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Volume 10, Issue 4 (2025)Read More

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Journal Article
1 October 2018

Never Again! Surviving Liberalized Prostitution in Germany

Sandra Norak, Ingeborg Kraus
This article, co-authored by a six-year survivor of the sex trade industry in Germany (Sandra Norak) and a psychologist and trauma therapist (Ingeborg Kraus), provides perspectives on the difficulty of withstanding the coercion of traffickers and the difficulties of exiting prostitution in a country in which prostitution has been legalized, normalized and made “a job like any other.” This normalization persuades survivors to believe their traffickers that it is a legitimate occupation and encourages them to endure the violence. Liberalization also has prevented the development of needed trauma services to those seeking to exit the sex trade industry.
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Current Articles

Journal Article1 October 2025

Venezuelan Migrants in Prostitution: A Personal Decision?

Yazmin Maria Lucila Cadena Camargo, Izara Maite Mondragon Moreno, Isabela Osorio Jaramillo, Paula Angélica Suárez Álvarez, Andrés Duarte Osorio, Carlos Gómez-Restrepo
This paper explores the multifaceted experiences of Venezuelan migrant women engaged in prostitution, framed through three critical moments: the “decision to enter in prostitution,” the unique abuses faced, and the resultant consequences on mental, physical, and social health. The study highlights how socioeconomic vulnerabilities—exacerbated by migration and poverty—significantly influence the likelihood of entering prostitution. It also shows how traumatic experiences, particularly in childhood and adolescence, coupled with a lack of support networks, contribute to a heightened risk of exploitation. Eleven life stories were collected through a phenomenological approach, revealing a common narrative of abuse, poverty, and the search for survival in a foreign country. The findings underscore that prostitution is not merely a personal choice, but a complex phenomenon shaped by structural inequalities and systemic violence. Overall, the research highlights the urgent need for comprehensive support systems to aid these women in overcoming the profound challenges they face, both during and after their involvement in prostitution.
Journal Article1 October 2025

Everyday Resistance Against the Mandatory Hijab and the Lack of Collective Solidarity in Iran

Atefeh Batyari
The mandatory hijab in Iran serves as a symbol of social control over women, leading to individual and everyday forms of resistance. This article employs James Scott’s theory of “everyday resistance” alongside Hannah Arendt’s concept of “individuality” to explore why these acts of resistance remain fragmented and largely ineffective. The analysis reveals that the severe repression of protests and the imposition of a passive individuality by the Islamic Republic of Iran hinder the formation of collective action and effective solidarity among women. A firsthand account witnessed by the author describes a violent confrontation between the Gasht-eErshad (morality police) and a woman without the mandatory hijab, highlighting the absence of collective support from bystanders. Ultimately, this article emphasizes the need to strengthen collective solidarity to achieve more effective resistance by women.
Journal Article1 October 2025

Disability and Human Trafficking: Prevention Education and Professional Training

Andrea Nichols, Sarah Slutsker, Melissa Oberstaedt
Aim: This pilot study aimed to explore the intersection of disability and anti-trafficking prevention and training efforts from the perspectives of human trafficking survivors with disabilities and the professionals who work with them to inform further research. Methods: The current study draws from in-depth interviews with seven participants, including two survivors and five professionals who regularly worked with human trafficking survivors with disabilities. Data analysis involved independent co-coding of transcribed interviews by a three-member research team to identify core themes and subthemes. Results: The results showed a lack of human trafficking prevention education for people with disabilities, as well as disability inclusive training for professionals. Participants described the need for prevention education to be audience-tailored, accessible, and culturally humble. Participants described that professional training was lacking in both the inclusion of people with disabilities and accessibility, and highlighted the importance of training that includes culturally humble practices. Implications: Prevention education necessitates consideration of the audience, including tailoring content and delivery to the audience (e.g., age/ disability type), making content accessible, and exercising cultural humility in learning about and modifying curriculum and delivery. Professional training requires inclusiveness of the heightened risk experienced by people with disabilities, as well as ways risks and signs may be distinct by disability type. Professional training should be accessible to professionals with disabilities and also include information about accessibility within organizations and culturally humble practices to better serve human trafficking survivors with disabilities.
Journal Article1 December 2025

Prostitution in Video Games: Stigma, Violence and Male Pleasure

Laura Aguilera-Ávila, Lara Escobar Hernández
Prostitution has traditionally been framed in society as a space significantly determined by patriarchal hierarchies, in addition to being affected on many occasions by stigmatisation and violence. The representation of prostitution and of those who practice it in the media is a topic of special interest, since the discourses and messages disseminated by the media play a fundamental role in socialisation. Video games are not exempt from this debate: with millions of players worldwide and a special reach among young people, they are among the most influential media outlets today. This qualitative research analyses a series of titles, both AAA (video games developed by major publishers, characterized by high-quality graphics, sound, and gameplay) and Indies (alternative video games). It shows how they incorporate prostitution, as well as the way in which they construct the identities of those characters who practice it. This reality is mainly portrayed through a simple or superficial discourse in which male pleasure is prioritised and in which the general tendency is representation through stigma and violence.