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Celebritizing Sex Crime: Awareness Raising, Strategic Framing, and Carceral Compassion in Antitrafficking Campaigns

Sun, August 17, 12:30 to 1:30pm, TBA

Abstract

In light of the increasing "celebritization" of the trafficking movement and the rapid expansion of legal regimes criminalizing an increasingly wide range of activities under the rubric of "trafficking," the power of strategic framing to mobilize popular sentiment, political support and resources for antitrafficking activities cannot be understated. Drawing on field research exploring antitrafficking campaigns in the US and the Greater Mekong Subregion and theoretical insights from cultural criminology and social movements, this article examines the portrayal of human trafficking in activists' awareness-raising campaigns, investigative journalists' reports, “real crime” television shows, and docu-dramas to determine how different framing strategies influence public policies related to trafficking and associated issues. I investigate how some portrayals of migrant criminality, transborder crime, and prostitution in representations of trafficking can exacerbate social anxieties and fear of crime, legitimating “tough on crime” approaches to trafficking, undocumented immigration, and the sex industry--even as advocates and policymakers promote a new discourse of "carceral compassion" concerning certain trafficked persons. The article illustrates how changing conceptions of the “trafficking victim” mobilize new technologies of governance designed to manage the risks posed by traffickers as well as their victims. These trends in the representation and appointment of trafficking discourse reveals the ascendancy of carceral approaches to trafficking (as opposed to alternative models of social empowerment or economic justice), as well as the internationalization of efforts to “govern” in a variety of dimensions through the regulation of sex crime.

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