PROSTITUTION AND SEX
TRAFFICKING POLICIES
Administration, regulation, policing and knowledge
ABSTRACT
How prostitution is fought in a technical field of governance, with the aim of preventing sex trafficking.
Gert-Jan van Heuzen
Master thesis Sociology and Philosophy
Studentnummer: 5681413 Afstudeerrichting: Algemene Sociologie Begeleiders: Marie Louise Janssen Michiel Leezenberg
Contents
CONTENTS I
ABBREVIATIONS AND ORGANISATIONS VII
INTRODUCTION 1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1 THEORY 2 CONTINGENCY 2 POWER 2 DISCOURSE 5 GOVERNMENTALITY 10 STRUCTURE 13 HISTORICAL ANALYSIS 13
CURRENT TIMEFRAMES AND PRACTICES 14
GOVERNANCE, KNOWLEDGE AND SOCIAL SCIENCE 15
NEW GROUND COVERED 15
LANGUAGE USED 16
CHAPTER 1 1800 – 1949 18
PARAGRAPH 1.1 1809:PROSTITUTION AS HEALTH HAZARD 18
SUB 1.1.1 LEGALIZATION TO PROTECT THE ARMY 18
SUB 1.1.2 STIGMATIZATION OF PUBLIC WOMEN 20
SUB 1.1.3 RESEARCH 22
PARAGRAPH 1.2 1885:REFORMATION AND VICTIMIZATION 22
SUB 1.2.1 DISCIPLINE AND PASTORAL POWER 22
SUB 1.2.2 CHRISTIANS AND RADICAL FEMINISTS 24
SUB 1.2.3 OTHERING: ORIENTALISM AND BLACKNESS 29
SUB 1.2.4 RESEARCHING PROSTITUTES 31
SUB 1.2.5 1911: NATIONAL CRIMINALIZATION OF BROTHELS 33
PARAGRAPH 1.3 1904-1950:MIGRATING PROSTITUTES 35
SUB 1.3.1 NATIONS AND STATES 35
SUB 1.3.2 INTERNATIONAL POLITICS AND TREATIES 37
CHAPTER 2 1960 – 2000 41
PARAGRAPH 2.1 THE VOLUNTARY / FORCED DISTINCTION 41
SUB 2.1.1 ACKNOWLEDGING PROSTITUTION 41
SUB 2.1.2 SPATIAL REGULATIONS AND THE BROTHEL BAN 42
SUB 2.1.3 NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: FEMOCRATS 43
SUB 2.1.4 SEX WORK, SEX TRAFFICKING AND LIFTING THE BROTHEL BAN 51
SUB 2.1.5 FROM EMPOWERING TO PROTECTING 54
PARAGRAPH 2.2 ORGANISED CRIME AND THE IRT AFFAIRE 56
SUB 2.2.1 BIRTH OF THE DUTCH TOLERANT POLICY ON SOFT DRUG 56
SUB 2.2.2 ORGANISED CRIME 59
SUB 2.2.3 MONEY LAUNDERING 63
SUB 2.2.4 HANDHAVINGSTEKORT 65
PARAGRAPH 2.3 THE PALERMO PROTOCOL AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICS 66
SUB 2.3.1 INTERNATIONAL AND ORGANISED CRIME CODIFIED 71
CHAPTER 3 COURTS AND THE TRUTH 72
PARAGRAPH 3.1 ANECDOTES FROM COURT 72
SUB 3.1.1 THE BIG FLAME EXCUSE 73
SUB 3.1.2 THE VICTIM WHO DID NOT ACT AS ONE 74
SUB 3.1.3 THE MISTAKES OF LAWYERS 76
SUB 3.1.4 THE TRIUMPH OF THE PUBLIC PROSECUTOR 77
SUB 3.1.5 IGNORANT POLICE OFFICERS 78
PARAGRAPH 3.2 INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE 79
SUB 3.2.1 SEQUENCE OF EVENTS 80
PARAGRAPH 3.3 THE LANGUAGE OF THE CRIMINAL COURT 81
SUB 3.3.1 ARTICLE 273F(1): AN INTRODUCTION 84
PARAGRAPH 3.4 REGULATING THE TRUTH 88
SUB 3.4.1 TIME MANAGEMENT 88
SUB 3.4.2 TO FACT OR NOT TO FACT 89
SUB 3.4.3 MAKING FACTS TRANSCENDENTAL 91
PARAGRAPH 3.5 CONCLUSION 95
CHAPTER 4 2000 - PRESENT 97
PARAGRAPH 4.1 LABOUR LAW 97
SUB 4.1.1 EMPLOYER-EMPLOYEE CONTRACT 98
SUB 4.1.3 FAKE-INDEPENDENCE 99
SUB 4.1.4 OPTING-IN 100
SUB 4.1.5 LABOUR LAW AS AN INSTRUMENT OF SUBJECTIVICATION 101
PARAGRAPH 4.2 MIGRATION 102
SUB 4.2.1 LAWS AND POLICIES 102
SUB 4.2.2 ANXIETIES, DEBATES AND INDICATORS 104
PARAGRAPH 4.3 2000-2007 106
SUB 4.3.1 MUNICIPAL POLICIES 107
SUB 4.3.2 POLICING 111
SUB 4.3.3 THE PRODUCTION OF ILLEGALITY 114
SUB 4.3.4 OTHER FORMS OF TRAFFICKING 117
SUB 4.3.5 BNRM IN 2000 119
SUB 4.3.6 CONCLUSION 120
PARAGRAPH 4.4 SNEEP CASE 121
SUB 4.4.1 THE CASE 122
SUB 4.4.2 AS PILOT OF THE PROGRAMMATIC APPROACH 122
SUB 4.4.3 THE KOOLVIS AND JUDO CASES 124
SUB 4.4.4 RECEPTION OF THE SNEEP REPORT 126
PARAGRAPH 4.5 2007- PRESENT 129
SUB 4.5.1 MUNICIPALITIES, THE POLICE AND PARLIAMENT 130
SUB 4.5.2 SPATIAL POLICIES: PROJECT 1012 131
SUB 4.5.3 EXIT PROGRAMMES 135
SUB 4.5.4 INFORMATION: PILOT PROJECT EMERGO AND THE RIECS 137
SUB 4.5.5 DESIGNING RESPONSIBILITIES: PROGRAMMA PROSTITUTIE 139
SUB 4.5.6 KNOWLEDGE: REGISTRATION OF SEX WORKERS 148
SUB 4.5.7 CENTRALIZATION / DECENTRALIZATION 150
PARAGRAPH 4.6 CONCLUSION 155
CHAPTER 5 GOVERNANCE, KNOWLEDGE AND SOCIAL SCIENCES 158
PARAGRAPH 5.1 STRUCTURATION OF KNOWLEDGE 158
SUB 5.1.1 REPOSITIONING PROGRESSIVE FEMINISM 158
SUB 5.1.2 PRODUCING AND LOCATING AUTHORITY 163
SUB 5.1.3 ESTABLISHING KNOWLEDGE OF THE ECONOMICS 165
SUB 5.1.4 SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE 172
PARAGRAPH 5.2 BNRM 175
SUB 5.2.1 THE BNRM AND SOCIAL SCIENCES 176
SUB 5.2.2 THE SOCIAL POSITION OF SEX WORK(ERS) 178
SUB 5.2.3 CONCLUSION 181
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION 184
PARAGRAPH 6.1 DISCOURSES 184
PARAGRAPH 6.2 SHIFTING CONFIGURATIONS 185
PARAGRAPH 6.3 GOVERNANCE AND KNOWLEDGE 187
PARAGRAPH 6.4 FOCUS ON SEX TRAFFICKING 188
PARAGRAPH 6.5 DENYING THE SEX WORKERS VOICE 188
PARAGRAPH 6.6 SUBJECTIVIZING SEX WORK 189
APPENDIX: BNRM & SOCIAL SCIENCE A
APPENDIX: NETWORK ANALYSIS METHODS D
APPENDIX: CONVERSATION AT THE BALIE S
YOLANDA VAN DOEVEREN:FORMULATING PROSTITUTION POLICIES S
EBERHART VAN DER LAAN:SEPARATING PROSTITUTION AND MORALITY U
JOLANDA DE BOER:CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS X
IRENE:AN UNEASY PARTNERSHIP Z
QUESTIONS OF THE ATTENDEES GG
RENATE VAN DER ZEE:PROSTITUTION CAN NEVER BE REGULATED JJ
ILONKA VAN STAKELBOROUGH:INCLUDING THE SEXWORKER MM
INDEX OO
BIBLIOGRAPHY SS
BOOKS AND ARTICLES SS
JURISPRUDENCE III
Abbreviations and organisations
Abbreviation Full name Explanation
AMA Alleenstaande
Minderjarige Asielzoeker
Unaccompanied under-aged asylum seeker
AMV Alleenstaande
Minderjarige Vreemdeling
Unaccompanied under-aged alien
AMvB Algemene Maatregel van
Bestuur
Decision of a Minister often based on the execution and implementation of a law.
APV Algemene Plaatselijke
Verordening
Local bylaw, formulated by the municipality
Bibob Wet Bevordering
integriteitsbeoordeling door het openbaar bestuur
Law that enables administrative municipal services to access police databases to determine whether applicants for permits or subsidies are involved in criminal activities
BNRM Bureau Nationaal
Rapporteur Mensenhandel
The Dutch Rapporteur of Human Trafficking. Following shifts in responsibilities, the name has changed a few times.
College van
procureurs-generaal
College van procureurs-generaal
The council that determines the strategies of public prosecutors for criminal
investigations and prosecutions
CoMensha CoMensha NGO responsible for coordinating victim
support and the registration of the reported signals of human trafficking
CU Christen Unie Christian political party, center oriented.
CCV Centrum voor
Criminaliteitspreventie en Veiligheid
Organisation that supports governments with formulating policies pertaining to safety and prevention of crime
D66 Democraten ‘66 Political party, center oriented
dNR dienst Nationale
Recherche
National police investigators
dNRI dienst Nationale
Recherche Informatie
Responsible for the databases of the national police investigators
Emergo Emergo Cooperation between the triangle in Amsterdam, national police and Justice Department to combat organised crime in the center of Amsterdam
EMM Expertisecentrum
Mensenhandel en Mensensmokkel
Centre of the police that gathers all tactical information on human trafficking and smuggling, and analyses this information
EU European Union Institutes representing the union of 28
countries, with specific economic and political powers.
GBA Gemeentelijke
Basisadministratie Persoonsgegevens
Municipal administration of all persons who reside or resided in the municipality
Gh Gerechtshof Court of appeal
GGD Gemeentelijke
Gezondheids Dienst
Municipal Health Service
HoN Handhaven op Niveau National project initiated by the Minister of Justice to improve enforcement
HR Hoge Raad Supreme Court
Justice Department Openbaar Ministerie Public prosecution service
IGO Informatie Gestuurde
Opsporing
Criminal investigations lead by information, instead of victim reports
IKP-s Informatie Knooppunt
systeem
IT-system of the police that keeps track of at-risk prostitutes
ILO International Labour
Organisation
International Labour Organisation
IND Immigratie- en
Naturalisatie Dienst
Organisation responsible for migration and citizenship
KB Koninklijk Besluit A decree of the national government,
without the obligation of a parliamentarian procedure
KLPD Korps Landelijke Politie
Diensten
KMar Koninklijke Marechaussee Military police, responsible for border enforcement and enforcement of migration law
KvK Kamer van Koophandel Chamber of Commerce
LIEC Landelijk Informatie en
Expertise Centrum
National centre to coordinate and gather knowledge on the programmatic approach against organised crime
Local government Lokale overheid Local government Minister of Justice Minister van Justitie Minister of Justice Minister of Safety and
Justice
Minister van Veiligheid en Justitie
Minister of Safety and Justice
Minister of Social Affairs and Labour
Minister van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid
Minister of Social Affairs and Labour
MMA Meld Misdaad Anoniem Service where one can report crimes anonymously
Municipality Gemeente Municipality, local government
National government Nationale overheid National government P&G 292 Prostitutie & Gezondheid
292
Municipal health service for sex workers
Palermo Protocol The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime
International Treaty that defines human trafficking and contains obligations for Parties to implement measures to combat human trafficking and cooperate
internationally.
Parliament Parlement Body responsible for making laws
PBC Prostitutie Beraad
Centrum
Municipal council in Amsterdam, where administrative office workers and enforcers meet for issues pertaining prostitution
PIC Prostitutie Informatie
Centrum
Organisation in the Amsterdam Red Light District that answers questions of sex workers. Also advocates for sex workers and
provides information from a sex worker’s perspective to anyone interested. Run by Mariska Majoor
PPM/dNP Project Prostitutie en Mensenhandel van de dienst Nationale Politie
Program of the National Police to prepare and implement the brothel legalization
Public prosecutor Officier van Justitie / publieke aanklager
Public prosecutor, responsible for leading criminal investigations and prosecuting suspects in court
PvdA Partij van de Arbeid Political party, center left oriented PVV Partij Voor de Vrijheid Political party, rightwing
Rb Rechtbank Court
RIEC Regionaal Informatie- en
Expertise Centrum
Regional centre to coordinate and gather knowledge on the programmatic approach against organised crime
RvS Raad van State Administrative Court of Appeal
SAMAH
SIOD Sociale Inlichtingen- en
Opsporingsdienst
Investigates fraud
STD Sexually Transmitted
Diseases
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
TiP-report Trafficking in Persons Report
Report of the US Department of State on the efforts of states to combat trafficking Triangle De Driehoek Meetings of the Mayor, public prosecutor
and local police
TRP Temporary Residence
Permit
Visa that allows aliens to legally stay in the Netherlands for a limited amount of time under specified conditions
VNG Vereniging Nederlandse
Gemeenten
Organisation that represents the Dutch municipalities
Vreemdelingenpolitie Vreemdelingenpolitie Police responsible for enforcing migration law
VVD Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie
Political party oriented central right
WODC Wetenschappelijk
Onderzoek- en
Documentatie Centrum
Part of the Department of Justicce responsible for producing and spreading scientific knowledge relevant for justice
Gert-Jan van Heuzen Paragraph: Research questions
Introduction
This thesis investigates the intertwinement of sex trafficking policies and prostitution policies. This intertwinement is a politically contentious issue. As such, the most important disclaimer will be provided right here, in the first paragraph of the first chapter: In this thesis, no facts nor estimates will be given on how many sex workers are forced into sex work, and what ethical consequences this should have for sex work policies. Rather, both this question in itself and the reasons why this question is considered so important, will be investigated.
