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Canada has engaged in a range of efforts to stop human trafficking within and across it borders. Federal and provincial governments have spent considerable funds in this regard, and have studied the issue to come up with perceived solutions. In this article, we explore Canada’s two national House of Commons standing committee consultations on trafficking, in 2006 and 2018. Using critical discourse analysis to examine the consultation transcripts and written briefs, we identified several significant shifts in both the language used and the areas of focus advanced by witnesses, in particular: the modified emphasis from international to domestic trafficking; the changing nature of vulnerability and victimhood; and an increased focus on youth sexual exploitation. We propose that what is being expressed is an iteration of Canadian sexualized nationalism and national sexual morality. These results have policy implications, especially with respect to promoting just, peaceful, and inclusive societies at a time when there are mounting pressures to restrict migration that often dovetail with concerns over human trafficking. Indeed, the way concerns over trafficking are expressed in Canada appears as a fear over women’s sexual agency and vulnerability as well as a need protect “our” boundaries from incursion, whether territorial or moral.

Child sex trafficking is a troubling, yet hidden, social problem in the United States. Black girls are particularly vulnerable given the intersection of their race and gender as they navigate biolo...

Sex trafficking is considered a public health emergency, although there is public confusion about the crime. Defendant gender has been demonstrated to affect juror decision-making within crimes of ...

This study explored public health department employees’ perceptions of, and experiences with, identifying and serving victims of domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST). A sample of 47 health departm...

The need to educate youth on sex trafficking in the United States has received considerable attention; however, limited research is available to guide development of educational programming for youth. Perspectives from 32 experts in fields connected to sex trafficking and violence prevention were obtained through focus groups and interviews. Questions focused on goals/purposes of educating youth about sex trafficking, content to include in a school-based sex trafficking curriculum for middle and high school students, methods to deliver such a curriculum, and challenges to implementing a sex trafficking curriculum in schools and associated strategies. Experts recommended content on healthy and unhealthy relationships, general information about sex trafficking, factors related to sex trafficking, and identification of safe people and needed resources. Program delivery recommendations focused on delivery approach, format, facilitation, manualization, and integration throughout the school’s curriculum. Lastly, experts noted implementation challenges and associated strategies relating to time and space in school curriculum, parents’ discomfort with educating their children about sex trafficking, and buy-in from school administrators. Results build on existing literature by providing greater depth and context on educating youth about sex trafficking. Empowering youth with information and resources regarding sex trafficking is important for promoting just, peaceful, and inclusive societies.

Our understanding of the crimes associated with human trafficking, including trafficking persons for sex, are hampered by a lack of standardized information. This article reviews selected informati...

The domestic sex trafficking of minors is occurring across Canada and the United States. Understanding the routes into sex trafficking, including the way traffickers target, recruit and enmesh youth in the sex trade is invaluable information for service providers and law makers developing prevention and intervention initiatives. This review synthesized research on the exploitation processes and tactics employed by traffickers in the sex trafficking of domestic minors in Canada and the US. The authors comprehensively and systematically searched five electronic databases and obtained additional publications and grey literature through a backward search of the references cited in articles reviewed for inclusion. Inclusionary criteria included: Studies published in the English language between January 1990 and June 2020 containing original research with quantitative or qualitative data on the recruitment or pathways into sex trafficking for minors trafficked within the US and Canada. The search yielded 23 eligible studies. The synthesis of the studies in the review converged on the notion of sexual exploitation occurring on a continuum comprising of three components; the recruitment context, entrapment strategies utilized by traffickers, and enmeshment tactics used to prolong exploitation. Findings highlight the significant physical, psychological and emotional hurdles faced by youth victims of sex trafficking and point to the importance of comprehensive and holistic approaches to prevention and intervention practices.

