Abstract

Sex trafficking among women in today’s day and age is one of the most sick, twisted and horrifying things our world has to offer today. Europe being the hot spot for sex trafficking due to many countries having decriminalized prostitution. Romania making new strides at becoming a developed and having an independently run government has caused problems linked to this. According to Iulia Cristiana Badea Caramello’s master thesis on sex trafficking in Romaina, she states that sex trafficking in Romania is, “modern-day slavery” (A Case Study on Sex Trafficking in Romania, Caramello, Pg. iv). Building off of this quote and the idea of Romania reforming their government and country, the U.N predicted that their were roughly 140,000 women currently being sex trafficked in the continent of Europe. Putting percentages to numbers, 45% of these women who were sex trafficked came from Romania and Moldova. Nonetheless, that Romania along with the Netherlands are two countries in Europe who have legal prostitution. Thus, making sex trafficking much harder to stop, spot and prevent. All sex work including prostitution is fully legal and regulated by the government in the country of Netherlands. The hot spot of the country being in the nations capital of Amsterdam, where one street is specifically designated to Sex Work. With about 40 million prostitutes in the world today with 80% being female and 20% being male, their is a huge draw the city known for international sex tourism which is bound to bring in money.

Sex Workers in the Netherlands

Currently their are about 20,000 prostitutes in the country of Netherlands. Of these 20,000 roughly 40% work in the capital of Amsterdam which brings many people for international sex tourism. In Amsterdam, the Red Light District is known for public brothels where prostitutes line windows attempting to draw in clients. Through all of time dating back to the 1800s, being a sex worker including a prostitute has been and still is fully legal in the Netherlands. “it wasn’t until 1988 until it was considered a legal profession.”(Perrie). With prostitution being a legal and regulated job, just like any other job people who register to be a prostitute must also pay taxes and are given the same rights to health insurance, benefits and even unions. These benefits can come if they are employed by someone who runs a brothel. A brothel is a house, hotel or building where men can go and visit prostitutes. Of the 40% of prostitutes who work in Amsterdam, about 5% are employed by these brothels. Along with prostitution, pornography is also legal in the Netherlands as well. It becomes illegal when pornography displays individuals who are under the age of 18. This law is the same as the United States.

Illegal Immigrant Prostitution in the Netherlands

According to Joyce Outshroons academic article called, Policy Change in Prostitution in the Netherlands: from Legalization to Strict Control she states, “Sex workers, or prostitutes (the common term in Dutch public discourse), will be required to register with the authorities; the age to work in the sex industry is to be raised from 18 to 21 years, and clients will have to check whether the sex worker is registered and not an ‘illegal’ worker.” Due to legal prostitution being so popular and the high attraction for money many foreigners of the Netherlands go there as a way to make easy money in a legal way. Having prostitutes register as a legal worker helps protect them from poor working conditions but it also helps protect the people who are going to Amsterdam’s Red Light District for some sex tourism. Outshroons also states in her article, “The authors estimated that half of all prostitutes in the Netherlands were of ‘foreign’ descent (idem, 10) and driven to do the work by economic factors and therefore willing to work under bad conditions and for low wages.” Like stated before, many foreigners being apart or brought into the sex trafficking industry are brought into the Netherlands where it is easier to do work and not get caught due to their relaxed laws regarding sex work. Many of these foreign individuals who come into the Netherlands to preform sex work legally are brought in through sex trafficking. Many of these sex trafficked women coming from the country of Romania where prostitution is legal, but used for worse purposes than consensual.

