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Abstract: 

The sex trafficking industry has increasingly become a subject of criminological study, and the law has gradually readjusted its perspective on the sex workers from offenders to victims. A book released in 2017, “Third Party Sex Work and Pimps in the Age of Anti-trafficking,” edited by Amber Horning & Anthony Marcus, is an empirical research-based social science book studying pimps and third-parties to commercial sex transactions. This article, written by the book’s authors, highlights some of the key points of the text and, in doing so, outlines an indictment against certain processes of the criminal justice system that undermine the ability of workers in the sex industry to get fair treatment under the law. The “Daubert” standard refers to federal rules of evidence for qualifying an expert witness; in this context, the authors argue that much expert testimony in sex trafficking cases does not meet reasonable or acceptable standards of evidence-based rigor.

Keywords: How Prostitution Became Human Trafficking; Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000

Affiliations:  1: University of Massachusetts, Lowell; 2: John Jay College of Criminal Justice; 3: John Jay College Department of Anthropology .