Migrant Sex Workers: An Analysis of Transnational Crime Displacement and Antitrafficking Measures

Abstract

The objective of this study is to examine South Korea’s nationwide antitrafficking measures that were implemented after the introduction of the Act on the Punishment of Intermediating in the Sex Trade, which has resulted in transnational crime displacement. The paper introduces the transnational crime displacement phenomenon in human trafficking and smuggling for sexual exploitation. It reviews transnational crime displacement cases in the areas of drug trafficking, terrorism, and the sex trade. Following this is a discussion about the data source and its findings: the secondary data analysis of a survey of 1,078 Korean sex workers. The results are mixed, but multivariate logistic regression series do support that transnational crime displacement in the sex trade and human trafficking occurred after the nationwide antitrafficking efforts in South Korea. Finally, the authors discuss the implications for theory and policy so as to improve our understanding of transnational crime displacement, the current antitrafficking policy, and of control efforts from an international perspective.

• crime displacement
• migrant sex worker
• transnational human trafficking

Notes

1. 1. A note on language: in this paper, we use the terms “prostitution,” “commercial sexual exploitation,” “sex industry,” and “sex work” and we recognize the fact that all of this language is highly problematic. For example, the use of the term “prostitute” and even “prostitution” is viewed by many as a denigrating word used for women (or men) who are forced into selling sex through poverty and exclusion, while the use of the term “sex worker” is viewed as dignifying an activity that reflects and compounds women’s oppression. In this paper, we use the terms commonly found in the field. We want to acknowledge that better and more appropriately descriptive language of criminal commercial sexual exploitation is needed for use in the field and by researchers, and this will be a subtext of this paper.

2. 2. In practice, the conceptual and legal distinctions between smuggling and trafficking often become intertwined. As the U.S. Department of Justice’s report (2006, p. 10) indicates, “Smuggling may turn into trafficking when smugglers extort their victims to force them to work until the smuggling debt is repaid.” Moreover, ambiguities and tensions intensify when discussions turn to the smuggling of sex workers and trafficked women. Clearly, those who were previously engaged in prostitution, or who were smuggled as sex workers, are unlikely to be considered victims because of their consent to the illegal border crossing and working in the sex trade (Lee, 2007). However, it is worth noting that neither the 2000 UN Protocol’s international definition of trafficking in persons, nor the U.S. TVPA’s definition of severe forms of trafficking, requires the victim’s movement. Therefore, the critical ingredients needed to meet the definition of trafficking in persons are the presence of exploitation and coercion. In fact, many smuggled individuals, after having arrived at their destination, find themselves locked into cycles of violence, exploitation, and abuse (Bhabha, 2005).

3. 3. HDI refers to the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index, which is a far more comprehensive statistic than per capita GDP. In 2011, Korea’s relatively high HDI value of 0.897 ranked it 15th of 187 countries (hdrstats.undp.org/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_KOR.html).

4. 4. (Lee, 2008).