The intertwinement is also very pronounced in the local policies in Amsterdam. Almost all municipal sex trafficking policies are integrated in the regulation of prostitution, and to a large degree vice versa too. This thesis researches the process of creation of this limited space of problematizations: how knowledge on sex trafficking is created and what role this knowledge plays in municipal policies on sex trafficking and sex work.
Research questions
This thesis will investigate the project of governing sex workers and sex trafficking in Amsterdam in 2014, with a focus on the role and formation of science and knowledge.
How are sex workers and sex trafficking governed in Amsterdam, how has this come to be, and what are the effects?
To this end, the following sub questions will be asked:
A historical analysis of the elements used in the current configuration: o Which elements does the project consist of?
o Where do these elements come from and how can they be characterized? An analysis of the relations between elements (the current configuration):
o What are the current problematics?
o How are the elements recombined into a strategic aim? o What is the strategic intent of the current configuration?
o What role do the social sciences and knowledge play in the current configuration? An analysis of the effects of the current configuration:
o How are the social sciences shaped or influenced by the current configuration?
o What power relations are embedded within the practices and discourse of the current configuration (especially concerning the position of the sex worker)?
Victim support, which is an important part of the combat against human trafficking, will not be touched upon. Victim support is not at the intersection with prostitution policies and therefore not relevant. An exception is the
B9 regulation, which will be discussed. Pornography, child pornography and sexual abuse of children are also important in the combat against human trafficking in the Netherlands, but again not in relation to prostitution policies, and will also not be discussed. Other forms of trafficking (labour and organ) will also fall outside the scope of this thesis.
The data sources are the policy documents, parliamentarian discussions, research documents and interviews with sex worker advocates, a public prosecutor, the leader of the human trafficking police team, and an internship at the office off the public prosecutor responsible for the sex trafficking cases in Amsterdam.
Theory
The theoretical approach is Foucauldian. Below a short summary of his theory on historical processes, knowledge and power will follow, resulting in the concept of governance.
Contingency
The contingency of history means that history is neither random nor predetermined. When all possible states of society are laid out in a theoretical “space of possibilities”, history takes a path through this space that is to a large degree subject to chance, and at the same time the possibilities are constrained. Therefore history is firmly situated, and at the same time not linear. This situatedness shows clearly when Foucault describes the possibility and impossibility of certain forms of thought in certain eras (Foucault 1973: Preface).
Recognizing the contingency of history is a powerful tool to put political projects into context. “[E]xperience has taught me that the history of various forms of rationality is sometimes more effective in unsettling our certitudes and dogmatism than is abstract criticism. For centuries, religion couldn’t bear having its history told. Today, our schools of rationality balk at having their history written, which is no doubt significant.” (Foucault 1979a: 253) Not taking the concept of human trafficking for granted will show that there is conceptual change (not growth), as well as institutional. If there is development, it is not linear; if there is taking shape, there is not definite; if there is a result, it was not foreseen, intended nor final. But yes, the past does provide insight that should be used in both analysing and planning.
Power
The primary focus of the late Foucauldian theory would be “power over”. Foucault emphasized that power is not a commodity, something that one holds or can lose. Rather, it is the ability to influence people’s behaviour, or conduct, by purposefully changing their field of possibilities.
Power is fundamental in societies where people live together, interact and form relationships. One can never dispense with power: “I mean that in human relations, whatever they are -whether it be a question of communicating verbally, as we are doing right now, or a question of a love relationship, an institutional or economic relationship- power is always present: I mean the relationships in which one wishes to direct the behavior of another.” (Foucault 1987: 122) As such, power is not fundamentally good or bad, it simply is.
Gert-Jan van Heuzen Paragraph: Theory
The difference between an action and power, is that power is always directed at (an)other individual(s), with the aim of influencing their behaviour. “[W]hat defines a relationship of power is that it is a mode of action which does not act directly and immediately on others. Instead, it acts upon their actions: an action upon an action, on existing actions or on those which may arise in the present or the future.” Or “ "the other" (the one over whom power is exercised) be thoroughly recognized and maintained to the very end as a person who acts; and that, faced with a relationship of power, a whole field of responses, reactions, results, and possible inventions may open up.” (Foucault 2003: 137-8)
Foucault theorizes that for every decision, one considers the options. Each option can be seen as a road, leading to specific expected results. One thinks about the different possibilities and pictures the roads these will take him, and sees a field of possible responses leading to expected results. In a narrow sense1, exercising power over this person means that this field is manipulated, by changing the roads or the expected results. A road which used to be easy to take, now leads across mountains and is hard. Another road that previously would yield no expected results, will gain high rewards after the manipulation. A different field will probably lead to a different choice, and thus a different field will change the expected behaviour. By changing the field of possible responses, the conduct of others can be influenced. But, as we will see later, to manipulate the field, one needs to know what counts as mountains, and what rewards look like. To exercise power, to manipulate behaviour, one needs knowledge. Power is not the opposite of freedom, but freedom is shaped by power. As explained above, when power is used, a new field of possible responses is created. Instead of freedom being taken, a new form of freedom is shaped. It is the essence of the use of power that this new freedom indeed differs from the freedom that was before. The value put on freedom, the very concept of freedom, are results of how power is structured in modern societies: “Personal autonomy is not the antithesis of political power, but a key term in its exercise, the more so because most individuals are not merely the subjects of power but play a part in its operations.” (Miller and Rose 2008: 54) The way we are and experience are results of power, and the way society shapes our priorities and life choices makes us agents in the operation of power, trough processes of subjectivication, which will be discussed below. As such, power is productive too, not only repressive. Power techniques produce effects and a particular mode of being. “[T]he notion of repression is quite inadequate for capturing what is precisely the productive aspect of power. In defining the effects of power as repressive, one adopts purely a juridical conception of such power, one identifies power within a law that says no - power is taken, above all, as carrying the force of a prohibition. […] What makes power hold good, what makes it accepted, is simply the fact that it doesn’t only weight on us as a force that says no; it also traverses and produces things, it induces pleasure, forms knowledge, produces discourse. It needs to be considered as a productive network that runs through the whole social body, much more than as a negative instance whose function is repressive.” (Foucault 2003: 307)
Foucault sees that theoreticians of power use different concepts of power. The sovereign concept only considers the power to repress behaviour, and ignores the productivity. This is also called the juridical form of power, and Foucault is quite clear about what needs to be done with this concept of power: “We need to cut off the king’s head”. Many prohibitions have completely other consequences than simply eradicating the prohibited
phenomenon. Foucault makes this point with regards to sexuality: in the Victorian age, all the “prohibitions” created sexualized humans rather than eradicate sexual behaviour. Sexuality was not repressed, instead a “discursive explosion” on sex took place (Foucault 1976: 18).
Discipline
Discipline explicitly recognizes the productive value of power, as it is used to create forms of behaviour. Discipline has a very specific meaning when used by Foucault. It is a technique of power, and works by (1) monitoring individual, minute behaviours, (2) constantly judging this behaviours according to set norms and (3) correcting them. On a larger scale, Foucault visualizes the workings of this technique as the Panopticon, an ideal type prison where one guard is able to see all movements of prisoners, but the prisoners cannot see whether the guard is looking at them. Everyone may become the guard, and the prisoners are caught up in a gaze from everywhere. The prisoners will internalize the “constant” gaze of the guard, and apply the norms to themselves, internalizing these norms. Prisoners themselves become guards, for their own and even for others’ behaviour. Disciplinary power works to reform the soul, instead of punish the body, because of resulting changes in the internal. (Foucault 1979: 201-5).
Biopower
The target of the technology biopower, is a population, a larger group defined by spatial boundaries or other properties. The properties of this defined population are the focus of the technique, and the goal is to enhance and stimulate specifically defined properties of this population. As Foucault explains in Security, Territory, Population, this form of power was a prerequisite for the creation of the modern nation state, as the project of the nation state is defined in terms of a delineated population. There are two main differences between biopower and discipline. Biopower is aimed at the larger scale instead of the infinite small, and biopower manipulates through external mechanisms to maximize the result, so-called economics.
“Since the classical age the West has undergone a very profound transformation of these mechanisms of power. “Deduction” has tended to be no longer the major form of power, but merely one element among others, working to incite, reinforce, control, monitor, optimize, and organize the forces under it: a power bent on generating forces, making them grow, and ordering them, rather than dedicated to impeding them, making them submit, or destroying them.” (Foucault 1976: 136)
A specified population can be seen as a source of labour power, and properly governed a population will deliver more labour. This governing uses external manipulation on an existing economics with internal consistency and workings: lowering the unemployment benefits should push more people into the labour force.
Where discipline as a power technique first sets an average norm, and normalizes behaviour through monitoring, examining and punishing, biopower starts with a certain concept of men and life as a whole with properties that can be manipulated to optimize the population. When one provides condoms, there will be less reproduction, and less children. Thus, (assumed) knowledge on the aggregate is essential for biopower, whereas monitoring the small and individualized behaviours is essential for discipline.
Gert-Jan van Heuzen Paragraph: Theory
Discourse
When language is analysed as discourse, the content of language is not tested in terms of truth, validity, reliability, and such. Whether claims made in the analysed language should be accepted or not, is irrelevant in discourse analysis. Rather, Foucault would be interested in why a certain sort of statement is considered as serious or appropriate in the context (Foucault 1972: 27-8). For example, the medical idea that one would fall ill because of a lack of dry bodily fluids is clearly false, according to modern medical sciences. However, at a certain point in time, this was part of an intrinsic web of relations, consisting of other ideas we could call medical, but also political, social and economic. Discourse analysis focuses on these webs of language and its effects (Foucault 1972: 60), and these can only be interesting when one disregards the “truth” of the statements. To analyse the doctor-patient relation by stating that the theory of bodily fluids is false, is missing out on a lot.
“At the level on which Foucault operates, namely the description of epistemological transformation, the question of telling the truth is not pertinent, regardless of how that truth may be enunciated. Foucault is not interested in whether assertions are scientifically true or false; he is not interested in how the true and the false are apportioned at any given moment, nor is he interested in the 'truth-telling' of epistemological history. What Foucault apprehends is discourse itself as practice, insofar as discourse defines the space within which one must situate oneself in order to be 'within the bounds of truth'.” (Delaporte 1998: 287)
The aim in this thesis is to explain why certain statements are possible and what the consequences are. Therefore a certain distance to the statements must be kept. In this thesis, it will be written that prostitutes are sinners in the eyes of God, that prostitutes spread venereal diseases, or that prostitutes claim to be victims of sex trafficking just to gain a temporary residence permit. These statements are not claimed to be true, but reflect discourse of a certain timeframe (and personally, I don’t think that these are truths).
Discourse analysis is a tool to take the story of history and meaning away from the individual, into a grander scheme. Individuals have agency, they play with language and are able to utilize language towards their goals. But they are also shaped by discourse, enclosed and limited: they stay within the discursive formation which shapes their options. Individuals who Foucault brings to the stage as bringing change to discursive formations - such as Kant in “What is Enlightenment” (1984) - are more proponents of change than the actual cause.
Discourse has roughly four properties (taken from Whisnant 2012), which will be introduced below, accompanied with a short example related to prostitution and sex trafficking.
1. Discourse shapes the way we construct the world, or in other words. Discourse only changes the “real” world “out there” indirectly, by influencing how we act upon the world by mediating our thoughts and experiences. Prostitution, marriage and one-night stands have a completely different meaning or connotation and elicit different reactions, even though the described behaviour may be surprisingly similar.
2. Discourse generates knowledge and truth. Through the discursive processes, knowledge can appear, and truth effects may take place. A specific discourse enables certain statements to be conceived as serious, and completely disqualifies other statements, even to the degree that they
will not be recognized as claims or statements. For example, migration was only perceived as problematic, after borders were established and migration could be defined. Nowadays if someone would state that “women work as prostitutes because they have lost faith in God”, in Amsterdam, very few would take a statement seriously. How the times have changed.
3. The person who speaks, is positioned in a field of meaning. The speaking person must have the proper authority, an authority that is often localized. For example, a doctor may prescribe medicines for someone else’s body, a judge may put people in jail, and a social scientist may present research findings that change our view on sex work (hopefully).
4. Foucault vehemently pursued the connections between discourse and power. Connected with the authority to speak, are the effects of the statements. It is by the quality of certain statements, uttered by specific persons in a position of authority, that these statements are be understood as being true and have effects. As these uttered truths shape the field of possibilities for specific (groups of) people, these truths hold power over these (groups of) people. For example, doctors who say that prostitutes must be examined or will spread venereal diseases, influence the field of possibilities of these prostitutes. The prostitutes must now get examined or face the consequences. Doctors have received the authority to be taken seriously, by favour of the discourse on the health of the general population, and the health of specific patients. People regarded as patients have to follow the doctor’s advice, and are occasionally forced to do so. Discourse and power operate together closely, and as such this is clearly an academic but helpful distinction. For governance, which informs this thesis the most, this perspective on discourse and power has its implications too. As Lemke (2001: 1-2) argues, governance is a coin with two sides: the representation of reality (discursive) and the actual intervention in this reality (power). To use power and thereby act on reality and change it, one must first have a representation of reality. At the same time, the use of power changes what one can see, and thereby holds the potential to change the representation of reality. It is in these terms that social sciences and knowledge will be investigated here.
