North America

Citation:

Hughes, Donna M., Katherine Y. Chon, and Derek P. Ellerman. 2007. "Modern-Day Comfort Women: The U.S. Military, Transnational Crime, and the Trafficking of Women." Violence Against Women 13 (9): 901-22.

Authors: Donna M. Hughes, Katherine Y. Chon, Derek P. Ellerman

Abstract:

The trafficking of women has been a lucrative moneymaker for transnational organized crime networks, ranking third, behind drugs and arms, in criminal earnings. The U.S. military bases in South Korea were found to form a hub for the transnational trafficking of women from the Asia Pacific and Eurasia to South Korea and the United States.
This study, conducted in 2002, examined three types of trafficking that were connected to U.S. military bases in South Korea: domestic trafficking of Korean women to clubs around the military bases in South Korea, transnational trafficking of women to clubs around military bases in South Korea, and transnational trafficking of women from South Korea to massage parlors in the United States. 

Keywords: military sexual assault, sex trafficking, organized crime, US military bases

Topics: Gender, Women, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Americas, North America, Asia, East Asia Countries: South Korea, United States of America

Year: 2007

Citation:

Cheng, Sea-Ling. 2002. Transnational Desires: Trafficked Filipinas in US Military Camp Towns in South Korea. PhD diss., University of Oxford.

Author: Sea-Ling Cheng

Topics: Gender, Women, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Americas, North America, Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Philippines, South Korea, United States of America

Year: 2002

Citation:

Shipherd, Jillian C., Lauren Mizock, Shira Maguen, and Kelly E. Green. 2012. "Male-to-Female Transgender Veterans and VA Health Care Utilization." International Journal of Sexual Health 24 (1): 78-87.

Authors: Jillian C. Shipherd, Lauren Mizock, Shira Maguen, Kelly E. Green

Abstract:

This study examined rates of military veteran status in an American male-to-female transgender community sample (n = 141). Thirty percent were veterans (n = 43), a rate that is triple the proportion of veteran status noted in the general population (10.1%). Among the veteran subsample, we examined health care utilization, including Veterans Health Administration (VA), health, and barriers to care. Use of VA services was higher among transgender veterans (transvets) than published rates of VA use in the general population of veterans (annual 6.2% to 15.8%), with 16.3% of all transvets seeking some VA care in the past 6- months. The most common physical health problems treated at the VA in the past year were high cholesterol, blood pressure, and vision problems. Irrespective of VA use, the majority of transvets reported getting routine health care (88.4%), and their physical health ratings were commensurate with population norms. Mental health services (e.g., depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and gender identity counseling) were also utilized (9.3% VA, 25.6% non-VA) at levels consistent with the relatively low mental health functioning scores in this sample (SF-12 = 32.6, SD = 8.3). Barriers to care were endorsed more for medical than mental health treatment. In particular, transvets were concerned about medical providers’ reactions to their gender identity or sexual orientation. Given elevated rates of transvets in this community sample and reported barriers to care, culturally sensitive treatment is a priority for transvets in both VA and non-VA health care systems.

Keywords: depression, veterans

Topics: Combatants, Gender, Health, LGBTQ, Military Forces & Armed Groups Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2012

Citation:

Acharya, Arun K. 2009. "The Dynamic of Internal Displacement, Forced Migration and Vulnerable to Trafficking in Mexico." Journal of Human Ecology Delhi 27 (3): 161-70.

Author: Arun K. Acharya

Abstract:

Displacement coupled with migration and trafficking has caused a massive increase and influx in the numbers of women and girls into sexual exploitation. The main concern of this research is to investigate how the internal displacement in Chiapas state of Mexico forcing the people especially to women for migration and making them vulnerable towards trafficking. The present research analyzes the demographic profile of displaced-trafficked women as well as their pattern of trafficking and consequences on health. For this study information has been collected from both primary and secondary sources. The primary information has obtained through interviewing 40 trafficked women in the Tapachula City of Chiapas, Mexico in a semi-structured questionnaire. Apart from that 10 in depth interviews were conducted to get the life history of displaced-trafficked women. 

Keywords: migration, displacement, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, health

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Women, Girls, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, SV against Women, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Mexico

Year: 2009

Citation:

Stritikus, Tom, and Diem Nguyen. 2007. "Strategic Transformation: Cultural and Gender Identity Negotiation in First-Generation Vietnamese Youth." American Educational Research Journal 44 (4): 853-95.

Authors: Tom Stritikus, Diem Nguyen

Abstract:

This article explores the various ways in which recent Vietnamese immigrant students form cultural and gender identities as they transition to U.S. schooling. Using data from a 2-year qualitative study that tracked the social and academic adjustment processes of recent Vietnamese immigrant youth, this article examines the tensions that students struggle with as they bring their own values and practices into the school site. The findings suggest that gender functions as a complex social category for recent immigrants that shifts across social contexts. The authors argue that accounting for a full picture of gender identity more accurately captures the manner in which recent immigrant students adapt to U.S. schooling.

Keywords: immigration, gender identity

Topics: Age, Youth, Education, Gender Regions: Americas, North America, Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: United States of America, Vietnam

Year: 2007

Citation:

Sudbury, Julia. 2005. "Celling Black Bodies: Black Women in the Global Prison Industrial Complex." Feminist Review 8: 162-79.

