Intersectional Criminology and Domestic Human Trafficking

• In Event: Roundtable: Trafficking

Abstract

Criminological scholarship on domestic human trafficking has yet to incorporate an intersectional praxis into analysis. Criminological research has rarely investigated the experiences of human trafficking, and how they are influenced by the intersections of race, class, gender, and other personal identities. Traffickers, trafficking victims, and the sociopolitical structure of the United States are rarely examined with an intersectional lens. I propose a theoretical intervention for an intersectional analysis to understand trafficking victims and traffickers. This intersectional analysis will also serve to situate them within the larger structures of criminality and victimhood in the socio-political culture of the United States.
Intersectionality proposes that the multiplicative effects of individual identities shape interactional experiences and perceptions. Intersectional criminology posits that these intersectional identities influence the perception of criminality, victimization, and criminal justice responses to crime. According to multiple scholarly and governmental statistics, people of Color compromise the majority of domestic trafficking survivors and traffickers. However, this is rarely analyzed in criminological scholarship on domestic trafficking, as well as the potential effects of other identities. This paper is a theoretical intervention on the need to analyze domestic trafficking with an intersectional framework to understand the dynamics of trafficking.

Author

• Cassandra Mary Frances Gonzalez, University of Colorado Boulder