Problematizations
Foucault introduced epochs in The Order of Things (1973), where he distinguished Classical, Renaissance and Modern forms of representation. These forms of representation differed radically from each other. In some discursive formations certain statements are serious, in other formations these same statements are incomprehensible. In The Order of Things, these radically different and mutually exclusive epochs were the underlying possibility of all thinking. Later, Foucault asserted that different discursive formations could be active at the same time, and even interact.
He introduced a form of thinking, which he later declared to be a history of problematizations (Foucault 1984), in Discipline and Punish. The differentiation between different discursive formations became more sensitive to smaller differences in space and time. The radical differences between epochs changed into more fluid changes, mediated by and interacting with practices and experiences. Discursive formations could exist alongside, related to each other in highly specific configurations. Even more important, he inserted practices in his theoretical
Gert-Jan van Heuzen Paragraph: Theory
scheme, shifting from what he called “archaeology”: only looking at shifts in language and thoughts, to “genealogy”: looking at the practices that are connected with thoughts. His goal was to find a theoretical scheme that explained transitions from one epoch in thoughts and behaviour to another. Seeing discourse as problematizations eased the relation between thought and action.
The definition of problematization is: “the ensemble of discursive and non-discursive practices that make something enter in the play of true and false and constitute it as an object of thought (whether in the form of moral reflection, scientific knowledge, political analysis, etc)”. (Foucault 2003: xvii) Foucault used this concept of problematizations most in History of Sexuality volume 2, The Use of Pleasure. Sexuality entered as something that can be problematic, something that needs to be governed. At the core of Foucault’s argument, one can discern that sexuality does not exist as a “natural” phenomenon. The concept of sexuality needed to be created before it could be governed: it is through the subjectivication of the population by developing a “healthy sexual life”, that bio-political aims became thinkable and realizable.
Recognizing that sexuality2 is a transactional or emergent reality (Foucault 2004: 297), instead of a universally specifically grouped set of behaviours, is what makes the analysis of problematizations interesting. Before something can be problematized, it needs to be defined, determined, or caught in words and concepts and caught in a discursive field. Sexuality is currently caught in numerous different discourses: religion, ethics, demographics, biology, law, psychology, health sciences, etc. Today, people use sexuality to reflect upon themselves, to determine sexual problems and have therapy.
Why is it that at one moment and in one place, certain questions are being asked, that specific problematizations enter? “Actually, for a domain of action, a behaviour, to enter the field of thought, it is necessary for a certain number of factors to have made it uncertain, to have made it lose its familiarity, or to have provoked a certain number of difficulties around it. These elements result from social, economic, or political processes. But their only role is that of instigation.” (Foucault 2003: 23).
That discourse needed an experiential instigation3, was already recognized by Foucault when he wrote The Archaeology of Knowledge (1972: 41), where he analysed what he called “the surfaces of emergence” of objects of discourse. He describes that certain experiences are relevant in specific discourses (such as the family, the work situation or the religious community), which can then and only after named and constituted as an object, used by psychiatric discourse to delineate its own field, to constitute itself as a science, to gain a specific discursive and practical form of power within a situated assemblage. These strategic usages of certain problematizations, of the constitution of experiences as a subject of knowledge, play an important role in the historical part of this thesis.
Apparatus and configuration
The apparatus, or dispositif, shows that in society, certain things like discourse, institutions, practices, policies, ethical moralities, etcetera, function like a strategic whole, and steer conduct in a specific direction. The apparatus
2 Other often used examples of transactional realities are civil society and madness, which can be considered “side products”,
results of certain operations that aimed to achieve something completely different. Civil society is a side product of a liberal state, which governs through self-limitation by respecting and using citizens’ freedom. Civil society is necessary to achieve the possibility of liberal government.
is that which connects these elements. Apparatus, just like discourses and power, will be present in any human society, anyplace and anywhere: it is the expression of knowledge, our understanding of the world, into our society, the fields of our power relations. As long as we are thinking and therefore knowing beings, express these thoughts through our actions towards others, and subject conduct in accordance with this knowledge, there will be apparatus.
“What I am trying to pick out with this term is, firstly, a thoroughly heterogeneous ensemble consisting of discourses, institutions, architectural forms, regulatory decisions, laws, administrative measures, scientific statements, philosophical, moral and philantrophic propositions – in short, the said as much as the unsaid. Such are the elements of the apparatus. The apparatus itself is the system of relations that can be established between these elements.” (Foucault 1980: 194-5)
An apparatus therefore is not the different elements it is made of, rather the constitution of these elements, the way the elements are tied together. These elements are tied together in a non-random way, and this non-random way can be researched, described.
“Secondly, what I am trying to identify in this apparatus is precisely the nature of the connections that can exist between these heterogeneous elements. Thus, a particular discourse can figure at one time as the programme of an institution, and at another it can function as a means of justifying or making a practice which itself remains silent, or as a secondary re-interpretation of this practice, opening out for it a new field of rationality. In short, between these elements, whether discursive or non-discursive, there is a sort of interplay of shifts of position and modifications of function which can also vary very widely.” (Foucault 1980: 194-5)
The elements are not the essence of the apparatus. Even if the elements would remain the same, the relations between elements can change, which changes the effects of the apparatus. These relations between elements are consequential and should be investigated. The different combinations of elements are widely recognized as the focus of studies into governance. In literature, the names for the combinations range from assemblages (Barry 1996: 125), constructions (Monahan 2010: 145), formations (Burchell 1996: 27), ensemble (Amoore and Langly 2004: 100), system of correlation (Collier 2011), configuration (Collier 2009: 90, Rose 1996: 55), bricolage (Dreyfus and Rabinow 2003: 52), to topologies (Collier 2009: 90). The changes in relations between elements can be called redeployment, recombination, problematization, pattern of correlation, among others (Collier 2009: 99), showing that these combinations are dynamic and subject to constant change (Dreyfus and Rabinow 2003: 52).
Take a historical example of a configuration: redeploying elements, such as practices and discourses from the fields of health, administration, policing and prostitution, and putting a system of discipline in place, aimed at the female sex workers, created a highly particular prostitution policy in the early 19th century. This configuration of power techniques and discourses created new subjects: prostitution as a danger to public health, the doctor who would, if necessary with force, investigate the prostitutes. It created an administration that designated certain women (and women only) as prostitutes in a very specific power grid. It forced prostitutes to wait in lines in front of the police station, and be shamed weekly in public, on punishment of monetary penalties and confinement. To use the theoretical concept of configuration, shows the importance of how certain power techniques and discourses are working together to restructure society, instead of solely taking these techniques and discourses
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as meaningful objects of study on their own merit. Only when analyzing these elements together, it becomes clear that two separate standards for sexual behavior are implemented.
“Thirdly, I understand by the term ‘apparatus’ a sort of – shall we say – formation which has as its major function at a given historical moment that of responding to an urgent need. The apparatus thus has a dominant strategic function.” (Foucault 1980: 194-5)
When one considers the strategic nature of an apparatus, it becomes clear why the relation between elements is important, and not purely the elements themselves. The strategy of an apparatus brings in play a specific composition of forces that leads to the perceived solution. A recombination of power techniques, discourse, institutions “implements” the strategic intent. “I said that the apparatus is essentially of a strategic nature, which means assuming that it is a matter of a certain manipulation of relations of forces, either developing them in a particular direction, or blocking them, stabilizing them, utilising them, etc. The apparatus is thus always inscribed in a play of power, but it is also always linked to certain coordinates of knowledge which issue from it but, to an equal degree, condition it. This is what an apparatus consists in: strategies of relations of forces supporting, and supported by, types of knowledge.” (Foucault 1980: 196)
The strategic nature of an apparatus connects the apparatus with knowledge. To develop a strategic intent, knowledge about the goal and possible measures is necessary, the strategy is situated in a discursive field. The political rationality poses a problematization, and in this problem - which needs to be tackled by the apparatus - the measures or possibilities of intervention are already defined. Indeed, to study apparatus, it is necessary to also take the broader discursive surrounding into account, to look at the political rationality that informs the strategic intend of apparatus.
The effect every apparatus strives for, is mainly caught by Foucault in his term subjectivication, the creation of the subject. Indeed, as Agamben wrote, an apparatus “is first of all a machine that promotes subjectifications, and only as such it is also a machine of governance.” (Agamben 2009: 20). If governance is the art of influencing conduct of others, subjectivication is a key part of governance. Through subjectivication, rules for conduct are created, prices attached to specific behaviour through insertion of the individual in a designed and modified field of possibilities of conduct, and the individual is made complicit in the steering of his or her own behaviour.
Subjectivication
An apparatus has a strategic intent (even though there is no central individual nor brain to steer the apparatus), which is to effectuate a change in behaviour. To achieve this change, proper subjects are formed out of improper ones, reformed into subjects that act conform the normalized standards. For example, in Discipline and Punish, Foucault describes how the penal system is constructed with a specific aim for which it is necessary to reform delinquents into “normal” people through disciplinary techniques. Subjectification is a process of first recognizing a person as subject in specific terms according to the project, and then reforming that same person into a better subject. First the subject is caught in one reality, which then by its definition causes the need for reform within the subject. In education, specific norms are created that 10 year olds have to “reach”. For example, they have to be able to do basic calculations. The deviant children who are not able to do these calculations at age 10, are recognized and “encouraged” to still meet the norms. If the encouragements don’t work, solutions are sought
elsewhere, the kids might be diagnosed with ADHD and receive medicines. Kids and parents who recognize the problem, want the medication.
In the early 20th century, women who travel internationally are recognized as a potential threat to the moral well-being of the nation, and at the same time these women are at moral risk themselves. It has become unbecoming for women to travel alone. A woman traveling alone will invite certain ideas, especially if the woman is working class where the threat of moral decay is strongest. They are vulnerable, impure, and likely to spread certain norms into our society and ripping apart families by seducing husbands, sons and fathers into immoral behaviour. This specific meaning attached to certain ascribed properties only makes sense within the context of the larger ideas on the population of a sharply delineated nation-state, a population that has to be governed to be as pure as possible by strategically changing certain variables.
Subjectivication is particularly powerful since the subjects themselves are complicit. The subjects recognize themselves in the prescription, and consequently act as such, placing the source of “reform” inside themselves. “This form of power applies itself to immediate everyday life which categorizes the individual, marks him by his own individuality, attaches him to his own identity, imposes a law of truth on him which he must recognize and which others have to recognize in him. It is a form of power which makes individuals subjects. There are two meanings of the word "subject": subject to someone else by control and dependence; and tied to his own identity by a conscience or self-knowledge. Both meanings suggest a form of power which subjugates and makes subject to.” (Foucault 1982: 781)
As we see now, women (even when not travelling) were subjected to these norms of chastity and vulnerability, such as making a woman’s sexuality a commodity which is at risk. Women’s behaviour is measured by the norms, and these women are constantly (made) aware of them, eventually internalize these norms. The improper subject, or the subject that gives rise to a problem, is created. Within this rationality, there are different options to solve the problem, but to be viable the options have to reach one solution: the free international movement of moral decay must be contained to enable the government of the population of the Nation-State. At the same time, the women themselves felt they should not travel alone, as this was improper, effectively monitoring and - in case of transgression - emotionally punishing themselves.
Governmentality
Governance is defined by Rose (1999: 15) as a “strategy, tactic, process, procedure or programme for controlling, regulating, shaping, mastering or exercising authority over others in a nation, organization or locality.” Since the 16th century rational government (reason of the state) was seen as separate entity and rationality, instead of as part of a larger continuum, between God and the people, between religion and sentiment. The goal of government is the continuous existence and survival of the state, and to achieve this survival, the state needs to be strengthened. Governmentality is the conceptual link between the large and the small; it explains how a “headless state” can strategically use processes of subjectivication, how techniques of domination meet techniques of the self (Lemke 2000: 4). Governmentality is not only situated in states, and can be used in other spaces as well. The strength of a state lies in its population, to develop the strengths of the state, the population needs to be strengthened. The basic premise is the existence of economics, which exist next to the state. Economics are not
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only the financial system of services and products as we commonly understand it, but more broadly bodies consisting of basic units such as individuals, with a consistent internal dynamics and logics through laws that can be determined (Foucault 2004: 243). These economics can be measured, and “government action [can be subjected] to endless scrutiny of costs and benefits, a permanent criticism of governmental policy based upon economic positivism (Foucault 2004: 247). This endless scrutinising will be used in the analysis of social sciences and knowledge, and will be considered the reflective aspect of governance. Note that it is only reflective towards the means employed, less so towards the ends strived for.
The idea of economies that exist alongside the state, which the state can “withdraw” from, created the possibility of liberal government. (Miller and Rose 2008: 203). As Foucault describes the relation between power, government and economies: “[a]n omnipresent government, a government which nothing escapes, a government which conforms to the rules of right, and a government which nonetheless respects the specificity of the economy, will be a government that manages civil society, the nation, society, the social.” (Foucault 2004: 297)
In the word governmentality the conceptual link between knowledge and power is explicit: “The semantic linking of governing (‘gouverner’) and modes of thought (‘mentalité’) indicates that it is not possible to study the technologies of power without an analysis of the political rationality underpinning them.” (Lemke 2001: 191). In terms of research, this approach does not confront governmental knowledge with another, higher truth. The concept governmentality indicates that researchers should investigate the modes of rationality and forms of knowledge, to understand how and why states formulate policies and influence behavior. Knowledge can be both “true” (which is irrelevant for this thesis) and highly effective in strategic terms (which is relevant) (Foucault 1979a: 226).