Sex Work to Sex Trafficking in Romania:

Along with the Netherlands, the country of Romania also has legal prostitution. Though much of this legal prostitution is mis-skewed and transmitted into young women, including children to be put into the sex trafficking industry. One major factor that feeds the fire of sex trafficking/forced prostitution in the country of Romania is the vast amount of poverty that sweeps the nation. You will see in the linked video how run down and financially unstable the area is where many of these women, teenagers and some children come from. According to Cristiana, “Furthermore, these women were willing to do anything to escape their sad lives and their families where they were neglected and/or physically and verbally abused on a regular basis.” (Cristiana, Pg. 21). Cristiana’s quote and the linked video allow us to formulate and support the idea that women and young girls are brought into sex trafficking more likely in poor areas than wealthy, prosperous areas.

Judgment:

“The simplest view of deviance is essentially statistical, defining as deviant anything that varies too widely from average” (4). This quote from Becker’s Outsiders, directly relates to the topic of sex work. Sex workers are judged by many people all around the world for being trashy, whores and sluts. Being a sex worker is considered to be deviant and directly links to Becker’s definition of deviant by sex workers do vary widely from average. Having this in mind, “It is actually pretty typical in Romania to be judged versus helped in a situation like that. People would never see them as victims, but filthy whores or prostitutes.”(Cristiana, Pg 61). This idea does not only happen in Romania, it happens in the Netherlands as well, even the U.S. As we have researched into Becker, sex workers are in fact considered a stigmatized group that perform deviant behaviors that may not seem normal to many people. But when faced with adversity and different life situations, we all make poor decisions, who are we to judge that we wouldn’t do the same thing as these stigmatized individuals if roles were reversed.

Ethnic Backgrounds and Sex Work

According to Chapter 4 of our readings, “Far from feminist, queer, or economic utopia, the camming industry provided decent wages to workers in the sample.”(Jones, Pg. 62). This quote supports the fact that all walks of life can benefit from sex work, everyone who views these videos have their own preference or attractions. Everyone has the ability to benefit via the camming industry. To counter this argument, according to the article “Black Women Sex Workers: Identify, Black Feminist Consciousness, and Acculturated Stress” states, “According to Tatum, Black feminists insist Black Women experience discrimination due to their race and gender because dominant society defines the appropriate social roles for Black women, which precludes sex work.”(Feminism, Paragraph 4). Due to these concerns people have formulated advocacy groups in support for sex workers and how they are also workers in today’s day in age. In chapter 6 of Angela Jones’ “Camming” she states, “When customers select performers based soley on nationality or race, they are motivated be sexual racism.”(Jones, Ch.8, Pg 185). Jones also states, “They are not legally protected from discrimination or harassment because cam sites are not legal workplaces.”(Jones, Ch 3). All of these quotes support the fact that these sex workers are placed in a different social class than non sex workers and are in line of criticism, discrimination and harassment.

Sex Work Advocacy

When it comes to sex work advocacy the key note that all advocacy groups make is that they want to increase sex workers safety. The Netherlands did just that and allowed sex workers to feel more comfortable being able to go to the police if they have experienced some sort force against them or even violence. “Sex workers’ rights movement as it exists today has its roots in the 1970s, with the founding of groups like COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics) that advocated for an end to laws targeting sex workers”( North). The laws discussed that are targeting sex workers are putting them at risk of getting arrested when some are just trying to provide for a family. Along with discrimination and sex work, African American prostitutes and/or sex worker have a much high chance of seeing prosecuted than those who are white.(North). These advocacy groups have been able to make themselves heard and are beginning to see the support from some politicians.

References:

Becker, Saul Howard. (1963). Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. New York City, New York: The Free Press

Cristiana Badea Caramello, Iulia. A Case Study on Sex Trafficking in Romania. Dec. 2012, repository.usfca.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1046&context=thes.

Feminisms, Black. “Black Women Sex Workers: Identity, Black Feminist Consciousness, and Acculturated Stress.” Blackfeminisms.com, 4 Aug. 2017, http://www.blackfeminisms.com/black-women-sex-workers/.

Jones, Angela. Camming: Money, Power, and Pleasure in the Sex Work Industry. New York University Press, 2020.

