Carceral Politics

Carceral politics as gender justice?
The "traffic in women" and neoliberal circuits of

crime, sex, and rights
Author(s): Elizabeth Bernstein
Source: Theory and Society, Vol. 41, No. 3 (May 2012), pp. 233-259
Published by: Springer
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Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259
DOI 10.1007/sll 186-012-9165-9
Carcéral politics as gender justice? The "traffic in women"

and neoliberal circuits of crime, sex, and rights
Elizabeth Bernstein
Published online: 12 February 2012

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012
Abstract This article draws upon recent works in sociology, jurisprudence, and
feminist theory in order to assess the ways in which feminism, and sex and
gender more generally, have become intricately interwoven with punitive agen-
das in contemporary US politics. Melding existing theoretical discussions of
penal trends with insights drawn from my own ethnographic research on the
contemporary anti-trafficking movement in the United States - the most recent
domain of feminist activism in which a crime frame has prevailed against
competing models of social justice - I elaborate upon the ways that neoliber-
alism and the politics of sex and gender have intertwined to produce a carceral
turn in feminist advocacy movements previously organized around struggles
for economic justice and liberation. Taking the anti-trafficking movement as a
case study, I further demonstrate how human rights discourse has become a
key vehicle both for the transnationalization of carceral politics and for the
reincorporation of these policies into the domestic terrain in a benevolent,
feminist guise. I conclude by urging greater and more nuanced attention to
the operations of gender and sexual politics within mainstream analyses of
contemporary modes of punishment, as well as a careful consideration of the
neoliberal carceral state within feminist discussions of gender, sexuality, and
the law.
Keywords Feminism • Law • Politics • Transnationalism • Human rights
E. Bernstein (1 £3)
Department of Sociology, Barnard College, Columbia University, 3009 Broadway,
New York, NY 10027, USA
e-mail: Eb2032@columbia.edu
& Springer
234 Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259
What do we want? A strong traff

-Call and response cry at National
State Trafficking law which w
prostitutes' customers, New York C
Trafficking is not a poverty issue

-Gary Haugen, Director of the
Landesman 2004: 30)
When we govern through crime, w

historically associated with it - cr
criminology - available outside th
erful tools with which to interpr
problem of governance.
-Jonathan Simon, Governing Thro
In recent years, a diverse array of

rise of mass incarceration in the U
Europe) since the 1970s, linking
governance to the spread of n
"cultures of control," to new mode
of new political paradigms of "gov
ing 1992 article, "The New Penolog
Jonathan Simon (1992) first identi
ideology that began to transpire in
increased social reliance upon the i
gerous, as opposed to the apprehen
Since that time, successive waves of
significance of mass incarceration
Foucault's earlier prediction that th
likely give way to more diffuse m
explanations they have offered for
taken, most theorists have tended t
the study of penal policy is of par
organization of power more general
the center of contemporary social t
Concurring with this assessment, n
a parallel history of the evolution of
by sex and gender in processes of
social implications of rapidly accel
(Sudbury 2005; Schaffner 2005; Ha
lives and bodies that is increasingly
1 See, for example, Wacquant (2009a, b), G

excepted, most theorists begin from the pr
while crime and victimization rates have dec
Zimring (2007).
Ê Springer
Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259 235
and ubiquitous "fear of crime" (Ma

also explored the surprising ways t
hegemonic, US guise - has often se
carcerally controlling arm of the n
rape, for example, have traced th
feminism (Gottschalk 2006; Bum
2008a; Halley 2008b), describing t
sexual violence have not only been c
to the evolution of criminal justice
This article draws upon recent work
in order to assess the ways in which
become intricately interwoven wit
extension, global) politics. Melding e
insights drawn from my own ethnogr
movement in the United States - the
crime frame has prevailed against co
the ways that neoliberalism and th
produce a carceral turn in advocacy
struggles for economic justice and
movement as a case study, I furthe
become a key vehicle both for the tra
back these policies into the domestic
The
discussion of carceral feminism
suggest that all existing feminisms -
agenda. For example, even within th
liberationist vision still prevails arou
issue of the liberal-left end of the
violence, however, including but n
carceral agenda has indisputably pr
has observed in his recent book, Se
feminists and other liberals have st
ness and criminal justice, particula
The analysis that follows derives
literatures on sex, gender, and carce
research at state- and activist-spons
sessions. Between 2005 and 2009, 1
sample of both secular feminist and
Washington DC and New York and
with movement leaders. While my
feminist groups that have been most
of the "traffic in women," the anal
scholarly and political engageme
2 Women, especially non-white women and w

of the incarcerated population, typically f
Murakawa 2005).
Although as commentators such as Saletan
agenda around reproductive freedoms has sh
& Springer
236 Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259
trafficking frame and who addre

political rubrics (see e.g., Agust
argument is informed by a decade o
with a broad sample of sex-work
1990s and early 2000s (Bernstein
'trafficking" is inadequate to desc
work and exploitation, a finding c
inquiry (see, e.g., Brennan 2004
In the sections of this essay that f
carceral politics and neoliberalism
texts in recent sociological and ju
theorized gender and sexuality dim
the contributions of a new wave
ethnographic work on the contem
States, tracing the emergence of
political formation in which prev
are recast in carceral terms.5 I co
operations of gender and sexual p
porary modes of punishment, as w
carceral state within feminist disc
Carceral politics as neoliberal g
Although there have been numero

that have situated recent transfor
social significance of these trends,
by considering three highly influe
social theory to interpret the late t
European politics: David Garland's
Punishing the Poor (2009b), and
(2007). While other commentator
social consequences of mass impr
Garland 2001b), on mass incarcer
Krivo and Hagan 2006; Davis 2003
policy alternatives (see, e.g., Ja
2000), I have chosen to focus upon
aspires to a broad theorization of
punishment and more general tren
my - including those that pertain t
David Garland's 2001 volume, Th
Contemporary Society, still figure
in this vein in its bold assertion
4 For a fuller discussion of evangelical Chr

(2010); Chuang (2010); and Weitzer (2008
For previous discussions of this concept,
Springer
Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259 237
relations that emerged in America

decades of the twentieth century
control problems that have played
to crime" (p. viii). Taking law, disc
object of analysis, amongst Garlan
the emergence of similar trends w
the UK, challenging prevailing assu
minating shared, underlying patte
Garland, an array of social dislocat
to heightened disorder and to crim
trends away from social remedies
"expressive justice." In the ascendan
is not regarded as a problem of eco
controls, in which human beings a
inhibited from doing so by soc
understanding of the root cause
publics towards a revival in pun
well as towards forms of express
campaigns that currently circulate, i
Garland's discussion grants specia
who have abandoned their prior alle
that those who were formerly its s
contemporary drift towards punit
sexuality are understood by Garland
the privatization of middle class fam
the domain of the paid workforce
objective vulnerability to crime, in
producing increased opportunities
class precariousness, "ontological ins
social control (p. 155). Although Ga
which I have more to say below), h
underpinnings of punitive politics a
particularly amongst the affluent m
While seeking to explain a similar s
emergent paradigms of criminal ju
makes a more pointed causal argum
sweeping transformations. Accord
trends in punishment and incarcer
Garland associates with "late mod
political and economic strategy in w
that were organized around the
neoliberalism does not represent a
but rather a shift in the predominant
policies are a core feature. Because
moneys away from the provision of
penal apparatus to contain newly d
Wacquant argues, that wherever ne
Ô Springer
238 Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259
too, an analysis that helps to explai

Europe as well as in the United Sta
Wacquant maintains that this is a
far beyond the economic, with the
form to another constituting a key
view, can best be described as a rem
bosom" is transformed into a hard
transition from welfare to workfar
ghetto to prison. In addition to accou
classed, and gendered bodies und
considers the operations of gen
Wacquant, the discursive productio
and culture - a singularly demonic
ticity plays a critical role in legitima
in addition to the productive aspect
As Wacquant argues, noting how t
relocates sexual menace outside the
execration of the stranger pedoph
purify the family and reassert its es
accelerating neoliberal trends in th
full chapter devoted to the symbo
demonstrate how the moral abject
perpetually refreshed motive for
retribution that has characterized
Whereas both Garland's and Wacqu
ship between neoliberal economic p
the poor, and rising rates of incarce
rary crime policies highlights the i
that are themselves increasingly sequ
SUVS that resemble armored Humv
that have emerged across boun
carceral strategies of social contro
walls of one's own suburban ho
view, mass incarceration is rev
for the domination of African Am
(which should be regarded as effe
policies) but rather "as a policy s
through crime" (p. 159). For Sim
crime as a political strategy that i
consider; the building of prisons, a
fill them, are but secondary and d
6 While Wacquant's theoretical modeling of

has been amply debated (see, e.g., Campbe
critiquing his theory for its economic dete
among neoliberalism, carcerality, sex, and g
Ô Springer
Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259 239
Like Wacquant, Simon emphasiz

simply repressive) dimensions of c
David Garland's assertion that rising
in crime. Yet in contrast to Wacquan
not primarily about the control an
challenging views of power that ext
center out to the periphery (p. 1
middle class "freedom" are secured
of contemporary penal policy. As S
governing through crime has been
Highlighting the growing political
movement, Simon argues that the
citizen as the idealized legal subject
Finally, Simon observes that femin
the new tough-on-crime frame, par
violence. In this regard, he embraces
woman as crime victim has emerge
wave feminism" (p. 108). Following
how the feminist anti-rape and dom
oriented towards grassroots and soc
the terrain of criminal justice (as e
Against Women Act) to pursue the
Although Simon's analysis is a
interplay between contemporary
implication that carceral strategies
transformations (a perspective tha
thing that feminists have themselves
questions. Why, in both Simon's an
respond in reactionary ways to the
wrought? And why, viewed throug
themselves be advocating for a shif
linized penal state? What, in other
carceral politics of neoliberalism?
Although Simon, Garland, and Wac
important galvanizing factors in
describe, they fail to theorize their
ways. Despite the varying perspect
advent of the remasculinized penal s
set of "social anxieties" wrought by
a perspective that dovetails with
gendered social and economic relat
industrial capitalism. Although e
observes that contemporary carcer
sexualized violence (whether or not
struction of this framework), they n
is a uniquely effective cultural vehic
theoretical contributions that thes
& Springer
240 Theor Soc (2012) 41 :233-259
carcéral politics in neoliberal reconfig

acknowledgment that new configurat
transitions, there is still much to b
sexual and political-economic transfo
To fill in the blanks that their work ha
intersections of neoliberalism, the carc
have carceral feminist frameworks gain
ationist feminist visions have declined
politics get conjoined to drown out oth
now to an emergent body of scholarsh
well as to my own ethnographic research
women" - the most recent domain of f
rapid ascendance, both within the Unit
Carceral feminism confronts the "tr
On a cold and windy February afte

lunchtime rallies on behalf of a new
potential criminal penalties against
prostitute, from 90 days to a year
encounter a group of fifty or so
conspicuously middle class as indic
patterns of speech) as well as a gat
Present too are several influential
have been invited by the organizers
Women from the rally's two sponso

Equality Now) as well as a smattering of
the speakers, holding up signs from
press packets. Periodically, they coax th
"What do we want? A strong traffick
Spitzer, take the lead! A strong traffic
In their depictions of the sex industr

new anti-trafficking buzzwords ("vic
along with stock anecdotes of innoc
being
forced to sell their bodies, and
women's victimization are coupled w
demand" and to pursue aggressively
law is rendered as a surprisingly po
behavior: "We need to have laws that
7 The bill, New York SB 5902, passed with bro

2007.
8 Spitzer was ironically a strong ally of the New York feminist movement before resigning from office on
March 13, 2008 for patronizing a prostitute (Powell and Confessore 2008).
ß Springer
Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259 241
commercial sexual exploitation bu

explains.
The final speaker at the event is Angela Lee from the New York Asian Women's
Center. Fashionable and fortyish, dressed in a black leather jacket and fitted
slacks, she makes no mention of the role played by global poverty in the
dynamics of trafficking or prostitution, instead framing the issue in terms of
the sexual integrity of families. "This is a family issue," she declares outright,
"especially as Chinese New Year approaches and there are so many victims'
families who won't be able to celebrate."9 Lee goes on to link the dangers faced
by trafficking victims to New York's State's lack of success thus far in imposing
a law that would provide severe enough criminal penalties for traffickers and
pimps. She concludes her speech with the emotional declaration that "We need
to punish the traffickers and set the victims free!"
-From my fieldnotes, February 2007, New York City
Although a decade of feminist research and activism has addressed the role of the neoliberal
state in criminalizing the survival strategies of poor women, and of poor women of color in
particular (see, e.g., Davis and Shaylor (2001); Davis (2003); Schaffner (2005); Sudbury
(2005); Haney (2010)), the significance of feminism's own widening embrace of the
neoliberal carcéral state has only begun to come into focus. Two recent genealogies of
second wave feminism by political theorists Marie Gottschalk (2006) and Kristin
Bumiller (2007) have sought to shed light upon this trajectory, providing important
elaboration and grounding for Jonathan Simon's observation that feminism - and in
particular, recent feminist activism around questions of sexual violence-has
been a crucial enabler of the late-capitalist carceral turn. "The contemporary
women's movement in the United States helped facilitate the carceral state," explains
Gottschalk, noting that some of the very same historical and institutional factors that
made the US women's movement relatively successful in gaining public acceptance
(including its firm foothold in elite politics, the absence of competing Marxist currents,
and a strong national tradition of political liberalism) were important building blocks for
the carceral state that emerged simultaneously in the 1970s (p. 115). Arguing that the
neoliberal carceral imperative has had a devastating impact upon the ways that feminist
engagement with questions of sexual violence have come to be framed, Bumiller (2008)
suggests that the reciprocal is also true: once feminism became fatally inflected by
neoliberal strategies of social control, it could serve as an effective inspiration for
broader campaigns for criminalization (such as the war on drugs).
While Gottschalk and Bumiller single out US feminism as an exceptional case,
scholars such as Ticktin (2008), Kempadoo (2005b), and Kulick (2003) have pointed
to similar trends within an array of different national contexts. Writing about the
confluence of French feminism and anti-immigrant sentiment, for example, Miriam
Ticktin notes that contemporary feminist concern with issues of sexual violence "is
often recognized only through the framework of racial, cultural, and religious
9 Such claims disregard a body of social scientific evidence that has found that women and girls often enter
into prostitution at their families' behest, so as to provide better for their parents and children; see, e.g.,
Montgomery (2001); Agustfn (2007); Bernstein (2007b).
& Springer
242 Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259
difference" (2008, p. 865). As Tic

racism," feminist campaigns aroun
erful accessories to French state in
1995, p. 72, quoted in Ticktin 2008
Another recent domain of feminist
apparent has
been in gathering po
women." Until
the mid-1990s, an in
to decriminalize and to destigmati
protections for sex workers from w
efforts have been undercut by a bev
equate all prostitution with the crim
criminal penalties against trafficke
Alice Miller has noted, in the late 19
transnational feminist organizing at
"a focus on acrime control methods
full range of rights needed by traf
Protocol Against Trafficking in Pe
crime control - not human rights o
United States, although some anti-traf
goal of decriminalizing and securing
thrust of current feminist attention h
than eliminating - the sphere of crim
Although "trafficking" as defined in
could conceivably encompass sweats
practices on military bases in Iraq, it
trafficked women and girls that hav
the state, and the press. In the 200
example, "trafficking" is understood
others or other forms of sexual e
practices similar to slavery, servitu
on Drugs and Crime 2000)." Yet as
'prostitution occupies an asymmetr
criteria for force or coercion that qu
context, two intertwined themes emer
intervention and a criminal response
Feminist anti-trafficking activis
upon sexual violation, rather than
generally - in addition to their st
Christians - has been crucial to tran
material and symbolic effects (Ber
events such as the February 2007 an
in New York City, the political eff
with calls for an expanded carceral
and feminist activists in strong agr
issue of family values, sexual préda
Commentators who have critically
ment in the United States have often
Springer
Theor Soc (2012) 41 :233-259 243
be the moralistic sexual politics of

conservative Christians.10 They hav
violated visions of femininity and
is "pro-marriage" and "pro-family"
towards nonprocreative sex (Soder
Buss and Didi Herman (2003) have fu
and evangelicals were well-poised to
as a greater reliance upon NGOs
evangelical NGOs to enter into the i
Other critics have pointed to the stro
trafficking in the current moment and
postbellum years of the last century, w
violated femininity, shattered innocen
(see e.g., Kempadoo 2005a, b; Foer
mentators such as Roger Lancaster
situated contemporary mobilizations
"sex panics" that have occurred at pe
twentieth and twenty-first centurie
current US anti-trafficking campaig
hearings that took place during the 19
of the feminist movement once gain j
been explored (Weitzer 2007; see als
Although ample critical attention
feminist sexual politics that underpin
accounts have stopped short of look
between the feminist and evangelical
the 'traffic in women" to its curren
specifically, a carceral and farh from
both domestically and internationally
questions of why a vision of sexu
(feminist) family values should reig
or how these values might couple wit
Whereas theorists such as Garland, W
carceral state but provide only a partial
facilitated its emergence, an equally
politics that M to consider adequately
insistence upon of g carceral versions
campaigns as in neoliberal governanc
the political spectrum are joined to
carceral values. A consideration of t
dimensions of neoliberal governance
10 The term "radical feminist" may be largely

of the original activists associated with this p
tional governance, including within the Bush
In this regard, Lancaster (2011) constitutes a
& Springer
244 Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259
Neoliberalism's (feminist) family
In the 1970s our feminist goal was

work, liberation from sexual constr
nancy and forced domestic service.
function of violence in keeping u
punishing men or protecting wo
women and protecting men. We w
our homes, our lives in courageous
and controls. We knew our moveme
we had no illusion about the sanctit
-Gail Pheterson, "Tracing a Rad
Present" (2008)
As the feminist theorist Gail Phete

feminist critique of family and ho
movement's embrace of carceral pol
"protective" curfews and controls. Al
terms of the "new middle class pu
mainstream feminist embrace of fam
forms of sexual violence is sociologica
marked contrast to the analyses of
Luker's Abortion and the Politic
Stranger Next Door (2002), as w
account, What's The Matter with
which the right-wing adhesion
reaction to the hegemonic sexua
ideological commitments are unde
conservative investments in sexual
of those the global economy has le
Yet as Garland, Wacquant, and Sim
the contemporary anti-trafficking m
and the "conservative" sexual politic
situated within the liberal-leaning
(Bernstein 2010), I argued that in
ironically secular feminists who a
new-middle class contingent of eva
modernizing project that literally tr
sex industry. Two recent shifts in
have made their current alliance ag
shift from a focus upon bad men
fathers) to sexual predators outsid
feminist-friendly shift of a new
sexually improper women (as prio
focus upon sexually improper men. F
of big business, the state, and the po
the enemies of migrant sex workers, a
Ê Springer
Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259
structural factors and dom

criminal men. To rework s
gendered logics of postcolo
is white women who have jo
save brown women from b
While secular feminists h
advocacy by the opportuni
and travel (see, e.g., Halley
potential that contemporar
their own power in domes
global sex industry is unde
what sex is, who women a
middle-class activist at a r
feminist anti-trafficking
"The idea that you can cont
those women, or those wom
as a whole ... is an illusion
Doezema has written in re
third world prostitute," "t
international feminist deb
metaphor for advancing c
those of third world sex w
The link between global
heterosexual domesticity
published by a feminist a
Demand in International
emphasizes the damage tha
relationships when it serv
sound, and behave" (2007, p
the author Kristen Anderb
after describing how wa
debilitating body issues an
of material and symbolic i
"puritanical" nineteenth-c
rights, and even birth con
contemporary feminist ac
home that are decipherabl
consumer culture. While c
on normative heterosexual
scope and reach of sexual
influential anti-traffickin
1995), have served to rapid
For contemporary anti-t
institution of heterosexua
an amative sexual ethic to
from both heteronorma
lesbian-feminist traditio
& Springer
246 Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259
NOW-NYC and Equality Now at t

one another, as well as to their eva
commitment to a relational, as op
2007b). More pivotal than the heter
past (see, e.g., Bunch 1972; Morgan 1
should be kept within the confines o
alliance between ideologically disp
explained to me in recounting the
ini
groups that constitute the anti-traf
farthest left to the farthest right was
What was really interesting is the
Salvation Army and the lesbian-fem
and Michael Horowitz who's very c
before seen a group like that."12
From the perspective of anti-traff
gender roles" wrought by feminist s
insecurities( contra Garland, Wacqu
of the 1960s and 1970s that have se
creating extra-familial sexual tempt
activist Donna Hughes thus attribut
to prostitution, but also to the adve
towards sex that generates men's de
anti-trafficking activist that I interv
sketched her perception of feminist
"through TV commercials, through
continuously keeps increasing wher
physical bodies, there are no more
feminist commentator who is activ
expressly attributed the "traffic in
pornography, and sexually explici
not mistaken in their identification
that has co-emerged with other late-c
best be defined
rath as recreational,
ironic and surprising is the extent
embraced a pro-familial strategy for
interwoven with neoliberal commitm
Rather than regarding the hetero
male domination to be abolished (
women"14) contemporary anti-traff
12 Horowitz, who is employed by the neocons

in cementing the anti-trafficking coalition d
Hughes serves as the Elinor M. Carlson endo
Island and has issued multiple reports in nati
also a regular contributor to the conservative
14 In her classic essay on the "Traffic in Wom
works of Marx and Engels, Claude Lévi-St
cultural data) to argue that the linchpin of w
and kinship (Rubin 1975).
Ö Springer
Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259 247
sphere of safety for women and ch

harnessed to protect. It was thus t
trafficking event, a young women
who therefore described herself a
experience to a combination of "no
mass media. Conversely, she signal
by pointing out that she was now m
real job." In contrast to an earlier m
sought to link the sexual exploitati
women more generally, including
1979; MacKinnon 1989), in contemp
non-familial forms of heterosexuali
This commitment to the home as s
Inderpal Grewal has described as th
century United States (2006). A gend
lives that theorists such as Jonathan
of the "security mom" as one who
apparatus to protect herself and her
observations with feminist anti-tra
of investments in the neoliberal c
with activists' own social locatio
the meetings with the anti-traffi
of multiple structures of privil
various ways - from the prof
American Bar Association, at the h
Association, at assorted white shoe
that activists' drew upon in their str
are there for us?" asked one activis
talking relations with the wife of
upper-middle class orientation of ant
is also consistent with research on th
national contexts (see, e.g., Ho 2005;
feminist activism more generally
As members of the class fraction
symbolic rewards from marriage, a
maintenance and reproduction of this
behalf of the gendered and sexual inter
of "feminist family values" that is pre
between women sa and men, and the
couple.15 As with Grewal's analysis
promote the carceral state in order
The feminist embrace of carceral
through a pro-familialist ideal of ge
15 Demographic research has shown that

economic independence were once marital d
the most likely group to be married (see, e.
& Springer
248 Theor Soc (2012) 41 :233-259
the anti-trafficking caucuses of NO

2006 and 2008. At a November 2006
was co-sponsored by the AAUW and
professional women, predominantly
abolishing prostitution for wome
women dressed in catering uniform
chairs and serving drinks. The keyno
Equality Now, who took the podium
former prosecutor of sex crimes an
diamond ring on her left finger, th
her audience of the important deterre
horrors of human trafficking as foll
I'd like to tell you the story of Ch

trafficking. She came here as a 19
for what she thought was a babysitt
... she was then informed that the b
Of course ... she was forced to work in a brothel. And she describes that
experience with the same words that any of us would use to describe it. She
describes the sex of prostitution as disgusting, as degradation, and profoundly
traumatic to her. And what I want to talk to you about is some of the lasting
effects are for her, after she escaped the experience. She is infertile. She can
never have children. [From my fieldnotes, November 2006]
Nearly identical narratives were presented at the multiple anti-trafficking conferences

that I attended throughout the course of my fieldwork, the only significant alteration
being the victim's name. 16 Yet there is much to unpack in this exposition of the harms
of trafficking though the presentation of "Christina's story," which in its sheer
generality suggests that it is at least partially fictionalized and at best a strategically
constructed composite case. Particularly notable are the moral and political
legitimacy afforded to domestic care work as late-capitalist informal sector
employment,17 the invocation of a single gendered (and uniformly negative) experi-
ence of "the sex of prostitution,"18 and the construal of reproductive failure as the
worst possible harm that could result for female victims. While elements of this
narrative undoubtedly can and do happen to real individuals, as a representation of
human trafficking the scenario described was far from the most empirically prevalent
case (Feingold 2005; Kempadoo 2005a; Bales 1999). Even more curiously, according
to case files compiled from the United States Department of Justice, no trafficking
16 Other events at which strikingly similar stories were told include the CATW's "End Demand" conference
at the U.N. 's Commission on the Status of Women meetings on March 2, 2007, the CATW "Abolishing
Sexual Slavery from Stockholm to Hunts Point" conference held at the New York City Bar Association on
November 6, 2008, and the conference on "Sex Trafficking and the New Abolitionists," held at the
Brooklyn Museum on December 13, 2008.
17 Although by some estimates trafficking for domestic work has been found to be more prevalent than
trafficking into the sex sector (see, e.g., Feingold 2005), the former is more compatible with professional-
class women's gendered interests in the home.
There is an abundance of critical feminist scholarship that demonstrates the contrary; see, e.g., Bernstein
(2007b); Agustin (2007); Chapkis (1997); Brennan (2004).
Ô Springer
Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259 249
case matching this description has

2011). The lawyer's simultaneous c
service sector, and the ideology
the underlying neoliberal logic
inequalities that globalization ha
boundaries of middle-class fami
At a discussion focused upon "endin
on the Status of Women meetings th
the link between sexual and carcer
dedicated to problematizing men's
panelists used the occasion to dir
effectively harnessed to achieve a
families. The opening speaker fro
(CATW) explicitly hailed the five w
of a new model of enlightened masc
their husbands, sons, and brothers"
trafficking that the CATW panelists
economic factors, rendering prostitu
husbands within the family who mig
it, or bad men outside the family (
women and girls within it to leave.
sive feminist organization, memb
punitive state apparatus. As the pan
condemnatory presentation about
thing that prevents recurrence is fe
Although numerous studies have s
to drive prostitution indoors rath
Brock 1998; Bernstein 2007b), wha
broader symbolic effects that a pol
turning the figure of the "sex pr
argued - but also for delegitimizin
cialization of sexuality more ge
2007b), the state is thus able to ass
stand in the way of neoliberal agen
and class Others from public spac
In my fieldwork with feminist act
tizing the middle class family - and
men - was also manifest in frequen
enlightened anti-trafficking polic
policy model first implemented in
tional feminist activists as the "Sw
and impact, since Sweden is consid
country in the world. It was thus t
19 Agustin (2007) has described the anxiet

concerns about women "leaving home" for
specifically husbands' extra-domestic sexual
& Springer
250 Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259
"Abolishing Sex Slavery: From Sto

criminalizing the clients of sex wo
applauded Sweden's reputation for g
Swedish welfare state's commitment
at a young age." Left unremarked up
strategy is that Sweden itself embra
earned it its feminist reputation in
1990s (Bernstein 2007b; Hobson 19
In a related vein, feminist theori
and Kate Bedford (2009) have point
values" becomes particularly critica
eclipsed. Marriage as an institut
reproduction, along with the care of
sibility exercised in the family and in
to individuals and households" (Dug
and the ascendance of law and orde
"personal responsibility" and the co
correlated not just as institutional
Wacquant has suggested) but via "t
economic and (gendered) cultural p
fies but does not explain the shift
sexual politics that are its accompan
rise of "family values" politics i
obliterated welfare state has left v
can be harnessed to notions of "do
two different levels: men, particula
do more care work within the hom
that arise when women themselves m
professional middle class men are e
tion in ways that are compatible wi
A neoliberal circuitry of crime, se
The above examples serve to ill

framework is connected to the
than one - both as a new social str
as part of a neoliberal gender stra
primacy to marriage. Viewed as su
policies extend their reach around t
justice-focused social agenda (as Wa
new political paradigm of gender a
20 Components of the Swedish criminalizat

Norway and Iceland to South Korea, the P
criminalizes only the customers of prostitu
activists and nation-states that claim the Sw
to encompass both sex workers and their cl
Springer
Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259 251
family value of amative, sexually e

disseminated through such disparat
sex offenders (including proposals f
insertion of men into private-sphere
policy, and burgeoning internation
Indeed, one of the reasons that a
galvanizing issue for feminists, e
interlinked sexual, carceral, and ec
harnessed to the now hegemonic
rights." As
the political theorist Kr
conventions attempt to improve cond
promote serious and effective enfo
violence" (p. 136). With "women's h
sively to questions of sexual violence
dimensions of broader social, econom
in its global manifestation has beco
feminist carceral politics on a glob
Within the context of campaigns
efficacy has been manifest in the Un
of countries that fail to pass sufficie
tional activist push to criminalize m
tightening of international borders as
and in the implementation of new
travel (Chuang 2010; Kempadoo
anti-trafficking activists have lobb
strongly endorsing the US governm
that NGOs that do not explicitly tak
their capacity to receive US fund
Feminists have also offered their sup
Christian groups such as the Interna
such as India and Cambodia in partne
Garland, and Simon neglect to identif
for extending the nationally rooted
(2008), Halley (2008), Grewal (20
observed, it has become an indispen
stream paradigm of feminism-as-cri
From the perspective of U.S.-base
international human rights field h
internecine political debates amongs
pornography (one thath had divided
21 On the spread of harsh criminal laws a

Ineffective" (2009). On the heteronormati
Bedford (2009).
The International Justice Mission is the larg
United States, with upwards of eighty ful
Additional discussion of the International
(2010); and Thrupkaew (2009).
Ô Springer
252 Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259
and early 1990s, and in which libera

humanitarian terrain in which the a
prevail.23As one of the founding m
NGO explained to me during an int
trafficking as politically neutral que
women, rather than as issues that d
was pivotal to waging the fight aga
There was an earlier wave of cons

pornography and prostitution almo
exploitation of women. And they
were the same people who were als
discriminatory prosecution agai
priorities. It was really just a basic un
went underground . . . and then traf
(From my fieldnotes, December 3,
Another human rights activist that I in

1995 Beijing World Conference on Wo
prostitution had irrevocably shifted: "
transformed into a sexual violence
feminists who had participated in earlie
of prostitution and pornography had in
(including divergent feminist factions
discriminatory effects of a criminal ju
of the 'traffic in women" overseas an
women's human rights, they were a
The most recent twist in the transna
ing has occurred with gathering atten
ing. The 2005 reauthorization of the U
established the crime of "domestic t
cross-border understandings of the
With the aim of shifting enforceme
areas, the TVPRA established $5,00
agencies to investigate and prosecute
commentators have speculated that th
in US anti-trafficking policy has o
tently failed to identify the overw
previously claimed existed (see, e.g
23 On the feminist pornography debates of

Hunter (1995).
24 The 2000 Trafficking Victim s Protection Act defines "sex trafficking" very broadly as "the recruitment,
harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act."
(United States Department of State 2000)
25 Since the passage of the 2000 Trafficking Victim s Protection Act , the government has downgraded its
estimates of US transborder victims, from 50,000 to 14,500-17,000 people per year (US Government
Accountability Office 2006). In cases of "domestic trafficking," the force requirement is waived if the
women in question are underage.
& Springer
Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259 253
According to a US Department of
investigations conducted between
trafficking, 85% were sex traffick
62% of confirmed sex trafficking
suspects were Hispanic/Latino) (US
trafficking laws is also heightened
pimping can now be given 99-year
(versus the prison sentences of sev
migrant sex workers are themselves
their protection" (Chapkis 2005; Be
domestically and globally, US anti-
unprecedented police crackdowns
street-based sexual economy (inclu
they have facilitated a sharp reversal
sexual labor that prevailed up unti
contemporary anti-trafficking cam
embodiment of neoliberalism's join
of family values and crime contro
justice and "women's human rights
Conclusion
If the postmaterialist politics tends towards good and evil, crime is a natural
metaphor for evil.
-Theodore Caplow and Jonathan Simon, Crime and Justice (1999, quoted in
Gottschalk, 11)
This article has sought to synthesize and push forward arguments made by
recent social theorists concerning the emergence of the carceral state and its
relationship to more general patterns of cultural and political transformation.
Drawing upon diverse accounts of the relationship between neoliberalism and
the turn towards punitive modes of justice in contemporary social policy, I have
highlighted the implicit gendered dimensions of this shift as well as its dispa-
rately raced and classed impact, melding theories of carcerality and punishment
with insights drawn from my own empirical research on campaigns against sex
trafficking. I have sought to show how an understanding of recent transformations
within feminism, and within the politics of sex and gender more generally, is critical
to the broad-sweeping analyses of the neoliberal carceral state that theorists such as
Garland, Wacquant, and Simon have formulated. Via successive encodings of issues
such as rape, sexual harassment, pornography, sexual violence, prostitution, and
trafficking into federal and now international criminal law, mainstream feminists
have provided crucial ideological support for ushering in contemporary carceral
transitions (Halley 2006, p. 21). Most recently, the burgeoning discourse of ''women's
human rights" has served to re-circuit feminist attention from the domestic spheres of
home and nation to an expanding international stage, asserting carceral versions of
feminism on a global scale.
& Springer
254 Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259
It is important to understand the

have inspired this shift in feminis
Garland's, Simon's, and Wacquant's
have led to a reactive embrace of c
middle classes fail to consider the g
on behalf of the neoliberal carceral
capitalist social transformations ha
and fomented middle class punitiv
criminal threat but also the gende
this trend. In contemporary anti-t
roles" in the abstract but rather r
perceived as the greatest threat to
activists, for which both criminal
remedies. Although Wacquant astu
eclipse of the welfare state and
pivotal symbolic role played by
tions) he fails to account for femi
My own ethnographic research in
sexuality and neoliberalism helps
the intersecting race, class, and
Western feminists have created de
security state and in the middle cl
Finally, Simon usefully reveals the
serves not only to police the poor
securitized "freedom," pointing to th
this project. My research on the co
illuminate precisely how and why fe
carceral ends, situating ideological t
horizons that feminists are confront
"family values" and to a law and o
apparatus in which poor as well as m
crime, and in which the privatized
social support. Under such circumst
equalize the dynamics of sexual
through crime - becomes compelli
social justice advocates. Rather tha
the versions of feminism that h
the mutually reinforcing sexual and
state is likely to support.26
Most generally, this article has sh
commitments is pivotal to understa
and "right," and feminists and evan
26 In the case of anti-trafficking campaig

challenges to current international debt and
development policies that create incentives f
labor in the first place.
Ô Springer
Theor Soc (2012) 41:233-259 255
used the case study of human traff

and carceral politics work together,
have occurred around both sex and
and Simon have persuasively argued
the vehicle that joins "left" and "rig
My own analysis of contemporary
the reciprocal is also true: criminal
for binding feminists and evang
specific ideals of sex, gender, and
carceral state and its relationship t
feminist analytics of neoliberalism
sexual and carceral strategies have c
Acknowledgments I would like to thank

helpful commentary on an earlier draft of
Kaye, Nicki Beisel, Lauren Berlant, Linda Ze
University of Chicago's Center for Gender S
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Elizabeth Bernstein is Associate Professor of Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies and Sociology at
Barnard College, Columbia University. She is co-editor of Regulating Sex: the 28 Politics of Intimacy and
Identity (New York: Routledge 2005) and the author of Temporarily Yours: Intimacy, Authenticity, and the
Commerce of Sex (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007). Her current book project, Brokered
Subjects: Sex, Trafficking, and the Politics of Freedom, explores the convergence of feminist, neoliberal,
and evangelical Christian interests in the shaping of contemporary policies around trafficking and
prostitution.
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Carceral Politics

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Carceral politics as gender justice?

The "traffic in women" and neoliberal circuits of

Carcéral politics as gender justice? The "traffic in women"

Published online: 12 February 2012

Keywords Feminism • Law • Politics • Transnationalism • Human rights

What do we want? A strong traff

Trafficking is not a poverty issue

When we govern through crime, w

In recent years, a diverse array of

1 See, for example, Wacquant (2009a, b), G

and ubiquitous "fear of crime" (Ma

2 Women, especially non-white women and w

trafficking frame and who addre

Carceral politics as neoliberal g

Although there have been numero

4 For a fuller discussion of evangelical Chr

relations that emerged in America

too, an analysis that helps to explai

6 While Wacquant's theoretical modeling of

Like Wacquant, Simon emphasiz

carcéral politics in neoliberal reconfig

Carceral feminism confronts the "tr

On a cold and windy February afte

Women from the rally's two sponso

In their depictions of the sex industr

7 The bill, New York SB 5902, passed with bro

commercial sexual exploitation bu

difference" (2008, p. 865). As Tic

be the moralistic sexual politics of

10 The term "radical feminist" may be largely

Neoliberalism's (feminist) family

In the 1970s our feminist goal was

As the feminist theorist Gail Phete

structural factors and dom

NOW-NYC and Equality Now at t

12 Horowitz, who is employed by the neocons

sphere of safety for women and ch

15 Demographic research has shown that

the anti-trafficking caucuses of NO

I'd like to tell you the story of Ch

Nearly identical narratives were presented at the multiple anti-trafficking conferences

case matching this description has

19 Agustin (2007) has described the anxiet

"Abolishing Sex Slavery: From Sto

A neoliberal circuitry of crime, se

The above examples serve to ill

20 Components of the Swedish criminalizat

family value of amative, sexually e

21 On the spread of harsh criminal laws a

and early 1990s, and in which libera

There was an earlier wave of cons

Another human rights activist that I in

23 On the feminist pornography debates of

It is important to understand the

26 In the case of anti-trafficking campaig

used the case study of human traff

Acknowledgments I would like to thank

Brown, W. (1995). States of injury: Power an

Gottschalk, M. (2009). The long reach of the

Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP). (20

Vance, C. (1997). Negotiating sex and gender in

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