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Thread: This Sunday in #Florida, it's the #SuperBowl 
, the biggest sports event in the US. And, as I explain in Chapter 3 of my book on ' #sextrafficking', it's also an attraction for #humantrafficking myths. Here's why:
, the biggest sports event in the US. And, as I explain in Chapter 3 of my book on ' #sextrafficking', it's also an attraction for #humantrafficking myths. Here's why:
As usual, this #SuperBowl has provoked police stings *allegedly* to crack down on #humantrafficking ahead of the big day, e.g. in Tampa, Florida, an operation billed as anti-trafficking but which has actually involved women police officers "disguised as prostitutes"...
has provoked police stings *allegedly* to crack down on #humantrafficking ahead of the big day, e.g. in Tampa, Florida, an operation billed as anti-trafficking but which has actually involved women police officers "disguised as prostitutes"...
And that "Those arrested were charged with soliciting another to commit prostitution/remaining in a place for prostitution"...i.e. it had sweet fuck all to do with #peopletrafficking. https://www.complex.com/life/2021/01/71-arrested-in-operation-interception-human-trafficking-sting-super-bowl
They're also doing an awareness-raising drive in Florida, some of which involves the usual billboard posters etc... but also... https://www.fox13news.com/news/bay-area-law-enforcement-launch-human-trafficking-awareness-campaign-ahead-of-super-bowl
Painted goats! Yep, goats. 55 artists have painted goats because "“It really just made a lot of sense because unfortunately Super Bowls and events like them, World Cups and Olympics, they are the types of events that generate a lot of human trafficking.” https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-hillsborough/tampa-bay-artists-raise-awareness-on-human-trafficking-through-project-goat
It's not just that this is weird - goats? eh? - but it's actually factually incorrect. The myth of mega sporting events attracting #humantrafficking into the sex industry has been peddled around the world, but it's as mythical as a satyr. Some examples:
For the London #Olympics 2012, the police predicted an increase of trafficking for sexual exploitation in the five host boroughs; no evidence of such a rise was found. But the police were given £500k to tackle this mythical problem...
and according to a report on it, they "used the majority of their resources to target the brothel industry" and a source "had been told by a senior police officer that the police intended to use the Olympics trafficking scare as an excuse to bear down on brothels."
And the World Cup in Germany was meant to see 40,000 women and children trafficked into #sexwork according to the US #HouseofRepresentatives and Washington Post. A Swedish politician even called for their national team to boycott it because of this awful spike in trafficking.
But...a detailed study by the UN International Organisation for Migration also found no evidence of any increase in either #sexwork or #trafficking, calling the estimate of 40,000 women expected to be trafficked ‘unfounded and unrealistic’.
And on the #SuperBowl specifically, there is no robust empirical evidence for an increase in #humantrafficking into the sex sector, as explained helpfully in the brilliant Anti-Trafficking Review: https://www.antitraffickingreview.org/index.php/atrjournal/article/view/404/336
specifically, there is no robust empirical evidence for an increase in #humantrafficking into the sex sector, as explained helpfully in the brilliant Anti-Trafficking Review: https://www.antitraffickingreview.org/index.php/atrjournal/article/view/404/336
Instead, alleged attempts to tackle #humantrafficking in response to mega sporting events are too often based on conflating #sexwork in general with the separate issue of trafficking within that sector, & using that to crack down on consensual sex workers trying to make a living.
This is also the case in lots of raids that are billed as anti-trafficking and 'rescuing' women, but don't refer anyone for trafficking victim support & appear to have targeted consensual workers - I give examples of this I investigated in my book.
Doing this in the guise of anti-trafficking measures is reprehensible - harmful to sex workers who need rights and respect, but also hugely disrespectful to those people who actually are trafficked who need a proper strategy of support.
If you'd like to know more about how anti- #humantrafficking has been used to oppress sex workers, my book has a whole chapter about this vital topic and explores what we should be doing instead to give #sexworkers rights and tackle trafficking too. https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745341224/the-truth-about-modern-slavery/
Spoiler: it's sure as hell not the Nordic Model.
