Open AccessThe Perfect Victim: ‘Young girls’, domestic trafficking, and anti-prostitution politics in Canada
Author(s) -
Elya M. Durisin,
Emily van der Meulen
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
anti trafficking review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2287-0113
pISSN - 2286-7511
DOI - 10.14197/atr.201221169
Subject(s) - politics , legislation , sex trafficking , criminology , state (computer science) , political science , gender studies , human trafficking , law , sociology , algorithm , computer science
This article explores debates among politicians in Ontario, Canada, regarding anti-trafficking legislation introduced in 2016 and 2017. We find that contemporary discussions in the political sphere have shifted away from concerns about the trafficking of migrant exotic dancers and toward the sexual exploitation of girls and young women, represented as idealised, inculpable victims. We suggest that this conflates the diverse experiences of girls and adult women, configures them all as child-like, and renders both groups as being in need of state protection. The new ‘perfect victim’ serves to legitimise policy approaches that criminalise sexual services, despite those laws being deemed harmful to sex workers in courts and other venues.