CRJ 500: International Sex Trafficking of Women & Children: Discussion Questions

Following is a series of questions based upon your reading assignments from the required text; The International Sex Trafficking of Women and Children: Understanding the Global Epidemic by Leonard Territo and George Kirkham (Eds.). These questions may be brought up in class, or you may see them as part of assigned discussions.

1. What was the aim of the research for this paper?

2. What five regions of the United States were selected to gather information for this study?

3. What regional variations exist in the sex business in United States, i.e. street prostitution, excort services, massage parlors, etc.?

4. What are the backgrounds of women in the sex industry in the United States?

5. What does the profile look like for recruiters, traffickers and pimps relating to the sex industry in the United States?

6. What are the most common methods of recruitment for sex trafficking in the United States?

7. What are the most common methods of movement of women for sex trafficking into the United States?

8. What are the methods of initiation employed on women who are trafficked into the United States?

9. What methods of control are employed in the sex industry?

10. What are the profiles of men who buy women for prostitution?

11. What are the health implications of women who have been trafficked?

12. What are the principle methods of coping and resistance employed by women who are trafficked?

13. What recommendations were made regarding education and public awareness if the sex traffic trade?

14. What were the facts of the Cadena sex trafficking case?

15. What was the one trait shared by all of the women in the Cadena sex trafficking case?

16. Given the trauma suffered by these victims and their ongoing need for security, the research phase of interviewing these victims had numerous protective measures. What were they?

17. Why were all the victims in this case from Mexico and how was the Cadena family able to exploit them?

18. How did the first contact with the victims usually occur and where did they occur? 

19. What type of contact did the victims have with public life upon arriving in the United States?

20. What were the overwhelming needs of the victims after they were liberated?

21. As a result of the social and exonomic upheavals accompanying the fall of Communism and various regional wars, sex trafficking has grown dramatically in the Eastern European countries formerly part of the Soviet sphere of influence. What has been the effect on towns in Albania, Moldova, southern Bulgaria and Romania?

22. Why are many Albanian familes reluctant to send their daughters to distant schools for education?

23. What have been the implications of the departure of large numbers of men from albania?

24. Although laws give women equal rights with men, implementation has been limited and traditional patriarchal customs continue to devalue women, especially in rural areas. What were some examples provided by the authors to support this assertion?

25. What difficulties do many Albanian women face when they escape from prostitution and return to their communities?

26. What role do the Albanians play in human trafficking in varous parts of Europe?

27. What educational effords have been made to educate Albanian women to the dangers of human trafficking? 

28. The experiences in Albania and other countries point out some important lessons and challenges in addressing the complex problem of sex trafficking. What were these lessons and challenges?

29. With rural young women at heightened risk communicating with rural residents is both especislly important and challenging. The rural patriarchal culture that limits the decision making ability of young women poses continuing problems. What recommendations where made by the authors to reduce this heightened risk. 

30. What is the estimated dollar value of the global trade in women as commodities as for sex industry?

31. What is the relationship between the collapse of the Soviet Union and the sex traffic trade?

32. What are some of the most common methods of recruitment traffickers use?

33. Transnational crime networks take advantage of the patterns of migration to traffic women. What examples were provided by the author?

34. What are examples of the types of health problems and emotional trauma many of these women face once they've been forced into prostitution?

35. What types of profits do traffickers and pimps make from prostitution?

36. What happens to the money made by the criminal networks?

37. What are the most crucial factors in determining where trafficking will occur?

38. In a recent multi-country study on trafficking a number of health issues were linked to the direct effect of trafficking. What were they?

39. What is the position of POPPY on prostitution?

40. What services are provided by POPPY to women who have been trafficked?

41. What types of special services are provided to trafficked women? 

42. What are the three phases of the resettlement process? 

43. What three types of trafficking were studied in this article?

44. What is a kijichon?

45. What are some of the common names used by US troops for "comfort women?"

46. Why did the philippine government support and facilitate the overseas employment of their citizens?

47. What arguments were provided by the Korea Special Tourism Association as to how prostitution provided protection from GI harassment of Korean women? 

