This article exposes methodological barriers we encountered in a small research project on women trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation and our attempts, drawing on feminist and emergent methods, to resolve them. It critically assesses the role of institutional gatekeepers and the practical challenges faced in obtaining data directly from trafficking victims. Such difficulties, it suggests, spring at least in part from lingering disagreements within the feminist academic, legal, and advocacy communities regarding the nature, extent, and definition of trafficking. They also reveal concerns from policy makers and practitioners over the relevance and utility of academic research. Although feminist researchers have focused on building trust with vulnerable research participants, there has been far less discussion about how to persuade institutional elites to cooperate. Our experiences in this project, we suggest, reveal limitations in the emphasis on reflexivity in feminist methods, and point to the need for more strategic engagement with policy makers about the utility of academic research in general.
BrownmillerS. (1975). Against our will: Men, women and rape (1st ed.). New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
7.
BrunovskisA.TyldumG. (2005). Describing the unobserved: Methodological challenges in empirical studies on human trafficking. International Migration, 43(1/2), 17-33.
8.
BucklandB. S. (2008). More than just victims: The truth about human trafficking. Public Policy Research, 15(1), 42-47.
9.
CampbellR. (2002). Emotionally involved: The impact of researching rape. New York, NY: Routledge.
10.
CampbellR.AdamsA. (2009). Why do rape survivors volunteer for face-to-face interviews? A meta study of victims’ reasons for and concerns about research participation. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 24, 395-405.
11.
ChanJ. (2005). Globalisation, reflexivity and the practice of criminology. In SheptyckiJ.WardakA. (Eds.), Transnational & comparative criminology (pp. 337-354). London, UK: GlassHouse.
12.
ChapkisW. (2003). Trafficking, migration and the law. Gender and Society, 17, 923-937.
13.
CorrinC. (2005). Transitional road for traffic: Analysing trafficking in women from and through central and eastern Europe. Europe-Asia Studies, 57, 543-560.
14.
CwikelJ.HobanE. (2005). Contentious issues in research on trafficked women working in the sex industry: Study design, ethics, and methodology. Journal of Sex Research, 42, 306-316.
15.
DozemaJ. (2002). Who gets to choose? Coercion, consent and the UN trafficking protocol. Gender & Development, 10(1), 20-27.
16.
DuttonD. (2006). Rethinking domestic violence. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: University of British Columbia Press.
17.
FlammM. (2003). Exploited, not educated: The trafficking of women and children in Southeast Asia. UN Chronicle, 40(2), 34-36.
18.
GoodeyJ. (2008). Human trafficking: Sketchy data and policy responses. Criminology and Criminal Justice, 8, 421-442.
19.
GozdziakE.CollettE. (2005). Research on human trafficking in North America: A review of literature. International Migration, 43(1/2), 99-128.
20.
Hannah-MoffatK. (2011). Criminological cliques: Narrowing dialogues, institutional protectionism, and the next generation. In BosworthM.HoyleC. (Eds.), What is criminology? (pp. 440-455). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
21.
Hesse-BiberS. N. (Ed.). (2007). Handbook of feminist research: Theory and practice. London, UK: SAGE.
22.
Hesse-BiberS. N.LearyP. (Eds.). (2008). Handbook of emergent methods. New York, NY: Guilford.
23.
HopeT. (2009). The illusion of control: A response to Professor Sherman. Criminology and Criminal Justice, 9(2), 125-134.
24.
HopeT.WaltersR. (2008). Critical thinking about the uses of research. London, UK: Centre for Crime and Justice Studies.
25.
HoyleC. (1998). Negotiating domestic violence: Police, criminal justice and victims. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
26.
HoyleC.BosworthM.DempseyM. (2011) “Victims” of sex trafficking: Exploring the borderland between rhetoric and reality. Social & Legal Studies, 20(4), 313-29.
27.
IrwinS. (2008). Data analysis and interpretation: Emergent issues in linking qualitative and quantitative evidence. In Hesse-BiberS. N.LearyP. (Eds.), Handbook of emergent methods (pp. 415-435). New York, NY: Guilford.
28.
JayaratneT. E.StewartA. J. (1995). Quantitative and qualitative methods in the social sciences: Feminist issues and practical strategies. In HollandJ.BlairM. (Eds.), Debates and issues in feminist research and pedagogy (pp. 217-234). Clevedon, UK: Open University Press.
