The Governance of Sex Trafficking: Politics, Policy and Practice in England and Wales

This thesis explores how non-governmental organisation (NGOs) and the police operate as part of an ever-growing network of actors in the governance of sex trafficking in England and Wales. Drawing upon data generated through semi-structured interviews with 24 NGO actors and 18 police officers – ranging from Case Workers and Police Constables to CEOs and Chief Constables – this thesis focuses upon how anti-trafficking policy translates into practice in a field defined by ‘hyper-politicisation’. It examines how interrelationships within the anti-trafficking policy domain are structured and maintained through service delivery; how anti-trafficking policy and practice is shaped by the interests and priorities of anti-trafficking actors; and how anti-trafficking actors construct trafficking victimhood. In so doing, the thesis responds to the increasing international political attention cast onto sex trafficking in recent years and seeks to counter the rise of research in this field which has tended towards sensationalism, mythologisation and polarised feminist debate. Addressing the dearth of research on anti-trafficking service providers, the findings from this research demonstrate that trafficking is a social issue that is enveloped in, and conditioned by, moral struggles and divergent political agendas, which manifest in the control of womyn’s bodies and state borders. It therefore offers new empirical evidence to advance understanding of how sex trafficking has been taken up, both by state and non-state actors, as a noble guise through which to pursue draconian policy and practice.