North, Anna. “Sex Workers Have Been Fighting for Decriminalization for Generations. Now Politicians Are Starting to Listen.” 2 Aug. 2019.

Outshoorn, J. Policy Change in Prostitution in the Netherlands: from Legalization to Strict Control. Sex Res Soc Policy 9, 233–243 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-012-0088-z

Perrie, Stewart. “Here’s How Amsterdam Sex Workers Benefit From Their Industry Being Legal And Regulated.” LADbible, LADbible, 30 Nov. 2017, http://www.ladbible.com/community/interesting-heres-how-amsterdam-prostitutes-win-from-their-industry-being-legal-20171130.

Stigma & Alcoholism

Goffman refers to the abuse of alcohol or alcoholism as the second of his three different types of stigmas he presents in his article, Stigma and Social Identity. He describes the disease of alcoholism, along with many other stigmas that are seen in individuals as, “blemishes of individual character perceived as weak will, domineering or unnatural passions, treacherous and rigid beliefs, and dishonesty” (Goffman, Chap: 1, Pg. 4). Struggling with alcoholism can be a very tough thing for anyone to handle, but just like most stigmatized groups their is support groups that bring alcoholics together. Currently in the U.S, 5.8% of the population above the age of 18 have an AUD (alcohol abuse disorder). Generally speaking more men struggle with alcoholism than women. With that being said, 7.6 percent of men and 4.1 percent of women above 18 struggle with this. AA or Alcoholics Anonymous allows a safe space for an alcoholic to better himself for himself or the people he loves around him. Alcohol today is a big part of American culture being both accepted and even rejected. The question we ask here is where is the line that needs to be crossed for alcohol that is so widely accepted then looked down upon.

Society Views Alcohol, Institution, and Social Power

The way alcohol is used, when it is used and the reason people drink is one of the most wide spread views in American society. Most college students who participate in partying and benign drinking are thought to be the normal ones. Students who choose not to drink are labeled as outsiders or considered to be the not fun. So when college comes and goes, benign drinking is not deemed as acceptable as it once was, even though most people are now 21 or older. Everywhere you go alcohol is advertised as something that is fun. Many alcohol companies advertise their products in tropical settings to try and get their product to relate to something everyone wants, to be on a beach. A drink or two at a social setting or gathering with friends and family is deemed to be acceptable. Alcohol starts to become unacceptable at any level when poor decisions begin to be made such as drinking and driving. As soon as other people are affected from ones decision to drink that is when alcohol begins to become demonized.

Alcoholics Anonymous started 85 years ago in Akron, Ohio by two men named Bill. W and Dr. Bob S. (if you are apart of this group your last name is not released). Both of these men struggled with alcoholism while also wanted to become sober for their families. These men soon discovered that coming together as alcoholics helped them better than talking to someone who could not understand or see where they were coming from, (Historical Data). Together these two men created AA or Alcoholics Anonymous and according to the AA website, “A.A.’s primary purpose of maintaining our sobriety and helping other alcoholics achieve recovery”(Mission and Purpose, Purpose section). Together this program is designed to bring alcoholics together to not only help each other achieve sobriety, but to help themselves as well.

12 Steps of A.A.

Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous follows the 12 step rules created by Bill W. and Dr. Bob S. These are a set of rules broken up into 3 parts each part having a specific theme to help alcoholics achieve sobriety. The three parts are, being able to admit one has a problem, finding a spiritual power great than yourself to help you, and finally the reasons that you want to achieve sobriety. These twelve steps bring the members, or the insiders of the Alcoholics Anonymous subculture together to achieve the same goal. Many members live by these rules and keep following them for years and years believing full heartedly that these 12 steps and ideologies of bringing alcoholics together to become better do in fact work.