29.
KellyL. (1988). Surviving sexual violence. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
30.
KenwayJ.FaheyJ. (Eds.). (2009). Globalizing the research imagination. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
31.
LeeM. (Ed.). (2007). Human trafficking. Collumpton, UK: Willan.
32.
LeeM. (2011). Trafficking and global crime control. London, UK: SAGE.
33.
LetherbyG. (2003). Feminist research in theory and practice. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
34.
LoaderI.SparksR. (2010). Public criminology. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
35.
LongL. D. (2004) Anthropological perspectives on the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation. International Migration, 42(1), 5-31.
36.
MaynardM.PurvisJ. (1994). Researching women’s lives from a feminist perspective. London, UK: Taylor and Francis.
37.
MendezJ. B.WolfD. L. (2007). Feminizing global research/ globalizing feminist research: Methods and practice under globalization. In H-BiberS. N. (Ed.), Handbook of feminist research: Theory and practice (Chapter 38). London, UK: SAGE.
38.
MillerE.DeckerM.SilvermanJ.RajA. (2007). Migration, sexual exploitation, and women’s health: A case study from a community health centre. Violence Against Women, 13, 486-497.
39.
MorrisonW. (2005). Rethinking narratives of penal change in global context. In: PrattJ.BrownD.BrownM.HallsworthS.MorrisonW. (Eds), The new punitiveness. Trends, theories, perspectives (pp. 290-307). Cullompton: Willan Publishing.
40.
MunroV. (2006). Stopping traffick: A comparative study of responses to the trafficking in women for prostitution. British Journal of Criminology, 46, 318-333.
41.
RamazanogluC. with HollandJ. (2007). Feminist methodology: Challenges and choices. London, UK: SAGE.
RichieB. (1994). Compelled to crime. New York, NY: Routledge.
44.
RockP. (1998) After homicide: Practical and political responses to bereavement. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
45.
RockP. (2002). On becoming a victim. In HoyleC.YoungR. (Eds.), New visions of crime victims (pp. 1-22). Oxford, UK: Hart.
46.
RockP. (2010). Hearing victims of crime’: The delivery of impact statements as ritual behaviour in four London trials for murder and manslaughter. In BottomsA.RobertsJ. (Eds.), Victims in the criminal justice system (Chapter 8). Cullompton, UK: Willan.
47.
Ryan-FloodR.GillR. (Eds.). (2010). Secrecy and silency in the research process: Feminist reflections. London, UK: Routledge.
48.
SaundersT. (2009). Controlling the “anti-sexual” city: Sexual citizenship and the disciplining of female street sex workers. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 9, 507-525.
49.
ScottJ. (1991). The evidence of experience. Critical Inquiry, 178, 773-797.
50.
ShermanL. W. (2009) Evidence and liberty: The promise of experimental criminology. Criminology and Criminal Justice, 9(1), 5-28.
51.
StanleyL.WiseS. (1983) Breaking out: Feminist consciousness and feminist research. London, UK: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
52.
TemkinJ. (2002). Rape and the legal process (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
ToppingA. (2011, January17). Child sex trafficking in UK on the rise with even younger victims targeted. Guardian, p. 3.
56.
TravisA. (2008, November19). For men who pay for sex with trafficked women, ignorance is no longer a defence. Guardian, p. 4
57.
TurnerJ.KellyL. (2009). Trade secrets: Intersections between diasporas and crime groups in the constitution of the human trafficking chain. British Journal of Criminology, 49, 184-201.
58.
TyldumG. (2010). Limitations in research on human trafficking. International Migration, 48(5), 1-12.
59.
UrryJ. (2000). Sociology beyond societies: Mobilities for the twenty-first century. London, UK: Routledge.
60.
WebsdaleN. (1999). Understanding domestic homicide. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.
61.
WoodwardW. (2007, December21). Harman calls for prostitution ban to tackle trafficking. Guardian, p. 16.
62.
YoungW. (2006). Caught in the crossfire: displaced Colombians at risk of trafficking. New York, NY: Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children.
63.
YoungW.PyneS. (2006). Abuse without end: Burmese refugee women and children at risk of trafficking. New York, NY: Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children.