48. Law enforcement officials described a nationwide network of massage parlors in the United States as having a "layered business structure." What does this mean?

49. What explanation was provided as to why 80% of all marriages between US servicemen and Korean women ended in divorce?

50. What was the primary purpose for sham marriages to GIs?

51. Since it is a violation of the US military code of conduct for American service personnel to use the services of a prostitute, why is the violation almost never enforced or prosecuted?

52. What reasons were cited by American law enforcement agencies for the lack of enforcement on massage parlors which were often used as fronts for prostitution? 

53. What types of girls are most often trafficked to India?

54. What ways were employed as a means to draw girls into the sex trade?

55. What is life like in the brothels? 

56. Three major processes were involved in returning the girls home. What are they?

57. Where do most women trafficked in China come from? 

58. Why are North Korean women crossing the border into China generally more vulnerable to trafficking?

59. The core principle of an effective anti-trafficking strategy is the protection of the victims. How does China treat these victims from North Korea?

60. How has globalization contributed to human trafficking?

61. Broadly conceptualized, what does human trafficking include?

62. How does the World Bank define corruption?

63. What is a conservative account of the number of people trafficked to all parts of the globe? 

64. What is the WOTCLEF?

65. It is an unfortunate fact that some law enforcement agents in whom women should place their trust do not make things any easier? What specific examples were provided in this research paper to support this statement?

66. What are a couple of instruments that can be used to measure the relationship between corruption and human trafficking?

67. What are some useful ways of tackling corruption in human trafficking?

68. From the 19th century to the 1970s feminists ideas of prostitution were consistent. What were they?

69. What is a COYOTE?

70. What are the justifications for prostitution? 

71. What do WHISPER and SAGE stand for?

72. The integral links between prostitution and violence in using women in prostitution includes several forms of male sexual violence. Which ones were discussed?

73. The male sexual behavior involved in using women in prostitution includes several forms of male sexual violence. Which ones were discussed?

74. What is the relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and prostitution?

75. How does the practice of dissociation work in conjunction with prostituted women?

76. What are the causes and extent of the internationalization of prostitution?

77. How has warfare emerged as a force in human trafficking? 

78. What is the implied hypothetical suggestion by the author regarding the possible outrage of western men confronted with changes in the status of women resluting from the womens liberation movement in their countries and the desire to use foreign prostitutes as mail order brides?

79. Why are Russian women so vulnerable to trafficking?

80. Human Rights Watch report explains that men's use of women in prostitution is often a death sentence for the women. Why is this so?

81. What was the original reason for the construction of the massive sex industry in the Philippines? 

82. Why was prostitution tourism promoted by the government in the Philippines? 

83. How has the author suggested that sex tourism can be ended?

84. Who is it that uses children sexually when traveling overseas?

85 .What is the difference between a preferential child molester and a situational child molester?

86. What is the link between tourism and the sexual exploitaiton of children?

87. Hiew notes that research provides evidence of a relationship between situational factors and a variety of deviant and anti-social behaviors through the process of deindividuation. What does he mean by this? 

88. What evidence is there to suggest that boys are also being used for sex? 

89. Why was it suggested that there are consistent reports of increasing demands for sex with children? 

90. What has occurred to cause the prevalence of child sex tourism to relocate to Central American countries?

91. Who are the key players in the child sex industry?

92. What are the factors contributing to child sex tourism?

93. What are some of the current efforts by the international community to curb child sex tourism?

94. Why do children have a greater risk of contracting AIDS than adults?

95. What are the estimates of the number of women and children who are trafficked every year from Southeast Asia and where are most of them trafficked to?

96. What are the consequences of trafficking

97. How do sex work and trafficking in Thailand work?

98. What has Thailand done to attempt to halt trafficking

99. What is the difference between trafficking versus sex work?

100. What are the most common methods used to combat trafficking in Thailand? 

101. What are the implications of trafficking for social workers?