Trafficking of women for sexual exploitation in Mexico and their identity crisis

The main objective of this paper is to explore how sexual violence and exploitation cause identity crisis among victims of sex-trafficking in Mexico. Trafficking is a widespread phenomenon, where girls and women are forced or coerced into sexual exploitation. Victims of trafficking acquire not only adverse physical health; also there is a higher impact on emotional and psychological health and leads women to an‘identity crisis'. Once they're brought into brothel, their body is controlled by pimps, and seen as a source of income through prostitution. As Bauman said; commodification and consumption of female bodies is indeed useful to explain an individual's fragile identity. Moreover, my own scholarly interest in women trafficking has led me to turn towards defining the identity crisis among these victims as it is directly related to sexual exploitation. For this study, a total of 60 women were interviewed during 2007–2013 using a snowball method.     

Girl-trafficking,HIV / AIDS,and the position of women in Nepal

This article focuses on trafficking of young Nepalese girls and women. Trafficking is an integral part of the social and economic fabric of Nepal, as in other parts of the world. The practice causes intolerable degradation and suffering for the girls and young women involved, who are treated as a commodity. It presents a risk to their physical and mental health, and in particular to their sexual health. The article examines the connections between coercive sex work and HIV infection, and community and government responses to HIV infection among trafficked sex workers. In particular, it considers the current AIDS prevention and control program in Nepal, and criticizes it from the feminist perspective of the authors, who are a Nepalese nurse who has undertaken academic work in New Zealand related to women's health, and a New Zealand feminist academic, who is also a nurse.     

“Right Here is the Gateway”: Mobility,Sex Work Entry and HIV Risk along the Mexico–US Border

Women comprise an increasing proportion of migrants. Many migrate voluntarily for sex work or practise survival sex; others are trafficked for sexual exploitation. To investigate how the context of mobility shapes sex work entry and HIV risk, during 2010 to 2011 we conducted in‐depth interviews with formerly trafficked women currently engaged in sex work (n = 31) in Tijuana and their service providers (n = 7) in Tijuana and San Diego. Women's experiences of coerced and deceptive migration, deportation as forced migration, voluntary mobility, and migration to a risk environment illustrate that circumstances resulting from migration shape vulnerability to sex trafficking, voluntary sex work entry, and HIV risk. Findings suggest an urgent need for public health and immigration policies providing integrated support for deported and/or recently arrived female migrants. Policies to prevent sex trafficking and assist trafficked females must consider the varying levels of personal agency involved in migration and sex work entry.

Policy Implications

• There is a need for coordination between public health and immigration policies to ensure that these are not at odds with one another
• Findings suggest the need for public health and immigration policies that provide integrated support for female migrants, especially trafficked women and girls
• Policy changes are urgently needed to protect deportees' health and promote their social integration
• Policies to prevent sex trafficking and assist trafficked females must consider the range of agencies involved in migration and sex work entry

     

Family financial roles assumed by sex trafficking survivors upon community re-entry: Findings from a financial diaries study in the Philippines

People who have been trafficked often face substantial financial challenges upon exiting human trafficking and re-entering the community. This article presents findings from a 6-month financial diaries study with the households of 30 women in Cebu City, Philippines, who were trafficked into sex work. Data from 352 interviews with sex trafficking survivors and their family members were utilized to explore the roles that trafficking survivors played in promoting the economic well-being of their families upon community re-entry, as well as the challenges they faced in fulfilling these roles. Findings revealed that women who were trafficked balanced multiple roles in their families—including that of income earner, household financial manager, and financial providers for the extended family. Survivors’ limited access to employment was a key barrier that impeded their ability to achieve financial stability for themselves, their children, parents, and other family members. The employment status of trafficking survivors affected numerous crosscutting factors—including the extent to which they were able to control household finances, redistribute income to their parents, and leave violent relationships. Findings reinforce the importance of safe, sustainable employment opportunities for the security and well-being of trafficking survivors and their families.     

Hospital Health Provider Experiences of Identifying and Treating Trafficked Persons

ABSTRACT

Over the past 20 years, human trafficking (“trafficking”) has generated much public attention throughout the world. The problem has received growing media coverage and increased anti-trafficking activism. Additionally countries have created new policies, laws, and enforcement mechanisms to tackle the problem. This micro level study examined the lived experiences of 22 health and allied health workers situated within St Vincent’s Health Australia’s Melbourne facility, and reports on their identification, assessment, treatment, and outreach to trafficked persons. The results indicated that trafficked persons were predominantly invisible within the health setting. When practitioners did suspect trafficking, they considered themselves as lacking the professional skills and knowledge, or the clear organisational policy or procedures to confidently identify and manage the complex health needs of the suspected trafficked persons. The findings contribute to St Vincent’s Health Australia’s goal of formulating contextually appropriate policy and practices that will assist in the identification of and response to the health needs of trafficked persons.

