Challenging the Human Trafficking Narrative

Erin O’Brien is Senior Lecturer in the School of Justice, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Dr O’Brien’s current research examines political activism and policy making on irregular migration, labour exploitation, and sex work. She is the author of The Politics of Sex Trafficking, and co-editor of Crime, Justice, and Social Democracy.

• 1. Introduction: The Narrative Code, 2. Telling Trafficking Stories, 3. From Sex Slaves to Migrant Men, 4. Ideal and Invisible Victims, 5. Pimps, Johns, and Mobsters, 6. Heroic Consumers, 7. Everyday Activists and Action Heroes, 8. Government Heroes and Villains, 9. Conclusion: Narrative Evolution

"A powerful analysis of dominant narratives about human trafficking, revealing how these stories produce problematic, narrow images of a range of actors – women, migrants, governments, NGOs, consumers, corporations, activists, etc - while all too often conflating sex work and trafficking. O’Brien deftly illuminates how global positioning, race, ethnicity and gender work to construct simplistic ideas about the ideal victim as a passive young woman, the villain as the foreign, and the hero as western, and argues convincingly for a diversification of these images and the production of counter-narratives that can render more realistic and accurate depictions. A highly accessible book that urges us to think carefully about matters of agency, complicity, and social responsibility – a must-read for any student or activist concerned about human trafficking." - Kamala Kempadoo, Professor of Social Science, York University, Canada"In this enthralling book, Erin O'Brien creates a compelling analysis of the most common stories about human trafficking as told by Western governments, NGOs and through media and entertainment channels. These stories feature blameless victims, evil traffickers and heroic Western actors, but through O'Brien's expert dissection she enables us to see clearly the limits of such uncomplicated tellings and to question the policy approaches and activism which emerge in their wake."- Gillian Wylie, Assistant Professor, International Peace Studies, Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland