TOWARD TRAUMA-INFORMED PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES: WHAT LEGAL ADVOCATES AND JOURNALISTS CAN LEARN FROM EACH OTHER AND SURVIVORS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING (2020)
Developments in the fields of law and journalism during the last two decades have led to greater awareness of the need for trauma-informed practices vis-à-vis survivors of violence, and correspondingly, the emergence of pedagogical resources for legal advocates and journalists. Due to traditional disciplinary silos, extant resources on trauma-informed practices in each field have been authored in relative isolation from each other, i.e., guides for legal advocates have been blind to guides for journalists and vice versa. This Article demonstrates that despite the obvious differences between lawyering and journalism, professionals in these two fields share some of the same aims as they interact with survivors of human trafficking in the course of their work, beginning with the shared aims of fact-finding and truth-telling. They also take on the role of representing the experience and perspective of survivors to others, albeit in distinct arenas. Because of those common aims and roles, this Article contends that lawyers and journalists also face similar challenges and risks—to themselves and to the survivors with whom they interact and represent—as they attempt to be trauma-informed in their work. Relatedly, many survivors of human trafficking have reported being retraumatized by their interactions with both lawyers and journalists. Drawing on multiple genres of publications and firsthand accounts, this Article interleaves insights from extant resources on trauma-informed practices from the fields of legal advocacy, prosecution, and journalism—and from survivors themselves—in order to articulate foundational practices that have potential to be beneficial to both professions, and to survivors.
Citation: Foot, K. (2020) ‘Toward Trauma-Informed Professional Practices: What Legal Advocates and Journalists Can Learn from Each Other and Survivors of Human Trafficking’, Georgia State Law Review, 36(4).
UNDERSTANDING RISK AND PREVENTION IN MIDWESTERN ANTI-TRAFFICKING EFFORTS: SERVICE PROVIDERS’ PERSPECTIVES (2020)
Since the 2000 passage of both the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) and the U.N.’s Palermo Protocols, human trafficking has gained a notable global presence as a human rights concern. Community organizations, nonprofits, scholars, policymakers, and service providers have developed programs to identify and address human trafficking. Despite these efforts, finding reliable methods to document and quantify the instances of human trafficking continues to challenge researchers. Moreover, many believe trafficking is a problem primarily located in urban areas or along national borders. Drawing from seven years of interviews with service providers who work in this sector, combined with survey results from an additional 722 service providers, this project adds to the growing body of research on human trafficking, specifically in the Midwestern United States. The findings of this study indicate that place and location matter in anti-trafficking, especially with regard to availability of and access to resources across urban and rural areas. However, these service providers also identify similar concerns across regions with regards to trafficking warning signs and risk factors—for both sex and labor trafficking—as well as community resources that could prevent trafficking or alleviate vulnerability. These findings point toward the benefit of research that is geographically focused and involves both qualitative and quantitative research. Additionally, this research has uncovered unexpected groups of community members that may be vital in the identification and prevention of human trafficking. Though there is a growing body of research about the role of medical practitioners, law enforcement, foster care workers, and social workers in the struggle to address trafficking, there are other groups that also have important insight into the risks their communities face. Interviews revealed that firefighters have particular relationships with the communities they serve and may be ideally positioned to address human trafficking, exploitation, and vulnerability because of these relationships.
Citation: Britton, H. (2020) ‘Understanding Risk and Prevention in Midwestern Anti-Trafficking Efforts: Service Providers’ Perspectives’, Georgia State Law Review, 36(4).
Uncovering the “Hidden Crime” of Human Trafficking by Empowering Individuals to Respond (2020)
This Note will examine current state law promoting awareness of human trafficking and identification of trafficking survivors in the United States and make recommendations as to what further measures, if any, state legislators should take to increase awareness, identification, and reporting of human trafficking. Part I explains the history and development of human trafficking legislation at the federal and state levels. Part II analyzes the methods that states currently use to promote public awareness and identification. Part III discusses a proposal for amending current state law to better encourage and facilitate awareness of human trafficking and the identification and reporting of trafficking survivors.
Citation: Shoop, L. (2020) ‘Uncovering the “Hidden Crime” of Human Trafficking by Empowering Individuals to Respond’, Georgia State Law Review, 36(4).