Growing interest in preventing and addressing sex trafficking has led to an increase in the development and implementation of sex trafficking educational programing for youth. We conducted a nationwide scoping scan survey of U.S. programs focused on educating youth about sex trafficking to learn more about existing programs. Staff at 37 programs completed the survey and provided information on program development, content, structure, delivery, and evaluation. The majority of programs included youth and survivors in program development. Programs aimed to prevent and increase awareness of sex trafficking with trauma-informed content focused on trafficking dynamics, grooming, warning signs, and actions to take if trafficking is suspected. Slightly over half of the programs also addressed labor trafficking and other forms of violence. Programs targeted youth and teachers, but varied in terms of delivery setting, format, and duration. About two thirds of the programs had undergone some form of evaluation, most by program developers, implementers, or staff. Study findings highlight the current landscape of sex trafficking education programming in the U.S. Recommendations are provided for advancing practice and research, including determining the most efficacious program content and delivery. Empowering youth through education and prevention are key steps to creating safe and inclusive communities.

Whether and how social service providers use practice strategies that address racism is critically understudied, particularly with people who are at risk of sex trafficking. The purpose of this article is to understand (1) the perceptions of racial disparities in sex trafficking (as learned from sex trafficking education), and (2) the strategies used to address racism in practice (color-evasiveness, anti-oppressive practice [AOP]). We used a directed content analysis approach to analyze 24 semistructured, in-depth interviews of providers who knowingly encounter sex-trafficked young people in a majority white region of a Midwestern state (census indicates that minority populations include African American, Native American, and Hispanic/Latino people). Findings suggest that providers perceived sex trafficking education (e.g., trainings they attended) as predominantly focused on economic standing and family risks, rather than racial disparities and roles of structural racial oppression. They also experienced challenges in naming the racial identities of clients and addressing racism in practice. Implications for implementing critical consciousness and AOP strategies as well as future research directions are discussed.

Purpose This cutting-edge short commentary is intended to raise awareness of sex trafficking in the tourism and hospitality industry. The purpose of this paper is to also advocate for further research to identify and hopefully prevent sex trafficking in related settings. Design/methodology/approach This paper provides a descriptive overview of the current knowledge base on sex trafficking in tourism and hospitality. Based on gaps in the literature, future research agendas and directions are suggested. Findings Academic research on sex trafficking in tourism and hospitality remains limited. More scholarly attention is needed to this matter. The tourism industry is directly and indirectly associated with sex trafficking (e.g. hotel accommodations and direct consumption of sexual services, such as through sex tourism). Despite legislative efforts by international government agencies to eradicate sex trafficking, the problem remains pervasive. Broader practice- and research-based intervention efforts are needed. Originality/value This short commentary advocates for tourism and hospitality researchers to make practical and theoretical industry contributions that may help prevent sex trafficking.

Sex trafficking in the United States has emerged as a critical social issue that negatively impacts the health and mental health of victims. The existence of sex trafficking in Hawaiʻi has been que...

This paper examines how COVID-19 has impacted the lives of sex workers and how changing circumstances may make them and others even more vulnerable to exploitation into sex trafficking. It explores the perceptions and policies that keep sex workers from receiving the financial support needed to keep them safe at this time. It considers how sex work may be driven further underground, and the implications of this on the security of the workers involved. It also considers how the behaviour of clients may change as a result of the virus, examining the supply and demand drivers of online sexual exploitation of adults and children. This paper also outlines the fluidity of criminal nature, how criminals are adapting to changing circumstances and finding new ways to identify, groom, and exploit victims into sexual slavery. Finally, it analyses the implications that COVID-19 has had on the nature of money laundering and the related effects on the ability of financial institutions to operate as the ‘eyes and ears’ in the fight against global sex trafficking. It concludes with recommendations that can be made to financial institutions and related agencies, to respond rapidly to emerging risks and new trends in sexual exploitation and money laundering.

During the last decade, over 160,000 people were forcibly displaced internally because of narco-violence in Mexico. Displaced families suffer social and economic vulnerabilities that make them easy...

