http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/80600 2026-03-07T13:13:51Z http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/84161 Narratives, Care, and Creativity in Pedagogical Processes in Contexts of (Im)mobility and Exploitation of Women Jorge Barbuzano, Esperanza; Alonso, Araceli With the aim of forming a dialogic learning space on women's migration, global health and human trafficking, the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 2015 has been developing the Global Health Circle of Care Course within the Study Abroad Program. The course has been developed under the auspices of the UNESCO Chair on Gender, Wellbeing and a Culture of Peace and is a part of an anti-human trafficking project called 4W STREETS. The course has sought to promote community participation and applied research in the educational space, as well as interdisciplinary and intersectoral dialogue to analyze and act against human trafficking. This paper describes the course objectives, methodology, and results in order to share insights into an innovative approach to instruction and knowledge creation through an arts-based, trauma-informed “patchwork education” and a pedagogy of care with survivors of trafficking as the protagonists. 2023-05-01T00:00:00Z http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/83657 A Threat to Healing and a Barrier to Recovery: An Assessment of Health Impacts of Criminalization Through the Stages of Domestic Sex Trafficking Hill, Justine A.; Mullins, Kelsey J. Criminalization of domestic sex trafficking victims in the US is a pervasive issue. Indeed, a survey of US trafficking survivors, where respondents were largely survivors of sex trafficking, found that 90.8% had been arrested. However, discussions surrounding this issue often fail to address a core component of the injustice: its implications on survivors’ health and wellbeing. We take a novel lens, analyzing the criminalization of sex trafficking survivors through survivor health and wellbeing across six stages of the trafficking experience, to enable a fuller understanding of the issue––an understanding that centers on survivors. We find that during recruitment, the cyclical and reinforcing relationships of criminalization, sex trafficking, and negative health implications emerge. During exploitation, the criminalization of victims compounds trauma and prevents them from accessing social and medical services. Detention likewise compounds trauma and increases traffickers’ control over victims, making it more difficult to exit trafficking. Even after victims escape trafficking, criminalization stymies survivor recovery because it serves as a reminder of the trafficking experience and criminal records function to disempower individuals. Having a criminal record hinders survivor integration and serves as a barrier for reaching autonomy and self-defined goals. Finally, criminal records increase survivor vulnerability to being re-trafficked––because the barriers created by criminal records leave few options for fully reintegrating to life outside of trafficking–– reversing the recovery process completely. Our findings reveal an immense need to improve safety and services for survivors during the trafficking experience, and so we call for an interdisciplinary, multi-agency response to trafficking which centers on the survivor experience in contrast to the current approach to anti-trafficking work which focuses largely on the prosecution and punishment of traffickers. An improved response would de-center the criminal justice system while still expanding criminal record relief for survivors. Future health research about the experiences of trafficking survivors should consider criminalization as a factor of survivor health and wellbeing and build on our findings with empirical studies. 2022-07-01T00:00:00Z http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/80837 Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children: Dane County Needs Assessment Phelps, Shira Rosenthal; Miyasaki, Jan In 2011, due to increasing reports of Dane County girls exploited for sex by adult males, the Dane County Coordinated Community Response to the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CCR-CSEC) undertook a community needs assessment funded by the Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance, Violence Against Women Program. This baseline study focused on interviewing agencies that may currently encounter domestic minor sex victims and collecting data on the identification, level of frequency, availability of services, and outcomes, as well as collecting anonymous case studies that identify victim needs. The goal of this study is to promote early identification of domestic minor sex trafficking victims and effective intervention in order to divert victims away from more years of trauma. The sample size of domestic minor sex trafficking victims in Dane County is small and therefore conclusions are limited. There is a need for housing and specialized support services for DMST victims and a need for training and education to help social service providers and law enforcement serve victims and hold perpetrators accountable. 2020-03-01T00:00:00Z http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/80836 The Construction of Silence: Narratives of Nigerian Women Crossing into Europe Jorge, Esperanza; Antolínez, Inmaculada; Alonso, Araceli The trafficking of Nigerian women for the purpose of sexual exploitation is a phenomenon that has been visible in Spain since the 2000s. One of the entry routes is the southern European border from Morocco to Spain where access to the protection system is linked to the identification of women as “victims” of trafficking by Spanish Security Forces. Such identification requires the women to narrate their life stories, despite the silence and concealment in which they find themselves, making their narration rather difficult. From multi-sited ethnographic research and using an ecology of knowledge approach, we propose to analyze how women's silence is built within the Nigerian trafficking journey and how women confront this silence. Results show that, far from being anchored in the victim category as passive and disempowered subjects, women not only provide fundamental knowledge to understand the phenomenon of trafficking but also propose concrete actions for its transformation. 2020-03-01T00:00:00Z