Citation

Brennan D. Sex Res. Social Policy 2008; 5(4): 45-61.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, National Sexuality Resource Center)

DOI

10.1525/srsp.2008.5.4.45

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article considers how, in the United States, a rhetorical and policy shift that focuses on domestic youth in prostitution affects the broader effort to fight trafficking of foreign nationals in industries other than sex work. Common sense suggests that with resources directed toward finding domestic youth in forced prostitution, fewer efforts will be made to reach foreign workers exploited in work sites outside of the sex industry. The author contends that the low numbers of individuals found thus far in forced (nonsexual) labor nationwide have been, in part, a consequence of not looking. This article also examines a number of factors that prevent migrant workers who have experienced a range of exploitation from coming forward about these abuses. In an environment of undocumented migrants' increasing distrust of law enforcement, there are many challenges to finding individuals who are subject to forced labor.