Fighting the US Youth Sex Trade
Gender, Race, and Politics

A history of activism against the commercial sexual exploitation of American youth from the 1970s to 2015.

Carrie N. Baker (Author)

9781316649619, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 September 2018

270 pages, 14 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.4 x 1.5 cm, 0.39 kg

'Fighting the US Youth Sex Trade's strength lies in its rich historical trace of the social movements regarding the child sex trade. The text accomplishes its goal of understanding the various social movements, the activists involved, and how policy was created as a result of activism.' Summer Shuford, Journal of Youth and Adolescence

Campaigns against prostitution of young people in the United States have surged and ebbed multiple times over the last fifty years. Fighting the US Youth Sex Trade: Gender, Race, and Politics examines how politically and ideologically diverse activists joined together to change perceptions and public policies on youth involvement in the sex trade over time, reframing 'juvenile prostitution' of the 1970s as 'commercial sexual exploitation of children' in the 1990s, and then as 'domestic minor sex trafficking' in the 2000s. Based on organizational archives and interviews with activists, Baker shows that these campaigns were fundamentally shaped by the politics of gender, race and class, and global anti-trafficking campaigns. The author argues that the very frames that have made these movements so successful in achieving new laws and programs for youth have limited their ability to achieve systematic reforms that could decrease youth vulnerability to involvement in the sex trade.

Introduction
1. 'My God! If only I could get out of here': roots of contemporary movements to fight the US youth sex trade
2. 'Teeny hookers' and the 'chicken hawk trade': organizing against juvenile prostitution in the 1970s
3. Survivor activism and global connections: the US campaign against commercial sexual exploitation of children in the 1990s
4. 'Our daughters' in danger: leveraging the anti-trafficking framework in the early 2000s
5. To rescue or empower: building a collaborative adversarial movement
6. 'Locked in like a dog in a kennel': challenging the criminal justice and child welfare systems
7. 'Quick fixes and good versus evil responses': criticisms of the movement
Conclusion: ending the US youth sex trade?

Subject Areas: Criminology: legal aspects [LAR], Political science & theory [JPA], Crime & criminology [JKV], Sociology [JHB], Gender studies, gender groups [JFSJ], Ethical issues: prostitution & sex industry [JFMX]