Gender and AA:

Being an alcoholic in today’s society can stir many different views due to being apart of a stigmatized subculture. Along with being a subculture, woman who are apart of this subculture are made out to have different standards as men when it comes to drinking. Drinking by women is preserved to more of a deviant behavior than men who drink. “Heavy drinking is not deemed as acceptable feminine behavior. Historically, women who engage in heavy binge drinking are more likely to be viewed as having poor character and being more promiscuous” (Penhollow, 93). Along with being perceived poorly for this, if a woman struggles with an alcohol related disorder she can feel as though she is an outsider to the people around her. The media also plays a part in this and produces a moral panic by labeling what drinks each gender can drink. If a woman who drinks liquor excessively is looked at as deviant (Penhollow, 93). Like what Becker says in his book, “When a rule is enforced, the person who is supposed to have broken it may be seen as a special kind of person, one who cannot be trusted to live by the rules agreed on by the group. He is regarded as an outsider”(Becker, 1963, 1). Due to these stigmatized world views, woman in turn are more likely to hide their drinking problems and are less likely to seek help through AA. Today women make up only 38% of AA members.

Race Bias

According to the article, A.A. for the Black and African-American Alcoholic, “Our Third Tradition states clearly: ‘The only requirement for A.A membership is a desire to stop drinking.’ You are a member if you say you are” (A.A. for the Black and African-American Alcoholic, 5). AA was created in a time where the United States was very divided between people of color and people who were white. Being a person of color was a subculture and a deviant attribute of its own, with also being an alcoholic they were much more likely to be judged by the outsiders who were not in their subculture. A.A did not lean to the side of judgement of race, background, or gender. In 1940, 5 years following the creation of A.A. the two founders invited two black men to an A.A. meeting. Following that first interaction and first meeting the men kept coming and sparked the growth of African American members in A.A. A quote from an African American woman who has attended AA for her disorder described it as, “‘I can go into any A.A. meeting, anywhere, and feel at home.'”(A.A. for the Black and African-American Alcoholic, Pg. 7). A.A. is racial and gender friendly organization who accepts everyone. Today about 4% of the current A.A members are African-American. This is generally going to be lower due to the African-American population in the U.S is much smaller than the white population.

References:

A.A. for the Black and African-American Alcoholic. Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 2018.

Goffman, Erving. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. A Touchstone Book, 1986.

“Historical Data:” (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/historical-data-the-birth-of-aa-and-its-growth-in-the-uscanada

“Mission and Purpose”. (n.d.). AA. Retrieved from https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/mission-and-purpose

Penhollow, Tina M. “Alcohol Use, Hooking-Up, Condom Use: Is There a Sexual Double Standard?” Alcohol Use, vol. 1, Nov. 2015, pp. 92–93.

Hi, my name is Derek McPhail and I am currently a Junior here at Siena College. I am majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Criminal Justice with the hope of getting a job with the New York State Police. I am from a small town in upstate New York called Greenwich, which is about 45 minutes north of Siena. I graduated from Greenwich Central High School, the graduation rate of Greenwich High School is 82%, which is above the New York State average. I decided to live on campus rather than commute everyday because along with getting a great education I wanted the college experience of living in a dorm and meeting new people as well. Yes, it would have saved much more money for myself and my family, but the memories I have made here are worth it. While attending Greenwich High school I was involved in many extracurricular activities such as sports and being a volunteer fire fighter.

My Hometown

Growing up in Greenwich with the population being 1,728, you are bound to see someone you know, or know of if you just go to the grocery store. Greenwich is a very small village and town with 91.6% of its population being white, 5.0% Hispanic, 0.4% Asian, 0.3% American Indian and 0.2% African American population. As I said before that everyone knows everyone, I am able to tell you that I am friends with and know of the people who make up these very small percentages. One of the biggest events that happens every year in Greenwich is the Greenwich Lighted Tractor Parade. About 50-75 tractors are lined up, decorated with well over 1000 lights and paraded through the town. Many do themes as well. This happens every year around Thanksgiving time and draws a huge crowd of people from many neighboring towns and even states. This is always a big Saturday night event for families and friends to get together to kick off the holiday season. When I say the population of in Greenwich is doubled or even tripled that brisk Saturday night in November I am not kidding. With only two street lights in the town you can imagine the traffic jam.

