Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T23:23:37.724Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Caught in the victim/criminal paradigm: female migrant prostitution in contemporary Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2016

Isabel Crowhurst
Isabel Crowhurst*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Criminology, Kingston University, London, UK
*
∗Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article offers a critical exploration of exclusionary practices enacted in Italy towards migrant prostitute women. It identifies the double construction of migrant prostitute women as victims of sex trafficking and as illegal/criminal migrants as a dominant paradigm that informs policy approaches aimed at addressing their presence in the country. It explores how this paradigm has emerged in the specific context of contemporary Italy, how it has been sustained, by whom and with what consequences. By drawing on the exploration of a specific incident, the article shows how gendered and racialised constructions of dangerous migrant sexualities can inform decisions over what determines the slippery and unstable demarcation between those who are identified as victims and those who are identified as criminals. Finally, the article suggests that, caught within the restrictive victim/criminal paradigm, migrant prostitutes fail to be recognised and treated as subjects.

Keywords

migrant prostitutionsex traffickingvictim/criminal paradigmgender, sexuality‘race’
Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 17 , Issue 4: Special Issue: The politics of sexuality in contemporary Italy , November 2012 , pp. 493 - 506
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agustin, L. 2007. Sex at the margins. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Andall, J. 2000. Gender, migration and domestic service: The politics of black women in Italy. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Andrijasevic, R. 2007. Beautiful dead bodies: Gender, migration and representation in anti-trafficking campaigns. Feminist Review 86:24–44.Google Scholar
Andrijasevic, R. 2010. Migration, agency and citizenship in sex trafficking. Basingstoke: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Angel-Ajani, A. 2003. A question of dangerous races?. Punishment & Society 5, no. 4:433–48.Google Scholar
Aradau, C. 2004. The perverse politics of four-letter words: Risk and pity in the scrutinisation of human trafficking. Millenium: Journal of International Studies 33, no. 2:251–77.Google Scholar
Aradau, C. 2008. Rethinking trafficking in women: Politics out of security. Basingstoke: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Benzi, O. 2001. Prostituzione. Vi passeranno davanti nel regno dei cieli. Milan: Mondadori.Google Scholar
Berman, J. 2003. (Un)popular strangers and crises (un)bounded: Discourses of sex-trafficking, the European political community and the panicked state of the modern state. European Journal of International Relations 9, no. 1:37–86.Google Scholar
Bimbi, F. 2001. Prostituzione, migrazioni e relazioni di genere. Polis 1, no. XV:13–34.Google Scholar
Bonfiglioli, C. 2010. Intersections of racism and sexism in contemporary Italy: A critical cartography of recent feminist debates. Darkmatter 6. http://www.darkmatter101.org/site/(2010)/10/10/intersections-of-racism-and-sexism-in-contemporary-italy-a-critical-cartography-of-recent-feminist-debates/ (accessed 31 May 2012).Google Scholar
Butler, J. 2009. Frames of war. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Campani, G. 1993. Immigration and racism in Southern Europe: The Italian case. Ethnic and Racial Studies 16, no. 3:507–33.Google Scholar
Carby, H. 1982. White woman listen! Black feminism and the boundaries of sisterhood. The empire strikes back: Race and racism in seventies Britain. 212–235. Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies. Dover, NH: Hutchinson Education.Google Scholar
Carfagna, M. 2009. I motivi profondi per vietare la prostituzione. http://www.apg23.org/ambiti-dintervento/antitratta/convegno-20-maggio-2009/i-motivi-profondi-per-vietare-la-prostituzione (accessed 14 May 2012).Google Scholar
Carling, J. 2005. Trafficking in women from Nigeria to Europe. Migration Policy Institute. http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?id=318 (accessed 31 May 2012).Google Scholar
