Primary Prevention of Sex Trafficking: Time to Move the Needle on Demand Reduction

Author: van der Watt, Marcel

Abstract: Consumer-level demand reduction is positioned as the primary prevention of sex trafficking, and researchers and practitioners are implored to expand the focus on consumer-level demand in scholarship and practice. Evidence of consumer-level demand is an ever-present piece of the physical, psychological, and sexual violence that stems from the overlapping systems of prostitution and sex trafficking. While multilateral legal obligations and political commitments geared toward discouraging the demand that fosters sex trafficking exist, actions that hold sex buyers accountable have been slow-moving. Research, too, frequently ignores the glaring role of sex buyers in ringfencing sex trafficking crimes, shrouding traffickers, and obscuring victims. This commentary is informed by the author’s interspersing law enforcement and operational fieldwork dating back to 2002 and a recent study sponsored by the National Institute of Justice and completed by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation’s Research Institute.

Keywords: primary prevention, sex trafficking, prostitution, consumer-level demand, demand reduction