The trafficking of persons for sex or labor through force, fraud, or coercion has become an increasingly serious problem in modern society. Federal, state, and local criminal justice authorities have been tasked with the responsibility of identifying and rescuing trafficking victims and prosecuting their perpetrators. Throughout the semester, this course offers students an opportunity to critically evaluate the social and cultural practices that give rise to and support human trafficking in the U.S. and around the globe.

 

More specifically, this course looks at the concern regarding human trafficking from various perspectives, including those from policymakers, researchers, practitioners, and activists. Practitioners in each field will view and approach human trafficking with a different lens, and this course offers an overview of the causes and consequences of human trafficking from each viewpoint. The course will outline the ways in which the media plays a role in the framing of human trafficking and the influence this has on public understanding of trafficking narratives. Additionally, this course will explore the response by criminal justice authorities along local, state, and federal levels at identifying and protecting trafficking victims and prosecuting perpetrators and how this has expanded into multidisciplinary efforts. The course will conclude with the policy and service provisions that aim to combat human trafficking and support those who have experienced it. At the end of this course, students will be able to address the following questions:

·       What are the dominant frames of human trafficking, and how has this influenced legislative policy, training, service provision, and public responses to trafficking? 

·       What are the dominant and peripheral professional responses to human trafficking, and how have these changed over time? 

·       Which policy measures exist to combat human trafficking and what else can we do to tackle the issue?