The recent Anti-Trafficking Bill in India (2018) has received considerable criticism for perpetuating a paternalistic attitude towards victims of sex trafficking. Scholars, activists and legal experts have pointed out the failure of the Act to recognise the agency of trafficked girls and women. In thinking about victimhood and agency, we draw attention to the need for thinking of ‘vulnerability’ in terms of complex intersectional processes and situations that render certain persons more vulnerable to trafficking. This article delves into contexts and vulnerabilities in the process of trafficking by drawing on women’s narratives about the lived experiences of sex trafficking. It is based on a qualitative field study through in-depth interviews of 51 survivors of sex trafficking who were sheltered in government and non-government organisations in the cities of Chennai and Hyderabad.

Despite the literature on the existence of networks in sex trafficking operations, few studies exist using social network analysis to analyze the crime. To help fill this gap, this study focuses on...

Indicators of sex trafficking are widely disseminated by organizations in the criminal justice, social service, healthcare, and community sectors. Drawing from a larger pilot study examining survey...

A trauma bond is an emotional attachment between an abuser and victim. Trauma bonds in sex trafficking compel victims to submit to continued exploitation and protect the trafficker. This scoping review examines trauma bonds in sex trafficking situations, its conceptualizations, and key characteristics. Ten databases were searched using sex trafficking AND trauma bonding–related terms; sex trafficking AND Stockholm syndrome, attachment, coercion, and manipulation. Articles were included if they featured trauma bonding, were published in English after 2013, or featured sex trafficking victims or traffickers in a Western country. Fifteen articles were included. The features of trauma bonding identified in these articles were (1) imbalance of power that favors trafficker, (2) traffickers’ deliberate use of positive and negative interactions, (3) victim’s gratitude for positive interactions and self-blame for the negative, and (4) victim’s internalization of perpetrator’s view. We also identified four aspects related to trauma bonding: (1) prior trauma made victims vulnerable, (2) victim’s feelings of love remained even after exiting trafficking, (3) love is why victims do not prosecute traffickers, and (4) traffickers’ intentional cultivation of the trauma bond. No article indicated how trauma bonds could be severed and replaced with healthy attachments. These findings reveal the need for practitioners and law enforcement and criminal justice professionals to address trauma bonding in both trafficking and posttrafficking situations. The findings also represent potential targets for urgently needed interventions that promote the replacement of trauma bonds with healthy attachments.

Sex trafficking involving children is a human rights issue of growing concern, with immediate and lasting impacts on victims. Although victimization is consistently associated with prior maltreatme...

In this edition of Feminist Frictions, Siobhan Brooks untangles feminist debates around sex work and sex trafficking and argues for a robust interrogation of the intersections between gende...

Knowledge about labor trafficking (LT) lags behind extant understanding about sex trafficking due to the ability of LT to exist within legal frameworks, and it impacts some of the most oppressed an...

We provide theoretical and practical perspectives on children, women, and sex trafficking during the COVID-19 pandemic. Process tracing is employed as a primary research instrument. It is an analytical technique used for either theory-building or theory-testing purposes that is employed to elucidate causation and change as well as to develop and evaluate extant theories in social sciences. We illustrate that a policy is needed that will strengthen the capacity of existing structures in the fight against the underlying trafficking so that these attendant structures are efficiently used to stop the trafficking and avoid the corresponding threats to public health safety.

