Sexual Violence against Smuggled Migrant Women: A Sequence of Violence from the Arizona-Mexico Border to Kentucky

• In Event: Immigration, Violence, and the Significance of Gender

Abstract

This paper documents the problem of sexual violence against smuggled migrant women; specifically, revealing the sequence of sexual violence against smuggled migrant women throughout the migration process, including on their journey to the Arizona-Mexico border, during their trek across Arizona’s Sonoran desert, in Arizona’s drop houses, and on their sojourn to Kentucky. Relying upon qualitative data from interviews with 44 individuals from 28 organizations/agencies (i.e., federal and local law enforcement agencies, consulates, and migrant advocacy NGOs) in Arizona, Sonora, Mexico, and Kentucky we are able to reveal the sequence of sexual violence, as well as risks of sexual violence that migrant women may not fully recognize.

Authors

• Robin N. Haarr, Eastern Kentucky University

• Scott Hunt, Eastern Kentucky University