Date of Submission
Spring 2012
Academic Program
Political Studies
Project Advisor 1
Ken Haig
Abstract/Artist's Statement
The purpose of this project is to show why the issue of human sex trafficking was brought into the light in the 90’s when it existed way before. The answer is, the increase of women in power, the coalition of faith based groups joining the radical feminists and pressuring the Clinton and Bush administrations, and the increase of STD’s in the 80’s with the new focus on reproductive health. This project also shows how the Clinton and Bush administrations have addressed these issues of sex trafficking and prostitution; as well as which side of the debate the administration agreed with. Under Clinton the debate focused mostly with feminists groups. Those who wanted to end sex trafficking but legalize prostitution and those who wanted to end sex trafficking and criminalize prostitution. Under Clinton, the anti-prostitution groups won the debate as they gained administrative support and legislation. Under Bush the debate was also between legalizing or criminalizing prostitution, however, the main players were the evangelical religious groups. The debate also escalated to include whether or not the demand should be criminalized as well. Sex worker rights groups did not want to criminalize the demand because it would decrease business for sex workers who consent and are trying to make a living. While anti-prostitution groups wanted to criminalize those who bought commercial sex, as it lead to increase demands for sex trafficking as well.
Distribution Options
Access restricted to On-Campus only
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
LaGuerre, Cynthia, "The Clinton and Bush Administrations’ Response to Human Sex Trafficking of Women: The Debate between Sex Trafficking and Prostitution" (2012). Senior Projects Spring 2012. 146.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2012/146
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