IMPLICATIONS

• The health needs of trafficked persons are multiple and interrelated and require health care providers and systems to be skilled in the identification, intervention, and treatment of trafficked persons.

• Education and training of health professionals is the cornerstone of the identification, intervention, and treatment of trafficked persons.

• Social workers’ specific focus on person-in-environment may be an important contribution to the identification and treatment of trafficked persons.

     

Service Providers’ Perspectives on Sex Trafficking of Male Minors: Comparing Background and Trafficking Situations of Male and Female Victims

Even though it is documented that sex trafficking of male minors occurs, limited research has focused on this type of commercial sexual exploitation. Data was collected via telephone interviews from 323 professionals who worked with at-risk youth and/or crime victims/offenders in all counties in a mostly rural state in the U.S. Half of the respondents had worked with at least one victim of child sex trafficking, and of these 161 respondents, 57.8% had worked with at least one male victim. To contextualize the data on male minor victims, quantitative analysis was conducted comparing the close-ended and themes identified in open-ended responses of professionals who reported they worked exclusively with male victims (n?=?26) versus professionals who worked exclusively with female victims (n?=?81) to examine how sex trafficking of male minors may differ or be similar to sex trafficking of female minors. Many similarities in victims’ vulnerability factors, the systems victims encountered, and their greatest needs were found by gender. Familial sex trafficking was one of the typical pathways into commercial sexual exploitation for minors. There were some differences in the pathways in sex trafficking by gender. There is a need for greater awareness, training, and resource-building for identifying and appropriately responding to male minors who are trafficked in commercial sex.     

The Economic Consequences of Child Sexual Abuse for Adult Lesbian Women

This study is designed to extend the investigation of the long‐term consequences of child sexual abuse (CSA) into the workplace and to consider the effects on the economic welfare of 1,925 lesbian women from the National Lesbian Health Care Survey. It seeks to develop a two‐stage, least‐squares model that considers simultaneously the effects of child sexual abuse on four spheres of a woman's life—her physical health, mental health, educational attainment, and economic welfare; and to investigate the differential impacts of diverse forms of child sexual abuse on the adult woman's functioning. The CSA survivors experienced adverse health and mental health consequences. The type of CSA experienced was also a significant predictor of a woman's educational attainment and annual earnings.     

Vaginal Dryness and Beyond: The Sexual Health Needs of Women Diagnosed With Metastatic Breast Cancer

While research on the sexual health of women with early stage cancer has grown extensively over the past decade, markedly less information is available to support the sexual health needs of women diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 32 women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer (ages 35 to 77) about questions they had concerning their sexual health and intimate relationships. All participants were recruited from a comprehensive cancer center at a large Midwestern university. Three themes were examined: the role of sexual activity and intimate touch in participants' lives, unmet information needs about sexual health, and communication with medical providers about sexual concerns. Findings indicated that sexual activities with partners were important; however, participants worried about their own physical limitations and reported frequent physical (e.g., bone pains) and vaginal pain associated with intercourse. When women raised concerns about these issues in clinical settings, medical providers often focused exclusively on vaginal lubricants, which did not address the entirety of women's problems or concerns. In addition, women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer reported needing additional resources about specialized vaginal lubricants, nonpenetrative and nongenitally focused sex, and sexual positions that did not compromise their physical health yet still provided pleasure.     

High-Risk Sexual Behavior in Postmenopausal Women

Individuals who participate in sexual behavior indeed expose themselves to multiple risks, including social, emotional, and physical risks. Outcomes associated with risk behavior can have detrimental consequences on one’s interpersonal relationships, self-esteem, and overall health and well-being. This study examined how four factors (relational, decision-making, sexual variables, and safety) operate in a postmenopausal women’s decision to engage in risky sexual behavior. Data were collected online from 44 women, ranging in age from 34 to 68. Results indicate this model explains 62.6% of the variance in risky decision-making for postmenopausal women. Implications and directions for future research are addressed.     

