Table Of Content“A powerful analysis of dominant narratives about human trafficking, revealing
how these stories produce problematic, narrow images of a range of actors –
women, migrants, governments, NGOs, consumers, corporations, activists, etc. –
while all too often conflating sex work and trafficking. O’Brien deftly illuminates
how global positioning, race, ethnicity and gender work to construct simplistic
ideas about the ideal victim as a passive young woman, the villain as the foreign,
and the hero as western, and argues convincingly for a diversification of these
images and the production of counter-narratives that can render more realistic
and accurate depictions. A highly accessible book that urges us to think carefully
about matters of agency, complicity, and social responsibility – a must-read for any
student or activist concerned about human trafficking.”
—Kamala Kempadoo, Professor of Social Science,
York University, Canada
“In this enthralling book, Erin O’Brien creates a compelling analysis of the
most common stories about human trafficking as told by Western governments,
NGOs and through media and entertainment channels. These stories feature
blameless victims, evil traffickers and heroic Western actors, but through
O’Brien’s expert dissection she enables us to see clearly the limits of such
uncomplicated tellings and to question the policy approaches and activism
which emerge in their wake.”
—Gillian Wylie, Assistant Professor, International Peace Studies,
Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Challenging the Human Trafficking
Narrative
What is the moral of the human trafficking story, and how can the narrative
be shaped and evolved? Stories of human trafficking are prolific in the public
domain, proving immensely powerful in guiding our understandings of
trafficking, and offering something tangible on which to base policy and action.
Yet these stories also misrepresent the problem, establishing a dominant narrative
that stifles other stories and fails to capture the complexity of human trafficking.
This book deconstructs the human trafficking narrative in public discourse,
examining the victims, villains and heroes of trafficking stories. Sex slaves,
exploited workers, mobsters, pimps and johns, consumers, governments and
anti-trafficking activists are all characters in the story, serving to illustrate who
is to blame for the problem of trafficking, and how that problem might be
solved. Erin O’Brien argues that a constrained narrative of ideal victims, foreign
villains, and western heroes dominates the discourse, underpinned by cultural
assumptions about gender and ethnicity, and wider narratives of border security,
consumerism, and western exceptionalism.
Drawing on depictions of trafficking in entertainment and news media,
awareness campaigns, and government reports in Australia, the United Kingdom
and the United States of America, this book will be of interest to criminologists,
political scientists, sociologists and those engaged with human rights activism
and the politics of international justice.
Erin O’Brien is Senior Lecturer in the School of Justice, Faculty of Law,
Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Dr. O’Brien’s current research
examines political activism and policy making on irregular migration, labour
exploitation, and sex work. She is the lead author of The Politics of Sex Trafficking,
and co-editor of Crime, Justice, and Social Democracy.
Victims, Culture and Society
Edited by: Sandra Walklate
University of Liverpool, UK and Monash University, Australia
Kerry Carrington
Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Concerns about victimisation have multiplied over the last fifty years. Victims,
Culture and Society explores the major concepts, debates and controversies that
this concern has generated across a range of disciplines, but particularly within
criminology and victimology. As the impact of globalisation, the movement
of peoples and the divergences between the global north and the global south
have become ever more apparent, this series provides an authoritative space for
original contributions in making sense of these far reaching changes on indi-
viduals, localities and nationalities. These issues in their very nature demand an
interdisciplinary approach and an interdisciplinary voice outside conventional
conceptual boundaries. Victims, Culture and Society offers the space for that voice.
Each author will adopt a strong personal view and offer a lively and agenda set-
ting treatment of their subject matter. The monographs will encompass a transna-
tional, global or comparative approach to the issues they address. Examining new
areas of both empirical and theoretical inquiry, the series offers the opportunity
for innovative and progressing thinking about the relationship between victims,
culture and society. The books will be useful and thought provoking resources for
the international community of undergraduates, post-graduates, researchers and
policy makers working within the broad field of victimisation.
Governing Child Abuse, Voices and Victimisation
The Use of the Public Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in Christian
Institutions
Jodi Death
Cultural Practices of Victimhood
Edited by Martin Hoondert, Paul Mutsaers and William Arfman
Challenging the Human Trafficking Narrative
Victims, Villains and Heroes
Erin O’Brien
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Victims-Culture-and-Society/book-series/VICS
Challenging the Human
Trafficking Narrative
Victims, villains and heroes
Erin O’Brien
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2019 Erin O’Brien
The right of Erin O’Brien to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-85897-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-71759-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For Evelyn and Henry
Contents
Acknowledgements x
1 Introduction: the narrative code 1
2 Telling trafficking stories 18
3 From sex slaves to migrant men 33
4 Ideal and invisible victims 55
5 Pimps, johns and mobsters 73
6 Heroic consumers 96
7 Everyday activists and action heroes 116
8 Government heroes and villains 135
9 Conclusion: narrative evolution 157
Index 165