Author: Julia Sudbury

Abstract:

The past two decades have witnessed an explosion in the population of women prisoners in Europe, North America and Australasia, accompanied by a boom in prison construction. This article argues that this new pattern of women's incarceration has been forged by three overlapping phenomena. The first is the fundamental shift in the role of the state that has occurred as a result of the neo-liberal globalization. The second and related phenomenon is the emergence and subsequent global expansion of what has been labeled a 'prison industrial complex' made up of a intricate web of relations between state penal institutions, politicians and profit-driven prison corporations. The third is the emergence of a US-led global war on drugs which is symbiotically related and mutually constituted by the transnational trade in criminalized drugs. These new regimes of accumulation and discipline, I argue, build on older systems of racist and patriarchal exploitation to ensure the super-exploitation of black women within the global prison industrial complex. The article calls for a new anti-racist feminist analysis that explores how the complex matrix of race, class, gender and nationality meshes with contemporary globalized geo-political and economic realities. The prison industrial complex plays a critical role in sustaining the viability of the new global economy and black women are increasingly becoming the raw material that fuels its expansion and profitability. The article seeks to reveal the profitable synergies between drug enforcement, the prison industry, international financial institutions, media and politicians that are sending women to prison in ever increasing numbers.

Topics: Gender, Women, Justice, Race, Trafficking, Drug Trafficking Regions: Americas, North America, Asia, Europe, Oceania

Year: 2005

Citation:

Schemenauer, Ellie. 2012. "Victims and Vamps, Madonnas and Whores: The Construction of Female Drug Couriers and the Practices of the US Security State." International Feminist Journal of Politics 14 (1): 83-102.

Author: Ellie Schemenauer

Abstract:

This article explores how the US "war on drugs" depends on certain notions of femininity and womanhood. In particular, I examine how female couriers from the Americas are constructed at US border sites of international airports in the 1990s. I find that female drug couriers are described in terms of victims and vamps - a take off of the madonna/whore dichotomy. The victim and vamp discourses, I argue, are the performative enactments of a security state that operates according to a racialized logic of masculinist protection. I hold in tension the circulation of the victim/vamp discourses with the story of Paula, a Colombian woman who was caught trafficking heroin in hidden compartments of her suitcase. I use Paula's story to call attention to the political work in dismissing women as agents in the international drug trade.

Keywords: war on drugs, feminist perspectives, race, masculinity

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Femininity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Masculinism, Security, Trafficking, Drug Trafficking Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2012

Citation:

Reynolds, Marylee. 2004. "Educating Students about the War on Drugs: Criminal and Civil Consequences of a Felony Drug Conviction." Women's Studies Quarterly 32 (3-4): 246-60.

Author: Marylee Reynolds

Abstract:

American society is a patriarchal one, where the needs, issues, and concerns of women are largely ignored. It should not be surprising then, that when legislators enact crime control policies. Especially drug policies, the social and economic impact of such policies on women is rarely considered. Here, Reynolds examines the criminal and civil consequences of a felony conviction for women, including how legislative policies penalize women, particularly women of color.

Keywords: public administration, intersectionality, criminal justice, war on drugs

Topics: Economies, Gender, Patriarchy, Gender Equality/Inequality, Justice, Race Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2004

Citation:

Norton-Hawk, Maureen. 2010. "Exporting Gender Injustice: The Impact of the U.S. War on Drugs on Ecuadorian Women." Critical Criminology 18 (2): 133.

Author: Maureen Norton-Hawk

Abstract:

Numerous researchers have documented the gendered impact of the United States’ domestic war against drugs. Women incarcerated for non-violent drug offenses are the fastest growing segment of America’s prison population because of the harsh penalties for using, selling and transporting illegal substances. The impact of U.S. drug policy on women in other countries, in contrast, has been overlooked. This paper argues that the greatly increased imprisonment of women in Ecuador for drug-related offenses is collateral damage of the U.S. war on drugs. The impact of the expansion of women’s imprisonment in Ecuador appears to be particularly damaging to the inmate’s children who frequently join their mother in prison. U.S. policy should not be exported to other countries before having a clear picture of the unintended negative consequences.

Keywords: globalization, war on drugs, collateral damage, criminal justice

Topics: Gender, Women, Justice, Rights, Women's Rights, Trafficking, Drug Trafficking Regions: Americas, North America, South America Countries: Ecuador, United States of America

Year: 2010

Citation:

Merolla, David. 2008. "The War on Drugs and the Gender Gap in Arrests: A Critical Perspective." Critical Sociology 34 (2): 255.

Author: David Merolla

Abstract:

Many theories of offending have been advanced in an effort to explain the increasing number of women arrested in recent years. In this article, I move away from individual level explanations of offending and attempt to explain this trend with a structural approach. Specifically, I argue that the 'war on drugs' has made females more vulnerable to arrest in recent years, regardless of offending behavior. I argue that two arms of the war on drugs, representing direct and ideological aspects of social control, work together to make women more likely to be arrested. This article contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it shows that scholars interested in the gender gap cannot ignore the war on drugs. Second, it shows the utility of a focus on the criminal justice system, and potentially other systems of social control, rather than individual level offending to explain trends in arrests. 

Keywords: criminal justice, war on drugs, vulnerability

Topics: Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Justice Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2008