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3. The Market Metaphor
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3 The Market Metaphor An international mechanism to monitor trends and patterns of trafficking in persons needs to be established with the object of continuing data collection of the sort gathered in the present survey (data on legal and institutional frameworks; criminal justice statistics; and victim service information). Such a mechanism also could work toward gathering more information on the market context for these crimes, including data on price and demand. Coordinated efforts require collective information systems, and the global struggle against trafficking in persons needs knowledge to inform strategic interventions. —United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons (2009, 12) The anti-trafficking sector represents a tremendously diverse constellation of actors that include Christians and feminist groups who seek to abolish prostitution, state officials who are concerned with controlling borders, activists who seek to legalize migration and sex work, and aid workers who frame trafficking in terms of development and human rights. This heterogeneity is truly remarkable yet often remains unacknowledged . Underlying this diversity are several common denominators that are expressed through legal binaries and a market metaphor. I described these commonalities in chapter 1 as three concentric circles, consisting of a dyadic power relationship between a victim and a perpetrator at the center, organized crime as the middle circle, and a crossborder marketplace as the outer circle. This chapter deals with each in turn. the market metaphor : 51 Dyadic Power Relationships—Victim and Perpetrator In an important study on law enforcement and social control in Western societies, David Garland (2001, 11) draws attention to how the victim has become a central trope in public policy: The victim is no longer an unfortunate citizen who has been on the receiving end of a criminal harm, and whose concerns are subsumed within the “public interest” that guides the prosecution and penal decisions of the state. The victim is now, in a certain sense, a much more representative character, whose experience is taken to be common and collective, rather than individual and atypical. Whoever speaks on behalf of victims speaks on behalf of us all—or so declares the new political wisdom of high crime societies. Publicized images of actual victims serve as the personalized, real-life, it-could-be-you metonym for a problem of security that has become a defining feature of contemporary culture. This explains in part why media stories on human trafficking focus on victims. This tendency has come under criticism, and several commentators (e.g., Agustín 2007; and Frederick 2005) are correct in highlighting the well-meant but unfortunate tendency to assume migrants’ and sex workers’ lack of agency and to consequently project a victim identity onto them. By the same token, it is also common— though rarely commented upon—to elevate traffickers to a perfected omnipresent and powerful entity resembling a shady Nietzschean Übermensch. The assumptions are that traffickers are well organized , they are calculating, they adapt to situations, they are global, they run highly professional cartels, and their profit exceeds those of most other economic enterprises (Phongpaichit 1999; Salt and Stein 1997). In short, whereas the victim is portrayed as unaware, innocent, and weak, traffickers are imagined as evil, dominant, cunning, and all-knowing. Where do such imageries of traffickers and victims come from? One would perhaps think that such information would be found in court cases. Although the number of prosecutions of traffickers has increased worldwide over the last few years (UNODC 2009), case studies—pre- [44.222.113.28] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 11:45 GMT) 52 : chapter 3 sented in trafficking workshops, training manuals, or media stories— constitute the main source of descriptions of traffickers and victims.1 The following case study is typical: Sonia began working as a prostitute in a Latin American country when she was evicted from home at the age of 14. She tried to get other jobs as well, but always returned to prostitution. When she was 17, a taxi driver invited her to go to Europe. The taxi driver said she was very pretty and would make a fortune if she moved to Europe and worked there. With her looks, he said, she could probably work as a model, and he would take care of all the arrangements. Sonia was very tempted but still afraid. After a while she accepted his offer. It took him a month to arrange everything for her. Three other girls went with her. When they got to Europe, another taxi driver took their...