Responding to Human Trafficking

Signed into law in 2000, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) defined the crime of human trafficking and brought attention to an issue previously unknown to most Americans. But while human trafficking is widely considered a serious and despicable crime, there has been far less consensus as to how to approach the problem—owing in part to a pervasive emphasis on forced prostitution that overshadows repugnant practices in other labor sectors affecting vulnerable populations. This talk examines the complicated ways in which cultural perceptions of sexual exploitation and victimhood inform the U.S. implementation process as well as more local responses to trafficking in Maine and New England. Particular attention will be paid to how the anti-trafficking response impacts the survivors of trafficking whom it is intended to protect.

ASSIGNED READING
Alicia Peters, Responding to Human Trafficking: Sex, Gender, and Culture in the Law (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015/2018)

RECEPTION
5 p.m. in Global Plaza, Innovation Hall