Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery |  | Author: Siddharth Kara
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Category: Book
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Rating:  14 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0231139608
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.15
EAN: 9780231139601
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Product Description
Every year, hundreds of thousands of women and children are abducted, deceived, seduced, or sold into forced prostitution, coerced to service hundreds if not thousands of men before being discarded. These trafficked sex slaves form the backbone of one of the world's most profitable illicit enterprises and generate huge profits for their exploiters, for unlike narcotics, which must be grown, harvested, refined, and packaged, sex slaves require no such "processing," and can be repeatedly "consumed." Kara first encountered the horrors of slavery in a Bosnian refugee camp in 1995. Subsequently, in the first journey of its kind, he traveled across four continents to investigate these crimes and take stock of their devastating human toll. Kara made several trips to India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Albania, Moldova, Mexico, and the United States. He witnessed firsthand the sale of human beings into slavery, interviewed over four hundred slaves, and confronted some of those who trafficked and exploited them. In this book, Kara provides a riveting account of his journey into this unconscionable industry, sharing the moving stories of its victims and revealing the shocking conditions of their exploitation. He draws on his background in finance, economics, and law to provide the first ever business analysis of contemporary slavery worldwide, focusing on its most profitable and barbaric form: sex trafficking. Kara describes the local factors and global economic forces that gave rise to this and other forms of modern slavery over the past two decades and quantifies, for the first time, the size, growth, and profitability of each industry. Finally, he identifies the sectors of the sex trafficking industry that would be hardest hit by specifically designed interventions and recommends the specific legal, tactical, and policy measures that would target these vulnerable sectors and help to abolish this form of slavery, once and for all. The author will donate a portion of the proceeds of this book to the anti-slavery organization, Free the Slaves.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 14
 A shocking and informative treatise November 27, 2008
Ramachander Gollamudi
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
As a retired academic, I mostly read history and philosophy in my spare time. Upon a friend's suggestion, I have recently read Mr. Siddharth Kara's treatise "sex-trafficking inside the business of modern slavery." It constitutes a first-hand account of a little-noticed business of human bondage and pathos. The author exposed himself to personal danger in attempting interviews with scores of victims spanning the whole range of demographics.
This book deals with three aspects of this world-wide business: the exploitative traffickers, the wrenching servitude of the victims, and the economics of the trade.
The author presents convincing quantitative information to provide a rationale as to why the trafficking business is quite attractive to the brute; while it is useful for lawmakers and NGOs, the narrative is shocking to the public. The sheer volume of this sort of "slavery" is astounding, and the subhuman conditions these victims are forced to live in, is repelling. Reading through some of the situations was nauseating to say the least. In today's affluent world, it is abhorring that spots of utter poverty exist but go unnoticed. More repulsive and dehumanizing is the fact that, on occasion, a father is manipulated into selling his daughter into this servitude.
While contemporary society holds woman as equal to man, and given that Indian thought in particular considers woman as divine, the destitution of these exploited women renders this practice beyond the pale of repugnance. The enablers look like demons, incapable of the remotest human sensibilities; that they manage to go under radar is astounding.
In his rendition, Mr. Kara strikes the right balance between narrative and numbers; there is enough of the latter to portray a clear picture to the common reader and sufficient detail to enable the statistician to derive probabilities and significance. Mr. Kara is to be commended for this brave venture driven by his idealism.
Ram Gollamudi
Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery January 22, 2009
Elizabeth Stanley (Los Angeles, CA USA)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Siddharth Kara's "Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery" is a deeply insightful, analytical and profoundly intelligent work informed by the author's justifiably strong sense of outrage and desire for social justice. I found myself both incredibly angry and moved to tears by the stories told by the women and children Kara interviewed, while also being inspired by his hard-hitting and incisive proposals to more effectively cripple and ultimately abolish this body-and-soul destroying business and all other forms of contemporary slavery.
Eye Opening July 17, 2009
William N. Reale
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This book has changed the way I look at the world. I had minimal knowledge of human sex trafficking prior to reading. To say it is a page turner sounds callous; however the personal vignettes tied with the history and financial analysis kept me wanting to know more. The author's passion for this cause is apparent through his heartfelt writing. Further, I don't know many people (myself included) who would stare down the devil and go into the precarious situations Mr. Kara has to collect his powerful research.
Read This and Malarek's Book February 26, 2009
Daniel Raphael
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
In my view, the combination of this book plus Victor Malarek's previous work, The Natashas, will provide anyone with a good introductory understanding of contemporary sex slavery. Each book covers gaps the other does not; the unique strength of Kara's work is the analytical approach he brings to the economics of sex trafficking. Also, he presents considerable--and very compelling--eyewitness evidence in the form of his having visited brothels and interviewed women and girls who were sex slaves. His anger is palpable.
He points out that the primary driver in contemporary sex slavery is economic desperation. He goes on to analyze the effects of "globalization," which he points out as the main culprit in driving many women to catch at vague promises of work abroad. He also details how desperate families sell their daughters to people with transparent lies about why they want them...but who have quite real money (usually $50 or so) in hand. Read and weep.
Unlike Mr. Malarek, the author does not propose any political remedies; rather, he suggests making sex slavery less profitable. This entails raising the penalties for trafficking...but how will this occur without political pressure? Notwithstanding this puzzling gap in his presentation, he does do an excellent job of presenting the international scope of sex trafficking. I highly recommend this volume to anyone who is concerned enough to look into the widespread and highly profitable crime of sex slavery.
Buy this Book! April 13, 2009
Tygerlylly (New Zealand)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Timely and shocking. This book is extremely well researched, and even put the author's life at risk in the process. Slavery is a rampant modern problem caused by misogyny and poverty, traditions and corruption. Buy this book and learn about what is really going on in the world today.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 14
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