User:Aschust3/sandbox

NGOs often have the best of intentions when combating sex-trafficking. NGOs are often funded by the West and are implemented in countries that have a very different culture. Research shows that employees of the Western NGOs are slow to adapt to the culture of the community they are providing services to. This often leads to a disconnect between the NGO and the community. Employees of NGOs hold the responsibility of relaying the narrative of sex-trafficked people. This can create a hierarchical structure that makes the voice of Western NGOs as more legitimate than the voice of the people they are serving. Thus, reinforcing the essentialized notion of third-world women as backwards and other.

Japan is a popular place for sex-trafficking. Japan has a long history with the trade of women for sex. For a good part of the countries history, sex work was legal in Japan. This makes it difficult for the government to decipher between legal sex work and illegal prostitution. This is where NGOs step in to assist the government. NGOs provide services in countries where the government policies are failing to combat a specific issue. However, in Japan it is difficult for NGOs focused on issues with women to receive local funding. This weak political support makes the work for NGOs in Japan much more difficult. Japan’s lack of support for women’s rights shows why the role of NGOs is so important in that country.

Public information campaigns are defined  “...government-directed and sponsored effort to communicate to the public or a segment of the public in order to achieve a policy result” (Majic 2017; Weiss & Tschirhart 1994).

In the past ten years, Spain has seen a surge of sex trafficking. In light of this crisis, social movements, organizations and government institutions have enacted policies like the Second National Plan against Sex Trafficking and Anti-Trafficking laws. Campaigns to fight against sex trafficking in Spain between 2008-2017 have been examined by researchers. Their research showed that that many campaigns focus on the narrative of the victim as vulnerable and weak, rather than focusing on the actual crime of sex trafficking and the economic system that allows it to flourish. According to the research these narratives disempower sex trafficked people through repeated language of vulnerability and innocence. The researchers explain that the lack of information provided in these campaigns hinders their success. Campaigns will throw out huge numbers of women exploited into sex work but gives no context to the system that allows sex trafficking to flourish.

The Dear John campaign in Atlanta, Georgia ran from 2006-2008. It aims to end the demand for buying sex. The focus of this campaign is clearly centered around the John. The campaign mimics a “Dear John Letter” which is apparently a letter that a women sends to her partner when she is ending the relationship. A “John” refers to a man who purchases sex. In the 1990s, there was specific media attention paid to sex trafficking of women outside the United States. The feminist reaction to this at the time was a call for harsher punishments for Johns and social services for trafficked people. This was an aim to “end” the demand for prostitution. Critics of the Dear John campaign focus on the ‘male demand’ aspect of the campaign and find that this style of campaign reinforces gendered, racialized and sexualized assumptions about Johns and trafficked women. The historical discourse in the U.S. concerning Johns is racially charged. An example of this racialized nature is associated with the temptations of Thai massage parlors. Despite these objections, lawmakers have found this messaging morally compelling. The campaign was run by locals of Atlanta. Advocates for the campaign informed citizens through media that young women were the ones being arrested while the Johns were not.

It is common for victims to have an initmate relationship with their pimp. This makes it difficult for prosecutors to charge traffickers because the victim will not testify against their pimp. Contextual analysis research has shown the essentialized nature of the campaign. The Dear John campaign posters define women in terms of there relationship to sex. They also only depict white girls in the images inferring that the only victims worth caring about are young white and innocent.

It is interesting to note that there are no images of Johns in the campaign posters. A plausible explanation for this would be an effort by the campaign to widen the scope of the messaging and to avoid racial stereotypes. Conversly, the racial stereotypes of trafficked girls is made clear. This excludes a majority of victims who do not identify with the image that the poster conveys. Lawmakers in Atlanta were fully behind the campaign as a statement to the public that they will not tolerate the purchasing of sex. These public statements are in stark contrast to the actual amount of funding that the city gave to organizations who provide housing and services for victims. The city did no research into the effectiveness of the campaign and therefore there is no data on its actual impact on the city. It is also important to note that the campaign ads were only in English and many people are not familiar with the Dear John reference. Lawmakers believe that the campaign was effective in bringing awareness to the issue and therefore shaped public opinion and policy.