Authors: Clancey, A., & Mahon, F. (2020)
Anti-Trafficking Review, (15), 171-175. https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.2012201512.
Abstract:
Response to the ATR debate proposition ‘It is worth undermining the anti-trafficking cause in order to more directly challenge the systems producing everyday abuses within the global economy.’
United States: Amnesty International, 2005.
Description:
Nearly four decades after Stonewall, and despite significant progress in the recognition of human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, the targeting of LGBT individuals for police abuse and misconduct remains a persistent and widespread problem in the US. In this book, Amnesty International documents a serious pattern of police abuse and misconduct including: profiling and discriminatory enforcement of certain laws and ordinances against LGBT people; sexual, physical and verbal abuse, including incidents constituting torture or ill-treatment; and, failure to respond or inappropriate response to “hate crimes” and domestic violence.
Fitzgerald, Erin; Patterson, Sarah Elspeth; Hickey, Darby; Biko, Cherno and Tobin, Harper Jean.
Meaningful Work: Transgender Experiences in the Sex Trade
National Center for Transgender Equality. Dec 2015.
Description:
A report by the National Center for Transgender Equality, Best Practices Policy Project, and Red Umbrella Project that details transgender experiences in the sex trade, including interactions with the police (pp. 9, 17, 26-29) and experience with incarceration.
Young Women’s Empowerment Project, YWEP, 2009.
Description:
We do not deny the fact that girls in the sex trade face violence. We decided that we would do this research to show that we are not just objects that violence happens to- but that we are active participants in fighting back and bouncing back. We wanted to move away from the one-dimensional view of girls in the sex trade as only victims to look at all aspects of the situation:
violence, our response to the violence, how we fight back and heal on a daily basis. We want to build our community by figuring out how we can and do fight back collectively and the role of resilience in keeping girls strong enough to resist.
Young Women’s Empowerment Project (YWEP) 2012.
Description:
The Bad Encounter Line was developed in response to the research. In the research, we saw that girls were facing tons of violence every day, and the highest number of them came from institutions. Everyone collectively knew that we wanted to find ways to fight back, and the idea of warning girls and making a form that girls could share how they fought back was one of our first goals. We use the BEL as a way to warn youth about experiences with institutional
violence. The goal is to inform youth and strategize ways to use harm reduction with institutions if they still need services. This process can also help youth find other ways to take care of themselves without needing to use institutions. We use the information from the data to guide our campaigns that directly help change the way systems work.
Authors: Soon Kyu Choi, B. Wilson, J. Shelton, G. Gates
Los Angeles: The Williams Institute with True Colors Fund and The Palette Fund. 2012.
Abstract:
This report summarizes findings from the 2014 LGBTQ Homeless Youth Provider Survey, a survey of 138 youth homelessness human service agency providers. The survey explored LGBTQ youth access to services, the needs of LGBTQ youth, and reasons for success in serving LGBTQ homeless youth.
Meredith Dank, Jennifer Yahner, Kuniko Madden, Isela Banuelos, Lilly Yu, Andrea Ritchie, Mitchyll Mora, Brendan Conner
Urban Institute. February 25, 2015.
Abstract:
Based on interviews with 283 youth in New York City, this is the first study to focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) youth; young men who have sex with men (YMSM); and young women who have sex with women (YWSW) who get involved in the commercial sex market in order to meet basic survival needs, such as food or shelter. The report documents these youth’s experiences and characteristics to gain a better understanding of why they engage in survival sex, describes how the support networks and systems in their lives have both helped them and let them down, and makes recommendations for better meeting the needs of this vulnerable population.
Authors: Dank, M.; Yu, L.; Yahner, J.; Pelletier, E.; Mora, M.; Conner, B.
Urban Institute, Sept 2015
Abstract:
This report focuses on LGBTQ youth who become involved in the commercial sex market to meet basic survival needs, describing their experiences with law enforcement, the criminal justice system, and the child welfare system. Interviews with these youth reveal that over 70 percent had been arrested at least once, with many reporting frequent arrest for “quality-of-life” and misdemeanor crimes other than prostitution offenses. Youth described their experiences of being cycled in and out of the justice system as highly disruptive and generating far-reaching collateral consequences ranging from instability in the home and school to inability to pay fines and obtain lawful employment. This report is part of a larger three-year Urban Institute study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) youth; young men who have sex with men (YMSM); and young women who have sex with women (YWSW) engaged in survival sex.
Ric Curtis, Karen Terry, Meredith Dank, Kirk Dombrowski, Bilal Khan
Sponsored by the National Institute of Justice. 2008.
Description:
For the purposes of this study, commercially sexually exploited children are defined as juveniles (18 and under) who perform sexual acts in exchange for money, drugs, food or shelter. According to researchers and child advocates, the CSEC issue mostly affects: runaway and homeless youth who trade sex as a means of survival; children who have been sexually, physically and emotionally abused; juveniles with minimum education who are unable to find legitimate employment; and children who are vulnerable and easily controlled and manipulated by an adult looking to make a profit. This study of commercially sexually exploited children in New York City, and the City’s response to the problem, conducted by the Center for Court Innovation and John Jay College of Criminal Justice (see Volume Two for the background to the project), hopes to provide an empirical foundation that will better inform policy makers, professionals, researchers and advocates about the extent and nature of the problem.
Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women, 2018.
Description:
The report details the ways in which sex worker rights organisations are creatively responding to violence, exploitation and other abuses within the sex industry, including instances of human trafficking. The report is based on research conducted with sex worker organisations in seven countries: Canada, Mexico, Spain, South Africa, India, Thailand and New Zealand.
It highlights cases where sex workers, or sex worker organisations, resolved issue of exploitation and violence by working as a collective, providing advice to other organisations and leading negotiations with third parties. Beyond support for individual cases, this report also documents how sex worker rights organisations mobilise sex workers and their allies to resist stigma, discrimination and oppression, and to collectively voice their concerns, demand their rights, and participate in public and political life. It also covers the relationship between sex workers and sex worker rights organisations and the anti-trafficking movement.
Ultimately, the report demonstrates that sex worker rights organisations are human rights organisations whose primary mandate is to ensure that the human, economic, social, political, and labour rights of the people they work with are recognised and respected by state and non-state actors. It includes country-level and global conclusions and recommendations for policy makers.
TheSwitch 