Towards strengthening the state, knowledge of the state is of the essence for governance: “Knowledge is necessary; concrete, precise, and measured knowledge as to the state’s strength. The art of governing, characteristic of reason of state, is intimately bound up with the development of what was then called either political statistics, or arithmetic; that is, the knowledge of different states’ respective forces. Such knowledge was indispensable for correct government.” (Foucault 1979a: 246) The relation between liberalism and knowledge is not just practical. Knowledge of the governed phenomenon is the liberal claim to fame, his raison d’être. This creates a discursive space for the production of knowledge of the economy. Strategic knowledge - usable towards the optimization of governance - is based in this space called veridiction by Foucault. It is unique, as previous knowledge stemmed from other sources than the truth of the economics, such as the truth of God, the truth of the natural order, etcetera. The truth claim is based in the economics of the governed phenomenon (the force) itself.
Through governance, individual lives are developed to strengthen the state, by using techniques similar to discipline. “The elements constitutive of individuals’ lives can be the infinite small, reminiscent of disciplinary techniques: Police is a science of endless lists and classifications; there is a police of religion, of customs, of health, of foods, of highways, of public order, of sciences, commerce, manufactures, servants, poverty . . . Police science seems to aspire to constitute a kind of omnivorous espousal of governed reality, the sensorium of a Leviathan. It is also (again in aspiration) a knowledge of inexhaustibly detailed and continuous control.” (Gordon 1991: 10) This
is pastoral in the sense that each individual “needs” to develop in a specific was, such that both the individual and the whole population benefit.4 Rationalizations have to show why this exertion of power is good (for something / to reach a specific goal) (Lemke 2000: 8).
Again, this exertion of (disciplinary) power does not repress freedom, but needs to be considered productive. One consequence of this assumption is that the discussion of state vs civil society should be transcended (Rose et all 2006). Making up citizens and creating subjects, produces new fields of possibilities for these citizens. The strategic intent of the government’s exertion of power, is to make these new fields of possibilities fit within the grander scheme of the state to reach the goals.
These forms of knowledge, and the governing interventions that follow this knowledge, produce effects, in homes, in schools, on streets, and in workplaces. “[W]e suggest that psycho-social expertise has acquired a vital place in the diverse attempts to link individuals subjectively and emotionally to their productive activity. For in the attempts of work reformers of varying kinds to accord meaning to work, a space has been opened up for the elaboration of a body of knowledges of work and of the worker. Programs of work reform are, we argue, intrinsically "performative." They provide ways of imagining the nature of work that are reciprocally related to conceptions of the nature of the individual who is to carry it out. Alignments among production, identity, and democracy are forged in large part by those expertises that claim a knowledge of both the technical nature of work and the psycho-social nature of the worker.” (Millar and Rose 1995: 460) Thus, the experts connect and produce the worker, the work and the workspace in a discursive web of practices. Other experts produce the housewife, family and household, or the prostitute, prostitution and window brothel5. The subjectivizing effects are very persuasive: concepts like self-esteem and sexuality derive from governing efforts. These have become fundamental in our perception of and reflection on the self.
The produced worker is a figure that allows for measurements and interventions. He does not necessarily or completely correspond with the workers in “reality”. “The problem of homo economicus and its applicability to domains that are not immediately and directly economic (crime, marriage, child rearing etc.) is interesting as it posits a notion of the “rational subject” that bears no relationship to the work done in the social sciences on how individuals respond to behavioural stimuli, but it also presents homo economicus not as someone who should be left alone (as in the theory of laissez faire), but rather as ‘the person who accepts reality or who responds systematically to modifications in the variables of the environment … as someone manageable … someone who is eminently governable.” (Foucault 2004: 270-1). The analysis of this strategic role of the production of the subject
4 This connection between the small and the whole is where the grunt of Foucault’s critique is aimed for. See: “Very
significantly, political criticism has reproached the state with being simultaneously a factor for individualisation and a totalitarian principle. Just to look at nascent state rationality, just to see what its first policing project was, makes it clear that, right from the start, the state is both individualising and totalitarian. Opposing the individual and his interests to it is just as hazardous as opposing it with the community and its requirements. Political rationality has grown and imposed itself all throughout the history of Western societies. It first took its stand on the idea of pastoral power, then on that of reason of state. Its inevitable effects are both individualisation and totalisation. Liberation can only come from attacking, not just one of these two effects, but political rationality’s very roots.” (Foucault 1979a: 254)
5 I’d be happier if I could have said: sex worker, service, work space; current policies in Amsterdam use different names
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within the project of government, opens up the possibility of criticizing specific power-relations inherent in the construct of the subjects.
Governmentality and governing do not only take place in state institutions. The entire apparatus (which also involves for example private organisations, social scientists and even the population, each in their own roles, and knowledges, discourses, etc.) takes part in the governing. Traditional classifications, in terms of political and non-political, science and policy, public and private, state and non-state, should be put aside and rethought. Scientists can contribute to political aims, private organisations may strive towards state sanctioned goals, and private sexual choices can be criminalized for the public good. Drawing boundaries is a political act in itself, as the boundaries produce a field of possibilities and restraints: these boundaries and their effects should not be reified.
Structure
As outlined above, this thesis focusses on issues of governmentality and knowledge. The first part of the thesis investigates the historical formation of different discourses related to sex trafficking and prostitution policies. Four different historical timeframes are described, each giving rise to a new discursive formation which are still influencing the current rationalities and practices, as specific elements of these formations are redeployed in the current configuration.
The second part is an analysis of the current two timeframes and a criminal investigation that was instrumental in the formation of the current configuration. The conclusion will be an analysis of the structure and formation of knowledge, as well as the role knowledge plays in the current configuration.
Historical analysis
Four of the timeframes may be considered historical in the sense that most organisational structures developed do not exist anymore. However, a historical analysis of these elements allows for an understanding of their inherent contingency, and how power relations are shaped by these elements, which still play a role today.
1800 – 1885: Prostitutes are transformed in subjects of government
The start of the 19th century was chosen as the start of the history. Prostitution had been criminalized, regulated and legalized quite a few times before, but the medical policing of prostitutes nationally was a new mode of regulation. This chapter, on the first prostitution regulations for reasons other than nuisance, sexual morality or financial gains, and on the circumstances that make possible the appearance of the concept of white slavery, will cover a rich history from 1800 to 1885: the occupation of the Netherlands by Napoleon, professionalization of armies, the building of the modern State of the Netherlands.
1885 – 1911: The possibility of being a victim of prostitution
The regulation of prostitution would prove fertile ground for the first social research into prostitution and for the emergence of the concept of white slavery. Both the content and use differed from the present meaning and usage of the concept of human trafficking. The development of the first arguments and institutions for fighting white slavery took place from 1850 until 1911. It covers the start of a war against white slavery, an unlikely alliance between feminists and conservatives, and ends with the instatement of the Morality Laws.
1904 – 1949: International law
The third epoch took place somewhat later (1904-1950), and in a different space. White slavery took the international stage and was adapted for usage within this context. Nationalism and the regulation of borders between States developed in these years. The adaptation of white slavery to this context would change the concept dramatically, and these changes are still visible today. The name changed into traffic of women.
1960 – 2000: Sex work and exploitation
The decades between the 60s and the turn of the century saw the rise and fall of the institutionalised second wave feminists (femocrats) in the Netherlands. They would completely change the concept of sex trafficking, by separating it from prostitution. This separation was meant to protect sex workers from the stigma of being helpless victims. The concept of “sex work” was born.
The municipalities started lobbying for legalization of brothels. Progressive feminists implemented empowering the sex worker’s position in this lobby. However, when the brothels were legalized, fighting sex trafficking dominated the implemented measures.
At the same time the concept of “organised crime” took root in the Dutch crime fighting efforts. Although trafficking of women was always seen as an organised crime, looking back not much effort was put into implementation of this new concept of human trafficking yet. The suspicion inherent in the concept of organised crime was not yet infused in the fight against human trafficking.
The Palermo Protocol was negotiated in these years, and a strong presence of progressive feminists changed the judicial meaning of human trafficking. The Palermo Protocol opened up the possibility of sexualizing and de-genderizing the crime, and this was implemented in Ducth criminal law.
Current timeframes and practices
Many of the practices developed after 2000 are still in effect, although the Sneep case caused a major overhaul of the configuration.
Production of the judicial concept of sex trafficking
The current concept of sex trafficking is very narrow. It defines which events and experiences are relevant, who bears responsibilities, and the possible consequences. Effectively, many experiences, responsibilities and consequences are thereby excluded. This production takes place in court during individual criminal cases, and this chapter analyses the process of production, as well as the produced concept.
2000 – 2007
In 2000, brothels were legalized to position them in already existing regulatory systems, such as labour law and migration policies. For seven years it was believed that the legal prostitution sector did not harbour sex trafficking practices. The concept of loverboy was developed, a new concept of sex trafficking that was not attached to prostitution policies. Slowly information became more important, and efforts to combat organised crime and coordinate enforcing were implemented.
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The Bureau National Rapporteur Human Trafficking (BNRM) was founded, which soon became the most important “researcher” of human trafficking. Her advice was almost always followed, and her usage of the judicial definition of human trafficking proved very persuasive. She combined unparalleled access to police files, court cases and other administrations with legal and social research, in effect she determined (and still continuous to determine) the conceptualization of human trafficking.
The Sneep case
In 2007 the unthinkable happened. A criminal organisation focused mainly on sex trafficking was found operating in the legal prostitution sector, in the Sneep case. The programmatic approach was used in this pilot criminal investigation. The shocking results of the criminal investigation were used to advocate the national implementation of the programmatic approach.
2007 – present
The idea of organised crime, developed in another context in the 90s, was placed in the centre of the efforts to combat sex trafficking, as well as a fundamental suspicion towards prostitutes. Project 1012, Programma Prostitutie, the Prostitution Regulation Law, all huge programs and efforts with one aim: to eradicate sex trafficking by reforming the legal prostitution sector.
Governance, knowledge and social science
Since 2000 the legalization of brothels created the possibility of a field of governance, as a conscious strategy had to be created for the legal prostitution sector. The BNRM provided the other side of the governance coin: a unified field of knowledge. The configuration in which the BNRM is unique, and provides her with an unparalleled authority in matter pertaining sex work, and prostitution. This authority is a necessary precondition for the creation of a governance field.
New ground covered
Foremost, the aim of this thesis is to investigate the current configuration of the prostitution and sex trafficking policies, and the role knowledge plays. The first step is to lay bare the different discursive formations whose elements are redeployed in the sex trafficking and prostitution policies. These policies are fairly recent, but its elements have been “in the making” for about two centuries. A proper understanding of these elements, how they are recombined, and their place in history and society, allows for a critical understanding of the connection in our knowledge and policy system between sex trafficking and prostitution. In this thesis, the critical understanding is based on the power relations based in discourse, practices and subjectivications.
Others have used a Foucauldian framework in their research on prostitution policies. However, very little research focuses on municipal policies, where most of the practices are implemented, and where discourses are different than on the national level. In the Netherlands, municipal policies are the single most influential for the sex workers. Furthermore, the connections between the different discourses and municipal policies is under-researched. (For example, international politics are left out, see Leppänen 2007).
Certain histories are already well established. Especially in the Netherlands, the connection between current prostitution policies and the curving of female sexuality in the 19th century are embedded in the present
progressive feminist discourses. These will be touched upon here, but only briefly. Human trafficking as a problem of migration is also often mentioned, though the connection with international politics in the prewar and interbellum period is neglected. Finally, the connection of human trafficking with organised crime is completely neglected, even though this connection is explicitly mentioned everywhere, and the effects are very persuasive. Here these discourses will be connected to the rest of the apparatus, laying bare the structuration of knowledge and providing a complete(r) picture of the apparatus.
This thesis will focus on how the structure of the production of knowledge influences the knowledge and the policies. The Dutch configuration is unique in how knowledge on sex work and sex trafficking is produced and used, which has not been researched yet.
Language used
In this highly politicized topic of sex work / prostitution and sex trafficking, the very words one uses to express an idea give away the position taken. Language situates the user in the political field.
My personal opinion, shaped through my interviews with sex workers and others, favours the progressive feminists’ terminology. It is hard to deny that people may voluntarily choose to earn their livelihood with sex work, after having been told this by many strong people whom I have learned to respect. Who are we to decide why they made their choices, and directly contradict them by flattening their experiences, agency and courage into the typical story of a victim?
At the same time, I have yet to meet the first person who denies that trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation takes place. I have read statements, heard testimonies and saw the judicial criminal processes first hand. I was shocked by how devastating these experiences can be. The effects of the trauma are unimaginable. Most cases of trafficking for sexual exploitation were not similar to those portrayed in popular media: the perpetrator did chain the victim in a basement. The use of force was often more subtle: an extreme form of manipulation would be a more commonsensical description than purely physical violence and force (although violence and threats were still rampant). However, the results were no less devastating, as sex trafficking seemed to have erased the coherency and integrity of the victim’s personality and memory. I am aware of the lived experiences of human trafficking victims.
My personal believe in the possibility of voluntary sex work does not imply that I deny the occurrence nor gravity of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The critiques raised here with regards to the current discourse of sex trafficking do not mean that I deny the severity or existence of sex trafficking, nor that this combat is not worth fighting.
The terminology referring to the phenomena (prostitution, sex work) in this thesis will follow the words used in the discourse at the time under scrutiny. Since the phrase “sex work” is only developed late in the 20th century, at first only the word “prostitution” will be used. As policies refer to prostitution, this word will be used when policies are analysed. Other terms used are white slavery, traffic of women, fallen women, etc. Since the explicit aim is to sketch the constitution of these concepts, a genealogy, transporting the modern concepts to the past will not do. The words of the sources will be used, when prostitution and white slavery are seen as one and the same.