In his 2017 documentary The Impure Daniel Najenson straddles the notions of past and present to denounce the horrors and the injustice of sex trafficking in Argentina. Following a family tale of a great-aunt who migrated from Eastern Europe to South America at the beginning of the twentieth century, he digs deep into Israeli and Argentine archives to tell the story of the Zwi Migdal and the way Jewish women were forced into prostitution. To give voice to these women, he brings in Sonia Sánchez, originally from northern Argentina, and forced into prostitution in Buenos Aires when she was seventeen years old. Sánchez tells her own story, but also reads letters from the now deceased victims of sex trade a century ago. This self-professed feminist and activist is also shown in demonstrations and interviews fueling the NiUnaMenos movement in Argentina, while the #MeToo and TimesUp movements explode in the U.S. En su documental del 2017, Los impuros, Daniel Najenson se mueve entre las nociones del pasado y el presente para denunciar los horrores y las injusticias de la trata de personas en la Argentina. Siguiendo una historia de su familia sobre una tía abuela que emigró de Europa del Este a Sudamérica al comienzo del siglo 20, busca en archivos de Israel y Argentina documentos que cuenten la historia de la Zwi Migdal y la manera en que las mujeres judías fueron forzadas a prostituirse. Para darle voz a estas mujeres, el director incorpora a Sonia Sánchez, originalmente del norte de la Argentina, y forzada a prostituirse en Buenos Aires cuando tenía diecisiete años. Sánchez cuenta su propia historia, pero también lee cartas de las ya fallecidas mujeres forzadas a la prostitución hace un siglo. Tambien se la ve a Sánchez, feminista y activista, em manifestaciones y entrevistas que forman parte del movimiento NiUnaMenos en la Argentina, mientras los movimientos #MeToo y TimesUp explotan en los Estados Unidos. In his 2017 documentary The Impure Daniel Najenson straddles the notions of past and present to denounce the horrors and the injustice of sex trafficking in Argentina. Following a family tale of a great-aunt who migrated from Eastern Europe to South America at the beginning of the twentieth century, he digs deep into Israeli and Argentine archives to tell the story of the Zwi Migdal and the way Jewish women were forced into prostitution. To give voice to these women, he brings in Sonia Sánchez, originally from northern Argentina, and forced into prostitution in Buenos Aires when she was seventeen years old. Sánchez tells her own story, but also reads letters from the now deceased victims of sex trade a century ago. This self-professed feminist and activist is also shown in demonstrations and interviews fueling the NiUnaMenos movement in Argentina, while the #MeToo and TimesUp movements explode in the U.S.

Since the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act nearly 20 years ago, there have been relatively few human trafficking (labor or sex) arrests, charges, and convictions, which casts doubt...

Theoretical frameworks have been developed for utilizing intersectionality theory in empirical social science research. This article 1) examines how one theoretical framework can be used to assess ...

Public opinion frequently assigns some degree of responsibility to victims of human trafficking for their “voluntary” engagement in the phenomenon, thus denying the existence of “innocent victims” ...

This study aimed to further understand typologies of trafficking that occur in the home, by an individual’s intimate partner (IP) or family members and this overlap with extant knowledge on perpetrator manipulation via the Power and Control Wheel. Inductive and deductive techniques were used to analyze secondary data from a federally funded anti-trafficking program in a Midwest metropolitan area recorded between 2008 and 2017. Cases were included if there was indication of sex or labor exploitation initiated by an IP, family member, or other in the domestic setting via elements of abuse; 59 cases of 213 met this criteria. Most cases included the IP as the trafficker, followed by family members, then others in the domestic setting. Abuse was more commonly used than the threat of abuse. From the Power and Control Wheel, the most frequent types of abuse were using privilege, physical abuse, economic abuse, isolation, and sexual abuse. Case typologies included: those with elements of sex trafficking, specifically forced commercial sex by an IP or family member; those with elements of labor trafficking such as domestic servitude (with or without childcare provision abuse), exploitation in a family business by an IP or family member, or work environments by family and non-family; those with elements of sex and labor trafficking included servile partnerships and forced marriage. Trafficking exploitation by an IP, family member, or in the domestic setting is not uncommon. Intimate relationships with a trafficker, psychological coercion, and threats may reduce reporting of abuse, subsequent provision of services, and result in misclassification as victims of IP violence. This study sheds light on various typologies of trafficking and exploitation in the domestic setting, further expanding the anti-trafficking movement’s evidence base for intervention and prevention and adding complexity and nuance to the pathways to trafficking exploitation.

