Multimodal Constructions of Victimization and Perpetration: A Content Analysis of Current US Anti-Trafficking Efforts

• In Event: 463 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 24. Violence Against Women Activism

Abstract

Slavery has historically existed as a global, social institution, subjugating humans to various forms of physical and sexual enslavement. Despite the manifestation of emancipatory efforts, slavery exists today at global magnitude that has been estimated to be far beyond that of any other time in history. Further, nearly 150 years after the adoption of the 13th Amendment, slavery persists in the U.S. in its modern form of human trafficking. Trafficking began gaining interest of the U.S. in the late 1990s and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act was signed into law in 2000. Gradual emergences of anti-trafficking campaigns as advocacy efforts are increasing disseminated through communicative forms beyond the traditional billboards, namely social media, public service announcements, and digital billboards.

The current research will analyze U.S.-based anti-trafficking campaigns to understand the ways in which visual and rhetorical strategies are employed as efforts to raise social awareness, alter criminal behavior, and subsequently combat modern slavery. It assesses the existence of disconnect between reality and archetypical representations of victims and perpetrators of trafficking. If trafficking is a global, social phenomenon that knows no cultural, racial, national, gendered, or sexual boundaries, then shouldn’t anti-trafficking coalitions showcase an array of victims and perpetrators in their efforts to raise awareness? Thus, this research seeks to understand two phenomena. First, how are victims and perpetrators of trafficking visually represented? Second, to what extent are the full victimization and perpetration spectrums acknowledged? Preliminary data collection and analyses has been run and findings have been reported for one campaign.

Author

• Emily Schulz, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee