Religion and the State: Sex Work and the Policies of Vulnerability

Abstract

Following Bernstein (2007) and Berman (2006), in this paper I expand arguments that make the connections between prostitution, human-trafficking and Christian rhetoric. I will analyze U.S. public policy to trace how hegemonic approaches fighting human-trafficking have embraced Christian ideas on sexuality. These ideas have created two major fallacies at the heart of the U.S. policies on human-trafficking: First, the constant conflation of “prostitution” and “human-trafficking” as synonyms making women vulnerable subjects; and second, a neoliberal focus on individual causes and experiences of human-trafficking instead of examining the systemic forces responsible for it.