My Family

I have a very large, but also very close family. All of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents all live about 5 miles from my house except for my Dad’s sister and her family who live in Clifton Park. My Mom and Dad have been married for just over 25 year and they both grew up in Greenwich as well. I have a little brother who is 15 and in 10th grade who is big into sports and is pursing to hope to play college baseball someday. (Hopefully at Siena!). Everything from holidays, vacations to just Sunday night dinners y whole family gets together and does together.

My Education

Following high school I always wanted to attend college with the idea that it will put me in a better spot to support myself in the future. But like most people I also felt the idea that I had to go to college as well. Both of my parents attended college and both had great experiences and have turned out to have successful jobs. Attending Siena I felt was the best option for me. The small tight knit community where everyone knows everyone really felt like home to me. I have always been interested in both science and also creating things, so when I was placed in an intro C.S class freshman year I felt it was a perfect fit for me. Dan Wang writes that only 3.14% of all college graduates in 2015 received degrees in computer science. These statistics prove that being a C.S major is not only hard and stressful, but also deviant from every other college students major. Along with the percentage of college graduates with a C.S degree in the U.S being low, Siena College in 2017 graduated 4.16% or 34 out of its 818 students with Computer Science degrees. My deviant behavior has much easily prepared me for the stresses that come with my deviant major and for the future.

My Deviance

In Howard S. Becker’s book Outsiders, he describes and elaborates very clearly his definition and what it means to be an Outsider. Becker states, “When a rule is enforced, the person who is supposed to have broken it may be seen as a special kind of person, one who cannot be trusted to live by the rules agreed on by the group. He is regarded as an outsider”(1). This quote really brought what being an outsider really means to me. No matter what you do in life someone is going to have a different belief and think differently of you. In todays day not many people want to become police officers and not many people want to go through the military style, high stress academy which every police officer must complete. To prepare for this high intensity environment, I decided to become an umpire. Now these two may seem very distant, but umpiring will prepare me for what is to come. I am a baseball umpire with the Capital District Baseball Umpires Association (CDBUA). Being an umpire I have had to deal with many coaches, parents, aunts, uncles, kids and even grandparents yelling at me for the calls I have made. Doing so can be a very stressful thing to deal with. Right now in my life I want to place myself in difficult situations and scenarios that are deemed stressful to help prepare me for whatever my future may hold. I find this as a deviant trait because if you ask someone if they enjoy being stressed out, they will most likely say no. In 2017, 62% of adults say they stress about money and 61% say they stress about work. “The simplest view of deviance is essentially statistical, defining as deviant anything that varies too widely from average” (4). This quote from Becker goes hand and hand with my deviant behavior. Nobody enjoys being stressed, but if I can place myself in stressful situations now and deal with people yelling at me and constantly giving me a hard time, I will be able to deal with stressful situations more easily wherever and whatever life throws at me. “The individual learns, in short, to participate in a subculture organized around the particular deviant activity.” (31). This quote from Becker I felt like I could relate to quite a bit. Life is tough, you are going to yelled at, confronted with problems and have stress many times. Life is so much better when you are able to learn, get through and grow from that stressful time. If you do not know how to encounter stress, a struggle in life or a barrier you need to get around, you will just grow even more unhappy. Being an umpire and placing myself in stressful situations has showed me that yes people are going to disagree with you, people are going to mad at you and some people probably will not like you, but how you react to that and if you react the right ways everything turns out great in the end. I’m sure my deviant behavior of placing myself in stressful situations isn’t going to relate to many people, but I believe it will help me in my future.

References:

Becker, Saul Howard. (1963). Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. New York City, New York: The Free Press.

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