There are much confusion and controversy in our churches today about the phenomenon known as speaking in tongues. Some claim that the gift of speaking in tongues continues in our time as the Holy Spirit miraculously moves persons to speak in a language they had never learned. Other believers are convinced that the Scriptures leave no room for the continuation of that special gift beyond the founding era of the Apostolic church. To worsen it all pagans abound in such ecstatic utterances and are convinced they are from God. The objective of this paper is to investigate both the use and abuse of speaking in tongues. Historical and exegetical methods were used. Data were gathered through primary and secondary sources. The paper found out that speaking in tongues was miraculously used by God at Pentecost and in the earliest churches in the apostolic era. But there were distinguishing features that marked it out from the psychological phenomenon found among pagans. In our contemporary church in Nigeria, the only way to test the source is by comparison with what God explains in his word about the purpose and occasion for the legitimate manifestation.

Domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) is the commercial sexual exploitation of a minor citizen within the United States. Previous research suggests that traffickers use different tactics depending upon their established relationships with at-risk youth. The purpose of this qualitative content analysis, therefore, is to explore the circumstances and control tactics associated with DMST victimization within friend-type trafficking relationships. This analysis utilizes the archival case notes of 66 minors who were trafficked for sex by their friends in one state in the United States. Findings reveal that DMST victims trafficked by friends perceive that they have financial agency, that their traffickers use control tactics against them, and that other women are involved in their exploitation. Recommendations emanating from this study point social workers towards prevention and practice strategies that take into account victims’ specific experiences with trafficking entry and their barriers to exit.

Innovative research on sex trafficking is increasingly focusing on the relevance of social relationships in the process of recruitment of young women into sex trafficking. Within the dimension of social interactions, concern is growing about coercive and deceptive intimate relationship–based strategies that traffickers use to recruit young women. To research this recruitment process, the analysis and background on the Language of Desire has allowed us to identify, through qualitative methodology, the standardized use of terms such as Loverboys or Romeo pimps to refer to these traffickers. The extended use of these terms in research, preventive programs, and in general society makes it difficult to reject these violent recruiters and therefore reproduces the vulnerability of young girls to sex traffickers. The qualitative research on sex trafficking presented in this article suggests that they are not Romeo pimps or Loverboys, but traffickers, critically questioning the dominant social discourse imposed on them.

The movement of human populations across the planet has characterized human societies throughout history. However, the increasing rate of such movements across National borders has been in such a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country, put trafficked persons at risk and has given birth to modern day slavery. This study was therefore designed to ascertain the perception of illegal migration and sex trafficking in Europe among young women in Oredo, Benin City, Nigeria. The study used a multi stage random sample of 90 women aged 18-40 years whom were interviewed using in-depth interviews (20) and Focus Group Discussions guides (7). The qualitative data generated were content analyzed and the results indicate that majority of the women perceive illegal migration and sex trafficking in Europe negatively. They however would not discourage anyone who wishes to engage in the act, partly due to the socio economic benefits derived therein. Given that illegal migration and sex trafficking in Europe is inimical to human and societal well-being, it therefore becomes necessary for social workers and ethical practitioners to advocate the formulation of policies and programmes focusing on ethical migration practice and women empowerment with aim to rehabilitate and reduce human sex exploitation.

International cooperation can be understood as competent bodies of the Social Republic of Vietnam and other countries coordinating, supporting each other in investigation, prosecution, adjudication and execution of criminal cases. International cooperation in criminal procedure includes mutual legal assistance in criminal, extradition, receipt and transfer of prisoners and other activities as stipulated in Criminal Procedure Code 2015, international laws on mutual legal assistance and conventions of which the Social Republic of Vietnam is a member. Child sexual abuse cases in Vietnam and other countries in the world, especially in ASEAN region, have become increasingly complicated. Many Vietnamese children were and have been victims of sex trafficking to foreign countries, a lot of them were fooled by job opportunities and then were sold into prostitution near the border of China, Cambodia, Laos and other Asian countries, namely Malaysia, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand... Therefore, prevention of child sexual abuse is an integral task and a top priority of Vietnam currently. Solving child sexual abuse cases consisting of international factors requires Vietnam to have close international cooperation with other countries. This article focuses on the analysis of the provisions of criminal procedure law and the practical implementation of mutual legal assistance in the process of solving child sexual abuse cases. In addition, the article provides solutions to improve the effectiveness of mutual legal assistance in solving child sexual abuse cases.

