
further precludes their access to services.
 Most street-based youth lack a traditional “pimp,” meaning
not only that they are less likely to be found as a “trafficking
victim.” Additionally, friends and those who do offer support
are often arrested as a “trafficker” because of a youth‟s
default status as a trafficked person.
 Criminalization of clients and third parties not only make life
more challenging for youth, and put them into increasingly
difficult situations, but further removes some of the few
outside parties who they can reach out to when in a trafficking
situation.

27. Partial Bibliography
 Ernest A. Bell, The Truth about Women in the White Slave Trade, (Brooklyn: Run For Cover!: 1910).
 Bucharest Express, directed by Chuck Portz (2004)
 Chapkis, Wendy, “Soft Glove, Punishing Fist,” in Regulating Sex: The Politics of Intimacy and Identity, ed. Elizabeth Bernstein and Laurie Schaffner,
(New York: Routeledge: 2005).
 DeStephano, Anthony M.,The War on Human Trafficking: U.S. Policy Assessed (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2007) 5-19.
 Ellul, Jacques, Propaganda: The Formation of the Attitudes of Men (New York: Vintage Books: 1965)
 “Films on Human Trafficking,” UN GIFT, accessed 10/31/11, http://www.ungift.org/knowledgehub/media/films.html.
 Grittner, Frederick K., White Slavery: Myth, Ideology, and American Law (New York: Garland Publishing, 1990) 61 – 64.
 Kloer, Amanda, “10 Human Trafficking Films to Watch,” Change.org, January 06, 2009, accessed October 16, 2011, http://news.change.org/stories/10-
human-trafficking-films-to-watch.
 Limoncelli, Stephanie, The Politics of Trafficking: The First International Movement to Combat the Sexual Exploitation of Women (Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 2010) 42.
 “Recommended Books and Films,” Demand Abolition, accessed 06 October 2011, http://www.demandabolition.org/learn-and-act/build-
expertise/recommended-books-films/.
 Roe, Clifford Panders and Their White Slaves (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company: 1910)
 “Sex Slaves,” Frontline, accessed 10/31/11, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/slaves.
 Srikantiah, Jayashri “Perfect Victims and Real Survivors: The Iconic Victim in Domestic Human Trafficking Law,” Boston University Law Review, 87:157
(2007) 187.Srikantiah, “Perfect Victims,” 195-196.
 Turner, George Kibbe, “Daughter of the Poor: A Plain Story of Development of New York City as a Leading Center of White Slave Trade of the World,
under Tammany Hall,” A Mead Project, accessed 10/31/11, http://www.brocku.ca/MeadProject/Turner/Turner_1909b.html.
 Traffic in Souls, directed by George Loane Tucker (1913; Independent Moving Pictures Co. of America)
 “Traffic in Souls,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_in_Souls (Accessed 11/30/04)
 Trafficking Cinderella, directed by Mira Nia (2000)
 Meyers, Diana Tietjens, “Two Victims Paradigms and the Problem of „Impure‟ Victims,” Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights,
Humanitarianism, and Development, 2:2 (2001), 258.
 Uy, Robert “Blinded By Red Lights: Why Trafficking Discourse Should Shift Away from Sex and the „Perfect Victim‟ Paradigm” Berkeley Journal of
Gender, Law and Justice 26:1 (2011): 208.