Carter, D.M. 1997. States of grace: Senegalese in Italy and the new European immigration. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Chapkis, W. 2003. Trafficking, migration and the law: Protecting innocents, punishing immigrants. Gender & Society 17, no. 6:923–37.Google Scholar
CNCA 2009. Inutili e dannose le ordinanze comunali contro la prostituzione' Coordinamento Nazionale Comunita' di Accoglienza. http://www.cnca.it/comunicati-stampa/835-inutili-e-dannose-le-ordinanze-comunali-contro-la-prostituzione (accessed 31 May 2012).Google Scholar
Colombo, A. and Sciortino, G. 2004. Italian immigration: The origins, nature and evolution of Italy's migratory systems. Journal of Modern Italian Studies 9, no. 1:49–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corso, C. and Landi, S. 1991. Ritratto a tinte forti. Florence: Giunti.Google Scholar
Crowhurst, I. 2006. The provision of protection and settlement services for migrant women trafficked for sexual purposes: The case of Italy. In Trafficking and the global sex industry, eds. Beeks, K. and Amir, D., 217–28. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Crowhurst, I. 2007. Socio-political and legal representations of migrant women sex labourers in Italy: Between discourse and praxis. In Women and immigration law, eds. van Walsum, S. and Spijkerboer, T., 241–60. New York: Routledge-Cavendish.Google Scholar
Crowhurst, I. Forthcoming. Approaches to the regulation and governance of prostitution in contemporary Italy. Sexuality Research and Social Policy. Google Scholar
Danna, D. 2004. Italy: The never-ending debate. In The politics of prostitution, ed. Outshoorn, J., 165–184. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Doezema, J. 2010. Sex slaves and discourse masters. London: Zed.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giammarinaro, M. 2002. L'innovazione, le prospettive ed i limiti dell'Art. 18. In Prostituzione e Tratta, ed. On the Road, 60–70. Milano: Franco Angeli.Google Scholar
Gilman, S. 1985. Black bodies, white bodies: Towards an iconography of female sexuality in late nineteenth-century art, medicine, and literature. Critical Inquiry 12, no. 1:204–42.Google Scholar
Italiano, Governo. 2008. Misure urgenti in materia di sicurezza pubblica. Presidenza del Cosiglio dei Ministri. http://www.governo.it/Governo/Provvedimenti/dettaglio.asp?d=39100 (accessed 20 May 2012).Google Scholar
Abele, Gruppo. 2008. Dati Prostituzione. http://www.gruppoabele.org (accessed 28 July 2011).Google Scholar
Hooks, B. 1982. Ain't I a woman: Black women and feminism. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Hoyle, C., Bosworth, M. and Dempsey, M. 2011. Victims of sex trafficking: Exploring the borderland between rhetoric and reality. Social & Legal Studies 20, no. 3:313–29.Google Scholar
Kapur, R. 2001. Post-colonial economies of desire: Legal representations of the sexual subaltern. Denver University Law Review 78, no. 4:855–85.Google Scholar
Kempadoo, K., Sanghera, J. and Pattanaik, B. 2005. Trafficking and prostitution reconsidered: New perspectives on migration, sex work, and human rights. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.Google Scholar
Repubblica, La. 2002. Case Chiuse, Berlusconi dice si' alla riapertura. 05/01/2002 http://www.repubblica.it/online/politica/casechiuse/casechiuse/casechiuse.html (accessed 20 May 2012).Google Scholar
Repubblica, La. 2008a. Foto prostituta nigeriana ecco le dichiarazioni dal mondo politico. 13/08/2008. http://parma.repubblica.it/dettaglio/foto-prostituta-nigeriana-ecco-le-dichiarazioni-dal-mondo-politico/1501453/6 (accessed 20 May 2012).Google Scholar
Repubblica, La. 2008b. Foto choc. Vignali: tutto regolare. 13/08/2008. http://parma.repubblica.it/dettaglio/La-foto-della-vergogna-ecco-come-stata-scattata/1501302 (accessed 25 May 2012).Google Scholar
Repubblica, La. 2008c. Prostituta fotografata in cella. Schifani chiede chiarimenti. 12/08/2008. http://www.repubblica.it/2008/08/sezioni/cronaca/prostituta-reazioni/prostituta-reazioni/prostituta-reazioni.html (accessed 25 May 2012).Google Scholar
Nord, Lega. 2003. ‘Volantino contro la società multirazziale’ and ‘Volantino a favore delle tradizioni locali e della famiglia naturale’. http://www.giovanipadani.leganord.org/volantini.asp (accessed 12 May 2012).Google Scholar
Nord, Lega, 2005. Speciale elezioni. Pubblicazione elettorale della Segreteria Federale. Milan: Lega Nord.Google Scholar
