Violated identities. New slaveries in the globalized society and the rise of the sex industry: the phenomena of trafficking and sexual tourism. A sociological perspective

Abstract

The document addresses the issue of new slavery and sexual trafficking from a sociological perspective. Developing considerations on the impact and growth of sexual tourism and child pornography, including online, on the identity of the victims, mainly millions of children and women, but also of those who sexually abuse them and of those who torture, buy, sell for sexual purposes. The identity that interests us is also that of the States that transmit data on trafficking and that make political decisions for or against. Added to this is the identity of the power structures colluding with organized crime, and on the opposite side, that of the associations that fight against trafficking, to help and prevent this deep global social wound. The identities of women, girls and children are constantly violated, sold even by their families, often because of poverty. Victims of trafficking and new slavery, often become ill, malnourished, may contract HIV, become drug addicts, and suffer from social marginalization. Although there is the Palermo Protocol of 2000 and other intervention tools, sex trafficking, now also digital, constitutes together with drugs and weapons, a generator of gigantic profits. Repression and regulation have many limits, it is fundamental to act on the education, culture and poverty. Starting from the fifteen theses on capitalism and the global exploitation of prostitution proposed by sociologist Richard Poulin and on the basis of the data collected, we will also address the geopolitical factors that favor the phenomenon of trafficking and sexual tourism. We will develop further considerations, drawing inspiration from the investigations and testimonies collected by Siddharth A. Kara and Lydia Cacho who have given enormous visibility to these painful realities of human rights violations, through their studies and their travels, to trace the maps of trafficking, in the era of globalization.