Explaining Support for Anti-Human Trafficking Legislation in the United States Congress
23 Pages Posted: 17 Jul 2012 Last revised: 1 Oct 2012
Date Written: 2012
Abstract
The global tragedies of human trafficking and modern-day slavery have once again risen to the public agenda and received attention from governments, the media, and a variety of other organizations and activists. In recent years, there has been a flurry of anti-trafficking policy activity in United States and a variety of initiatives aimed at increasing international cooperation in combating trafficking and bringing greater attention to the problem worldwide. On the surface, there seems to be near unanimous support among US policymakers for combatting human trafficking and a broad ideological and partisan consensus on the particular approach to address the problem. But much of our understanding of policymaking in the US Congress has come from media reports and descriptive policy narratives. Moreover, the focus has been on the latter stages of the process and has neglected to identify the more active sources of support and leadership as well as sources of indifference. Furthermore, while the TVPA serves as a milestone in the fight against human trafficking and has spawned a number of useful initiatives, Congress has failed to pass any additional legislation over the past 12 years. This study seeks to understand better both the agents and impediments to combatting human trafficking in the US Congress by analyzing bill sponsorship and co-sponsorship between 1999 and 2010.
Keywords: TVPA, sex trafficking, gender, Congress
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