PREVENTING TRAFFICKING THROUGH NEW GLOBAL GOVERNANCE OVER LABOR MIGRATION (2020)
This Article offers initial thoughts on the possible impacts the GCM might have on global efforts to prevent and address trafficking, focusing on the newly elevated role of the IOM in this endeavor. Based on arguments I have made elsewhere, my analysis takes as a given that a normative, rights-based approach to migrant work is necessary to prevent migrant worker exploitation and abuse from escalating into trafficking. From that perspective, the Article explores the possibility that, in advising States on GCM implementation, the IOM could take a more proactive role in advancing workers’ rights in furtherance of the longer-term goal of preventing trafficking. Part I assesses the GCM’s potential for advancing the rights of migrant workers. The GCM reflects the three competing interests that typically animate migration policy: (1) concerns over border security, (2) the desire to derive labor market benefits from economic migration, and (3) the imperative to protect migrants’ rights. Whether and to what extent migrant workers are sufficiently protected against exploitation will turn on how States balance these competing concerns. Empowered to guide States in their efforts to implement the GCM, the IOM will play a crucial role in helping to translate GCM norms into State practice. Part II analyzes the IOM’s operational history and structure for insights into how the IOM might balance the GCM’s competing concerns in its efforts to advise States on GCM implementation. The IOM’s checkered history and its unique status as a non-normative, U.N.-related organization show a tendency to prioritize States’ concerns over border security and labor market access above those regarding migrant welfare. In contrast, the IOM’s recent efforts to promote ethical recruitment standards suggest the possibility of IOM assuming a more proactive stance towards migrant workers’ rights protections going forward. Part III explores these efforts, situating them within broader development debates over whether and to what extent rights tradeoffs are necessary—or acceptable—to maximize the development gains from migration. In advising States on GCM implementation, how IOM responds to pressures to trade rights for labor market access will surely test IOM’s professed commitment to ethical recruitment frameworks. Its response could prove to be a bellwether of IOM’s broader approach to balancing migrant worker welfare interests against the GCM’s other competing interests in border security and labor market access. In this environment, close scrutiny and strong advocacy by rights advocates will be necessary to fully realize the GCM’s—and the IOM’s—potential to advance migrant workers’ rights and prevent trafficking.
Citation: Chuang, J. (2020) ‘Preventing Trafficking Through New Global Governance over Labor Migration’, Georgia State Law Review, 36(4).
FOREWORD: PREVENTING HUMAN TRAFFICKING (2020)
Although prevention is the ultimate goal, it has rarely received top priority in anti-trafficking responses. To address this, the Georgia State University Law Review’s 2020 Symposium—“Prioritizing Prevention in Human Trafficking: Research, Innovation, and Advocacy”—brought together some of the leading thinkers (and advocates) on human trafficking and tasked them with exploring how the field can move toward prevention. The result is an invaluable collection of articles. This foreword outlines the articles, which explore a breadth of critical issues, from understanding the root causes of human trafficking, to sector-specific initiatives, to the challenge of building a comprehensive, integrated response.
Citation: Todres, J. (2020) ‘Foreword: Preventing Human Trafficking’, Georgia State Law Review, 36(4).
Preventing Human Trafficking: Positive Deviance Methodology in Practice (2015)
This paper, jointly authored by NEXUS Institute and Fafo, is intended as a resource for practitioners working in the field of trafficking prevention, as well as others who are considering implementing a positive deviance methodology or similar approach. We discuss our experiences in developing and implementing a positive deviance trafficking prevention project in a town in Albania. First we offer an overview of the positive deviance methodology; then we outline potential and previous uses of positive deviance in the trafficking field; next we provide a description of the pilot prevention project in Albania; and finally we explore some overarching issues and considerations in using positive deviance to prevent trafficking, highlighting both potential opportunities and limitations. We end with an annotated bibliography that offers a list of literature and resources on positive deviance methodology generally, as well as specifically in terms of its application in the field of human trafficking.
Citation: Brunovskis, A. and R. Surtees (2015) Preventing Human Trafficking: POsitive Deviance Methodology in Practice. Oslo, Norway: Fafo and Washington, D.C., United States: NEXUS Institute.
Reframing Trafficking Prevention: Lessons from a “Positive Deviance” Approach (2015)
This study discusses our piloting of a project to prevent human trafficking utilizing the positive deviance approach. For this pilot project, NEXUS Institute and Fafo partnered with the Albanian anti-trafficking NGO Different & Equal (D&E), thereby bringing together both research and practice in collaboratively developing and implementing this project. Our interest in the positive deviance approach emerged from learning about its previous application in the prevention of trafficking of girls into the sex industry in Indonesia. Having conducted research on trafficking in many different countries and regions, one of our general observations over time has been that what works in one context may not be equally successful elsewhere. We were, therefore, interested to see if this approach (positive deviance) could potentially be used more broadly – in this case in another geographical, social and economic environment, as well as adapted to adult trafficking victims and victims of trafficking for labor as well as sexual exploitation.
Citation: Brunovskis, A. and R. Surtees (2015) Reframing Trafficking Prevention: Lessons from a “Positive Deviance” Approach. Oslo, Norway: Fafo and Washington, D.C., United States: NEXUS Institute.