Analyzing legal paradoxes in anti-trafficking policies

Abstract

Horrifying stories of victims of sex trafficking have been arousing emotions of sympathy and a need for change in the minds of policy-makers. The United States government has spent over $5 million on combating human trafficking worldwide (as indicated in the Trafficking in persons report, 2008). While existing laws are strengthened and new laws are designed for the protection and recovery of trafficking victims nationally as well as internationally, only 1229 cases have been reported so far by the 42 anti-trafficking taskforces in the United States (as indicated by the Department of Justice in 2009). Since human trafficking efforts are transnational, they call for a multifolded method of policy analysis. The primary purpose of this article is to explore gaps in the human trafficking policy transfer process by analyzing anti-trafficking efforts in the state of Nevada. This article begins by outlining the etiology of policy dichotomy in Nevada with regards to sex trafficking and legal prostitution in some of its counties. The article then describes the prevailing models of policy analysis, and derives a multifolded model of policy analysis to specifically address issues of policy transfer and change in anti-trafficking policies. An outcome analysis of human trafficking policies in Nevada, United States and associated source countries is conducted using the transnational model for policy analysis. The goal of this article is to explore credibility questions in human trafficking by explaining the thinning understanding of the goals with which anti-trafficking protocols were designed at the United Nations in 2000.