The Thai Government’s Repatriation and Reintegration Programmes: Responding to Trafficked Female Commercial Sex Workers from the Greater Mekong Subregion

Since the 1990s, trafficked women and girls from neighbouring countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), including Myanmar, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos), Cambodia, Viet Nam, and Yunnan province in southern China, have increasingly migrated to Thailand and worked in the country’s thriving commercial sex industry. In response, the Thai government has launched a range of programmes to supplement its earlier programmes designed primarily to combat internal trafficking. This paper concentrates on one component of the Thai government’s response: repatriation and reintegration. The paper is organized as follows: First, a definition of human trafficking, particularly as it relates to women and children, is provided. Second, a succinct discussion of the history of the domestic trafficking of women and girls into commercial sex work in Thailand, focusing especially on the Thai government’s broad response to this dilemma, is given. Third, the dynamics of the relatively recent surge of trafficked women and girls from neighbouring GMS countries working in Thailand’s commercial sex industry and the Thai government’s efforts to combat this are discussed. Finally, the paper focuses on repatriation and reintegration in Thailand ; by briefly discussing the situation that trafficked women and girls confront in this process, and by defining repatriation, reintegration, and reintegration assistance. The Thai government’s repatriation and reintegration programmes are then described and critically reviewed, focusing particularly on the Kredtrakarn Protection and Occupational Development Centre. Recommendations on how to improve existing repatriation and reintegration programmes are provided. Above all, greater collaboration must take place in order to effectively and efficiently implement policies, plans, and projects to more successfully reintegrate trafficked women and girls back into neighbouring GMS countries, in particular at the local level.     

Violence,rape, and sexual coercion: everyday love in a South African township

This paper presents findings of an anthropological study among pregnant adolescents in Cape Town, South Africa. The inquiry focuses on the sexual dynamics within adolescent relationships. The study reveals widespread male coercion and violence within sexual relationships. Informants describe assault as a regular feature of their relationships. In South Africa, power relations between men and women are commonly manifested as and imposed through sexual violence and assault. Men use physical assault to force sexual contact, beating their female partners if they refuse to have sex, are suspected of sexual infidelity, or are found to be using contraceptives. Moreover, women experience abuse such as gang rape. Yet, health promotion interventions fail to acknowledge sexual encounters as instances in which unequal power relations between men and women are expressed. It is these power relations which determine women's ability or inability to protect themselves against sexually transmitted disease, pregnancy, and unwelcome sexual acts. This study underlines the need to consider gender power issues in the design and impact assessment of HIV/AIDS and reproductive health interventions and in challenging male violence.     

Sexual expression in later life: a review and synthesis

In the past decade, researchers have begun to study the sexual functioning of typical older persons. This review summarizes literature on the sexuality of men and women over age 50 as researched by social and health scientists. Research on the relationship of biological factors (changes accompanying aging), health (physical, mental, and medication use), psychological factors (attitudes, information about sex), relationship factors (status, satisfaction), and sexual functioning (desire, dysfunctions, treatment) to sexual behavior is reviewed. The review suggests that (a) men and women remain sexually active into their 70s and 80s, (b) aging-related physical changes do not necessarily lead to decline in sexual functioning, and (c) good physical and mental health, positive attitudes toward sex in later life, and access to a healthy partner are associated with continued sexual activity. In turn, regular sexual expression is associated with good physical and mental health. Progress in understanding later life sexuality requires development of comprehensive theoretical models, a broad focus on intimacy, attention to measures and samples, and research on couples. Progress in understanding is especially important, given the aging of populations.     

Assessing physical, sexual, and psychological violence perpetrated by intimate male partners toward women: a Spanish cross-sectional study

There have been many studies on the impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) on women's health, there being agreement on its detrimental effect. Research has focused mainly on the impact of physical violence on health, with few studies assessing the effect of sexual and psychological violence. Furthermore, there are many differences in the way violence experienced by women is assessed. While some researchers use available instruments, others develop their own questionnaires. This article gives detailed information about physical, sexual, and psychological violence, lifetime history of women's victimization, and aspects of women's behavior and feelings obtained with the questionnaire used in a Spanish cross-sectional study. Our results corroborate that IPV is not homogeneous, it being necessary to ask women about each type of violence they have experienced. Furthermore, to accurately assess the impact of IPV on women's health, it is necessary to control for other variables that also have detrimental effects on health.     