Sex trafficking is recognized as a national problem that inflicts serious harm on its victims, yet, legislative responses to trafficking vary depending on jurisdiction. Federal legislation considers youths who engage in commercial sex acts as trafficking victims. States, however, vary in the evidence required to prove a juvenile is a victim of sex trafficking, as opposed to an offender of prostitution. Using four years of data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System, we compared details of commercial sex incidents involving youths who were identified as trafficking victims or arrested as prostitutes. Beyond legislative differences, comparisons between cases are discussed to illuminate how state law enforcement officials legally classify these events involving adolescents (i.e., as victims or prostitutes). Further, we consider the policy implications of the findings.

Aotearoa New Zealand’s 2003 decriminalisation of sex work has reduced the exploitation of sex workers, as well as the health and safety risks in the industry. Nevertheless, United States-driven criminalising policies still influence sex workers abroad. The Fight Online Sex Trafficking and Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Acts (FOSTA-SESTA) effectively criminalised websites where sex workers advertise. Shortly before that, the FBI shut down the internationally used Backpage.com, leading many sex workers in both countries to return to the streets or brothels. These events contributed to the rising dominance of one advertising website, NewZealandGirls.com. Drawing on twenty semi-structured interviews and four observation cases with sex workers in Auckland, in this paper, I explore the international consequences of FOSTA-SESTA and the closure of Backpage on my participants. I show that this punitive approach to segments of the online sex industry has not only placed sex workers in greater financial insecurity, but has reduced their ability to control their working conditions. These outcomes, I conclude, have undermined the positive impacts of decriminalisation, while exacerbating socioeconomic, racial, gender, and legal inequalities in Auckland’s sex industry.

Accounts of human trafficking suggest music’s uniquely insidious role for victims forcibly trafficked into strip club-based sex work, wherein music is ubiquitous. In sociological fieldwork, sex wor...

Domestic sex trafficking has yet to appear on the policy agenda in Aotearoa New Zealand, and yet to be met with a law enforcement response. Accordingly, we have minimal knowledge about the contexts in which sex trafficking is perpetrated and what victims’ experiences involve. This article focuses specifically on the attainment and negotiation of social capital by victims whose access to traditional capital is at least partially restricted by their social and familial contexts. Sixteen victims of domestic sex trafficking participated in semistructured interviews. The data were analyzed using an adapted version of Clanindin and Connelly’s (2000) three-dimensional structure of narrative analysis. Three of the themes emerging from this are discussed here; namely abuse and mistreatment in early life, the negotiation of survival within the trafficking context, and sexuality as a bargaining tool. We argue that victims’ access to traditional mechanisms of social capital accrual may be precluded by the multiple sites of gendered disadvantage that collude to entrap victims in a subordinate and exploited position. However, to negotiate their continued survival despite the constraints to their agency, they appear to access both vicarious physical capital and feminized (and usually sexualised) capital by instrumentalizing their sexual appeal or prowess and the protection of the subjectively more powerful male “partner.”