Mai, N. 2012. Embodied cosmopolitanisms: The subjective mobility of migrants working in the global sex industry. Gender, Place and Culture:1–18.Google Scholar
Massari, M. 2009. The other and her body: Migrant prostitution, gender relations and ethnicity. Cahiers de l'Urmis no. 12. http://urmis.revues.org/index787.html (accessed 20 July 2011).Google Scholar
Nagel, J. 2003. Race, ethnicity, and sexuality: Intimate intersections, forbidden frontiers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
O'Connell Davidson, J. 2006. Will the real sex slave please stand up?. Feminist Review 83, no. 1:4–22.Google Scholar
On the Road. 2002. Prostituzione e tratta. Milan: Franco Angeli.Google Scholar
Parmadaily, . 2007. Ordinanza del sindaco contro la prostituzione nelle strade. Parmadaily. http://www.parmadaily.it/Notizie/Dettaglio.aspx?pdi=6633&pda=CTT (accessed 8 November 2011).Google Scholar
Petrini, D. and Ferraris, V. 2002. I riferimenti generali e la collocazione della ricerca nel contesto delle riflessioni sull'Art. 18. In Articolo 18: Tutela delle vittime del traffico di esseri umani e lotta alla criminalità, ed. On the Road, 33–106. Martinsicuro: On the Road Edizioni.Google Scholar
Phoenix, J. 2009. Regulating sex for sale. Oxford: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Pontifical Council (for the Pastoral Care of the Migrants and Itinerant People). 2005. First international Meeting of Pastoral Care for the Liberation of Women of the Street. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/migrants/documents_l/rc_pc_migrants_doc_20210605_linc-past-don-strada-findoc_en.html (accessed 28 May 2012).Google Scholar
Ponzanesi, S. 2005. Beyond the black Venus: Colonial sexual politics and contemporary visual practices. In Italian colonialism: Legacies and memories, ed. Duncan, D., 165–89. Oxford: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Prestigiacomo, S. 2002. Introduzione. Speech presented at the Ministry of Equal Opportunities conference 'Inferno Tratta. Il Dovere di Reprimere, l'impegno per Salvare'. Rome: Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri.Google Scholar
Pugliese, J. 2008. Whiteness and the blackening of Italy: La guerra cafona, extracommunitari and provisional street justice. PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies 5, no. 2:1–35.Google Scholar
Regina Pacis. 2012. Assistance, safeguard and social protection for women victims of trade, aimed at sexual exploitation. Regina Pacis. http://www.arhiv.reginapacis.org/en/47.php (accessed 14 May 2012).Google Scholar
Robusti, M. 2008. La foto della vergogna ecco com'è stata scattata. La Repubblica. http://parma.repubblica.it/dettaglio/La-foto-della-vergogna-ecco-come-stata-scattata/1501302 (accessed 20 May 2012).Google Scholar
Salih, R. 2003. Gender in transnationalism: Home, longing and belonging among Moroccan migrant women. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sanghera, J. 2005. Unpacking the trafficking discourse. In Trafficking and prostitution reconsidered, eds. Kempadoo, K., Sangera, J. and Pattanaik, B., Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.Google Scholar
Sapio, R. 2007. Prostituzione. Rimini: NdA Press.Google Scholar
Savoini, G. 2002. Gazebo in piazza contro la prostituzione e pedofilia. La Padania, 23 May.Google Scholar
Senato, . 2008. Comunicati stampa: agosto 2008. Senato della Repubblica Italiana. http://presidente.senato.it/comunicati/43281/44062/paginalista.htm (accessed 31 May 2012).Google Scholar
Stoler, A.L. 1995. Race and the education of desire: Foucault's History of sexuality and the colonial order of things. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Stoler, A.L. 2002. Carnal knowledge and imperial power: Race and the intimate in colonial rule. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Tacoli, C. 1999. International migration and the restructuring of gender asymmetries: Continuity and change among Filipino labor migrants in Rome. International Migration Review 33, no. 3:658–82.Google Scholar
Parma, TV. 2011. L'assessore Monteverdi e la retata anti-prostituzione. http://www.gazzettadiparma.t/mediagallery/video/1525/L%26039%3Bassessore_Monteverdi_e_la_retata_anti-prostituzione.html (accessed 31 May 2012).Google Scholar
Van Dijk, R. 2001. ‘Voodoo’ on the doorstep: Young nigerian prostitutes and magic policing in the Netherlands. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 71, no. 4:558–86.Google Scholar