Source: (2009) Australia and New Zealand Critical Criminology Conference 2009: Conference Proceedings. Pg. 171-181.
Trafficking in people and in particular sex trafficking are extreme forms of exploitation and as such have been the focus of
feminist and criminological inquiry for over two decades (Barry 1988; Altink 1995; Bertone 2000). The approach to
trafficking and the intervention by nation-states in order to “combat†this crime has, both historically and contemporary,
created more harm for those it ought to protect (Doezema 2000; Kempadoo 2005). It can be argued that such detrimental
approaches to trafficking were especially prominent during George W. Bush’s administration (see for example Milivojevic &
Pickering 2008). The existing anti-trafficking framework, however, could be altered with recent political and economic
developments, particularly with the election of the new Obama administration. This paper discusses how current global and
local political, economic and migration developments might instigate and underpin our re-thinking of trafficking and antitrafficking
initiatives. It also suggests which important actors, silenced for some time, will have the potential to emerge and
contest the current anti-trafficking frameworks, and who is likely to disappear from the national and international
trafficking debate. Finally, this paper proposes the role that criminologists, researchers, academics and feminists alike
should take in this process. (Authors abstract).
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