Renewing the War on prostitution

The spectres of 'trafficking' and 'slavery

Bibliographic Data

ID2265204
AuthorsDay (0000-0002-9822-9094, Civil Service, corresponding author), Sophie Day
Year2009
Volume25
Issue3
Pages1-3
Publication date2009-06-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropology Today (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0268-540X • E-ISSN: 1467-8322
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-8322.2009.00664.x
OpenAlexW2161130406
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited5

The 1990s saw government initiatives restricting immigration in many countries, and a good deal of popular unease. Associated policies have targeted sex workers, as with the Policing and Crime Bill that is currently in its Third Reading in the House of Commons (UK). In the name of 'victims' of a trade organised by 'evil' traffickers, this Bill seeks further sanctions against all of those involved. This editorial asks whether initiatives during the current recession might not seem to succeed but for the wrong reasons. Immigrants are already leaving the UK in search of a living while local workers, who were promised safer working conditions in the wake of the murder of five women in Ipswich (2006), will be punished more and more. With its apparently humanitarian efforts to 'stop the traffic', the UK government will turn out to have replaced our 'slaves' from abroad with home-grown substitutes, and effectively solidified and further excluded an underclass. This situation suggests striking parallels with the panic over white slavery during the last comparable period of globalisation culminating in the First World War

Commons · Criminology · Economics · Globalization · House of Commons · Illegal immigrants · Immigration · Organised crime · Parallels · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sanctions · Sociology · Underclass · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk · Law · Sex work and related issues · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology

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