An Exploratory Study of Factors Associated With Sexual Inhibition and Excitation: Findings From a Representative Survey in Flanders

The dual control model of sexual response was developed to account for individual differences in sexual excitation and inhibition. According to this model, the balance between excitation and inhibition is of crucial importance in determining an individual's sexual response to a stimulus. In this study, we aimed to contribute to the existing literature on sexual excitation and inhibition in two ways. First, we investigated the distribution of excitation and inhibition scores in a representative population sample. Second, we conducted an exploratory study of the factors associated with variation in excitation and inhibition. We used data from a representative survey on the sexual health of men and women in Flanders (N = 1,825; mean age = 43.77; SD = 17.98). The results indicated that excitation and inhibition had a near normal distribution among men and women. However, the scores for sexual inhibition due to threat of performance failure (SIS1) among men, and for sexual inhibition due to the threat of performance consequences (SIS2) among women, were somewhat skewed. Furthermore, age, gender, physical and mental health, education level, and attitudes toward sex were all to some extent associated with differences in inhibition, excitation, or both.     

Returning to sexual stigma: post‐trafficking lives

This article is concerned with returning to sexual stigma in two key respects. First, it prompts a return to the conceptual understanding of sexual stigma and makes an important contribution to critiques of the individualized frameworks that have dominated much of the literature on stigma to date, through a critical analysis of sexual stigma as a collective process at different scales and locations. Second, using empirical data from a qualitative study of post‐trafficking experiences of women in Nepal as a case study to develop theoretical understandings of the production of stigma, it explores modalities of sexualized stigma encountered on return from trafficking situations. Within the trafficking literature there has been very little attention to what happens after trafficking. This article addresses this gap in focusing on lives post‐trafficking and, in addition, contributes to the limited research on trafficking in Nepal.     

Traumatic Responding in Children Exposed to Domestic Violence

Abstract

The present cross-cultural study summarizes the traumatic responses of Mexican, Mexican American, and non-Mexican American children who were residents of three shelters for battered women in Monterrey Mexico, McAllen Texas, and Ft. Worth Texas. Sixty-eight mothers reported on their children's (n = 90) individual and total traumatic symptoms. Findings revealed very slight differences in individual responses with no overall trauma symptom differences. Multiple regression analyses revealed that mothers' experiences of physical, and sexual abuse predicted greater trauma responses in children. Implications for practice with children and mothers in shelters for battered women are highlighted.     

Intimate sexual victimization among women with protective orders: types and associations of physical and mental health problems

Intimate sexual violence was examined among a sample of women who had recently obtained protective orders against male partners using three groups: no sexual victimization (n = 368), sexual insistence (n = 114), and threatened and/or forced sex (n = 117). Differences in childhood sexual abuse as well as types of partner psychological abuse, stalking, and severe physical violence experiences were found across the groups. Multivariate analysis showed that women with no sexual victimization had significantly fewer mental health problems than women who had experienced sexual insistence and women who had been threatened or forced to have sex. Findings from this study underscore the importance of health, mental health, and criminal justice professionals assessing for a range of sexually abusive acts when working with victims of partner violence.     

Body Satisfaction and Sexual Health in Dutch Female University Students

Studies in the field of body image have primarily addressed its negative aspects, such as body dissatisfaction. The present study focused instead on women who are satisfied with their bodies and on how body satisfaction relates to sexual health. A sample of 319 Dutch female university students completed an online survey that included items about body image evaluation, body image investment, overweight preoccupation, body image affect during sexual activity, sexual frequency, sexual functioning, and sexual self-esteem. We found that the level of body dissatisfaction was minimal in our sample. The majority reported neutral or mildly positive body evaluations, and in 30% of the sample these evaluations were clearly positive. Comparisons between women who reported positive versus neutral body evaluations showed that the body-satisfied women had lower body mass indexes (BMIs) and reported less body image investment, less overweight preoccupation, and less body self-consciousness during sexual activity. With regard to sexual health, they reported higher sexual self-esteem and better sexual functioning. Furthermore, we found that body image self-consciousness was negatively associated with sexual functioning, sexual self-esteem, and frequency of sexual activity with a partner. Body satisfaction did not account for a portion of the relationship of body self-consciousness during sexual activity with sexual health.     

Associations between Affect,Context, and Sexual Desire in Depressed Young Women

We investigated associations of sexual desire with time of day, physical and social context, and positive and negative affect using momentary sampling in 44 depressed young women (mean age = 18). Analyses revealed that depressed young women experienced sexual desire when with their boyfriends and later in the evening. Sexual desire was also positively associated with positive affect. Sexual desire was not associated with negative affect or physical context. This research suggests that sexual desire is experienced by depressed young women in normative developmental social contexts. Our findings may help clinicians and sexual health educators in correcting the myth that depressed women do not have sexual desire.