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Biography

Dellene Clark holds a BLC, LLB, and LLM in Human Rights and Fundamental Practice from the University of Pretoria, a BCom Hons from the University of Cape Town, and an LLD from the University of South Africa; she is an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa. The arguments and conclusions in this article are drawn from her doctoral research at the University of South Africa (UNISA) and are offered in the capacity of an independent researcher and should not be attributed to her current employer.

Abstract

Emerging criminological research underscores how the economic drivers of trafficking for sexual exploitation reinforce organised criminal markets while reproducing the structural vulnerabilities of those in prostitution. Using South Africa as a case study, this article argues that evidence-based legislative reform is necessary to confront the systemic conditions that enable exploitation. It contends that achieving substantive equality requires recognising the criminogenic role of sex‑buyer demand in sustaining trafficking pipelines and criminal profitability. The Swedish/Nordic demand‑reduction model illustrates how asymmetrical criminalisation can suppress demand, reduce reliance on trafficked persons, and diminish the financial incentives that underpin organised crime. Such an approach reorients legal accountability toward those who drive the market for sexual exploitation while concurrently disrupting the broader criminal ecosystems in which trafficking is entrenched.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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