- CONFERENCES -
2003 Conference - "Demand Dynamics: The Forces of Demand in International Sex Trafficking"
2005 Conference - " Pornography: Driving the Demand for International Sex
Trafficking"
Captive Daughters has presented two very successful conferences with the theme of "Demand Dynamics"--one in 2003 and one in 2005. Much is known about the "supply" side of sex trafficking (the victims), but in order to successfully combat, and eventually end, the practice of sex trafficking we explore the "demand" side of trafficking at these conferences.
DEMAND DYNAMICS:
Sponsored by Captive Daughters & the International Human Rights Law Institute of DePaul University.
The Demand Dynamics series of conferences were designed to stimulate thoughtful and effective strategies for eradicating the “demand” side of sex trafficking.
BACKGROUND:
An estimated 2 million women and children are held in sexual servitude throughout the world, and between 800,000 and 900,000 are trafficked across international borders for the purposes of sexual exploitation each year. These women and children make up the “supply” side of sex trafficking. Their lives are dominated by poverty, abuse, exploitation, rape, and freedom from nothing but dignity, safety, and meaningful options for survival.
In close proximity to these women and children are two groups of people who benefit from sex trafficking. First are the people who profit financially from the sexual exploitation of trafficked person; they include pimps, brothel owners, and pornographers. Second are those (mostly men) who buy sexual services and/or consumer goods (e.g., photos, videos, etc.) created via the sexual exploitation of trafficked persons. These people and their practices constitute the “demand” side of sex trafficking.
To date, research and media attention related to sex trafficking have mostly focused on the supply side: the misery of the victims’ experiences, their recruitment, and their movement/transport. Little attention has been given to the crucial demand factors, those people and organizations that benefit from the commercial sexual enslavement of women and children.
The conference series, Demand Dynamics, was created to fully address the dynamics of demand in trafficking. This information is imperative in understanding the root causes and conditions that allow slave-like conditions to exist and flourish. Without this information, those who are motivated to exploit and use trafficked victims will continue to remain a mystery to many of us working in this sector. We need to understand these dynamics in order to develop the legal and political policies necessary to control and end this horrific practice.
AT THESE CONFERENCES, WE ASK :
- What do we know about the people who make up the “demand” side of sex trafficking?
- How do consumers of sex trafficking find their “supply” and how is that demand manipulated and maintained?
- What governmental policies or practices enable the actions of those who create demand?
- What can be done to interfere with and ultimately eliminate demand?
FOUR FUNDAMENTAL FACTORS DRIVE THE SUCCESS OF THE SEX TRAFFICKING INDUSTRY:
1. The available supply of women and children who are trafficked by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability, or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person for the purpose of sexual exploitation;
2. Current government policies that facilitate or encourage trafficking and further victimize trafficked persons;
3. The actions of people and organizations/syndicates who enslave women and children to fill the appetite for commercial sexual services; and
4. People who buy commercial sexual services from trafficked women and children.
FACTORS THAT AFFECT DEMAND FOR TRAFFICKED PERSONS:
Many factors create and shape the demand for sex trafficking. The conference will address these factors by focusing on the underlying issues that fuel trafficking, including the following:
- Financial motivations, including profit motive and supply-demand dynamics.
- Power and control motivations, including the sexualization of gender inequality.
- Social and ethnic factors, including linkages between migration and trafficking.
- Racist motivations, including the perceived expendability of non-white populations.
- Practical motivations, including the low probability of detection/prosecution.
- "Non-motivations," including apathy toward the harm suffered by trafficking victims.
We hold conferences not on a regularly occuring schedule; rather we hold them when we have a significant topic for discussion, and conference funding. If you would like to suggest a topic, or have ideas for conference funding, please do let us know.
At this time, we have tentative plans for a conference to be presented in 2007.
Please follow the links below to each of our two past conferences. You will able to view a bibliography, speaker bio's, agenda and conference statement for each conference.
2003 Conference - "Demand Dynamics: The Forces of Demand in International Sex Trafficking"
2005 Conference - " Pornography: Driving the Demand for International Sex
Trafficking"
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