Social Policy Related to Your Final Project

¶ … social policy related to your Final Project topic. Then explain one theory that supports the creation or reform of this social policy. Be specific, and provide examples.

Human Trafficking

The image of the "happy hooker" is a delusion which consumers of prostitution and the sex trade have often used as a means for quieting their own consciences and silencing any glimmers of their own personal moral code. Women are often driven to the sex trade via forces like discrimination, extreme economic hardship and domestic violence (Jordan, 2009). Social policies during the Bush administration treated human trafficking as a one-dimensional crime, and sought to punish both the women involved and the clients as a heavy-handed means of abolishing it (Jordan, 2009). This was an overly-simplistic approach which treated human-trafficking as if it were any other illegal trade by punishing all involved -- comparable to the way drug dealers and drug purchasers are both punished.

However, such a policy did not account for the fact that the women involved had already been punished, demeaned and demoralized via their circumstances and in the prostitution trade. This is hardly a sound economic or social policy as "…the ensuing crackdowns have meant prison, violence, forced 'rehabilitation' and no means to earn an adequate livelihood. At the same time, the policy has not achieved its goal of reducing the incidence of trafficking, prostitution, commercial sexual exploitation of children or HIV / AIDS" (Jordan, 2009). While it's understandable why the government has used such a forceful approach in the past -- human trafficking has been connected with organized crime, the drug trade, migrant smuggling and terrorist financing -- this approach has largely been unsuccessful (Langberg, 2010). It's not enough to simply imprison and discipline the consumers of the sex trade, as women will continue to sell their bodies as long as the economic structure related to prostitution exists and it continues to be demanded and there continues to not be other viable means of earning money for women in developing countries.

Ann Jordan, after examining much of the research conducted by theorists, writers, experts and researchers in the field of human trafficking, has concluded that in order for a policy to work there has to be direct input from those primarily affected: trafficked persons and adult sex workers (Jordan, 2009). "To develop effective, evidence-based, do-no-harm policies, advocates and policy makers must work collaboratively with persons who may be helped or harmed by the proposed laws and policies" (Jordan, 2009). Collaboration is key as no conflict resolution specialist, gender equality expert or social reform researcher will know what changes need to be made as acutely as a those involved in human trafficking. Objective evidence needs to be collected in conjunction with this collaboration and sound ideas must be made taking all these things into consideration (Jordan, 2009). Current social policies need to be reformed in such a way that if any anti-prostitution pledges interfere with American funding that aids, reaches out and seeks to help sex workers they are immediately amended (Jordan, 2009). Jordan further explains that civil servants who work abroad and who are used to carrying out heavy handed anti-prostitution agenda need to be retrained and "… operate under a new, more open and inclusive policy based on rights and evidence" (Jordan, 2009). In this manner can civil servants be more responsive and actually effective and helpful in the needs of trafficked women and children.