PurposeThe available research on specialized interventions for youth experiencing commercial sexual exploitation almost exclusively focuses on the impact and efficacy related to cisgender girls, despite the inclusion of youth who identify as transgender in these programs. This paper aims to present a case study on the experience of a transgender adolescent girl who experienced commercial sexual exploitation and provides a narrative of the multifarious challenges she faced while involved in institutional systems of care.Design/methodology/approachThis paper conducted an in-depth case review of all records on “Jade,” a white adolescent transgender girl who experienced commercial sexual exploitation, from a specialty court program in the juvenile justice system between 2012 and 2016. Her experiences throughout childhood exemplify many of the unique challenges that transgender girls and young women with histories of exploitation or trafficking may encounter within service delivery and socioecological systems. This paper applied concepts adapted from the gender minority stress theoretical model to understand how minority gender identity can shape the experiences and outcomes of the youth impacted by commercial sexual exploitation.FindingsJade’s narrative underscores the interplay of gender-based sexual violence, heteronormative structural barriers, transphobia and their intersectional impact on her experience while receiving specialized care. The intersectional hardships she experienced likely contributed to adverse biopsychosocial outcomes, including high rates of medical and behavioral health diagnoses and expectations of further rejection.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the extraordinary challenges and barriers faced by an often under-recognized and overlooked subset of the youth impacted by commercial sexual exploitation, who may receive services that do not account for their unique needs related to gender expression and identity. This paper exemplifies how internalized stigma along with expectations of further rejection and victimization have implications for clinical and multidisciplinary intervention settings. Jade’s case underscores the need for improved access to supportive services for youth with minority gender identities, including peer community-building opportunities. Finally, this paper identifies a critical gap in US legislation and social policy. This gap contributes to the structural harms faced by transgender and gender-nonconforming youth receiving services during or following experiences of commercial sexual exploitation.

I have been conducting empirical research on child trafficking in the United States ever since the passage of the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000. I began by “studying up”:1 ...

The crime of sex trafficking is a phenomenon that affects almost every region of the world. The crime is fundamentally a process of convergence between different individuals with distinct character...

Domestic minor sex trafficking is often thought of as a crime that happens somewhere else (outside of Australia), with most conceptualizations involving a child who is internationally trafficked. T...

The “Poquianchi affair” shook 1960s’ Mexico with its subject of sex trafficking, woman-on-woman violence, and mass murder. It generated a visceral public response and a gamut of narratives on crime, punishment, and the social values of the modern age. The Mexican press, in particular the tabloids, conflated socially stigmatized behaviors and gender tensions embedded in the patriarchal order, labeling the Poquianchi brothel madams a direct public threat. This essay examines how the Poquianchi scandal became a focal point for discussing the Mexican national project. Felipe Cazals’ 1979 film Las Poquianchis and Jorge Ibarguengoitia’s 1970 novel Las muertas departed from the media hype to shed light on deeply rooted hypocrisies governing society as a whole, such as the symbiotic relation between the brothel madams, the authorities, and the community at large. Refraining from moralistic dichotomies, they ponder upon the evolving discourse of criminality in modern Mexican society, where the positivist rhetoric of progress, social justice, and integration only camouflaged the inequality pervading the nation’s social fabric.

Odontologists play a primary duty in the identification of individuals or missing persons in a scenario of a mass disaster, violent crime, child abuse, and elder abuse. When it comes to the identification of the victim or the suspect, their dental traits could turn out to a compelling proof and can help in slimming down the result of the investigating welfare work. Typically, it becomes necessary to use some least known and fewer widespread techniques in identification procedure such as lip prints, rugae patterns, and willing odontometrics can provide relatively valid conclusions referring to a person's identification. This review elucidates the importance of cheiloscopy, palatoscopy, and canine odontometry in a person's identification in relation to sex prediction and discrimination. This review article provides the newest information about the recent major advances and discoveries related to the classical and modern developed methods of dental identification that would enhance the knowledge and awareness among the professionals examining the youth victims of sex trafficking in urban and rural communities or identification of the rape or sexual abuse victims and the convicts, particularly in the Indian subcontinent when the rate of raped or sexually abused victims has risen. Various search engines such as Medline, PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE, and Web of Science were explored for scientific articles (original clinical research findings, case reports, and review articles) in the present subject area. A manual search strategy was adopted to obtain relevant literature on human trafficking, sexual violence, dental identification, and forensic odontology. There were no fixed inclusion and exclusion criteria before and after the literature search. Thus, the articles and items reviewed in this article were picked based on their relevance to the present topic, and an attempt was made to understand the application of various available methods of dental identification all over the world and its applicability to the forensic odontologists in the Indian subcontinent. The dental professionals who operate on the potential victims of human trafficking in secondary care units usually lack data and confidence. Coaching is required significantly for the dental employees who are involved in the identification of the victims and answering their demands, along with creating safe referrals.