Institutionalizing Human Trafficking. A French/German Comparison

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Rebecca Pates
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2014 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 246481356

The research project aims at examining the interactions between migrant prostitutes and institutions in charge of their control or assistance, as well as the categorization processes that take place within these institutions. Special attention will be drawn to the negotiations through which specific foreign sex workers are defined as genuine victims. The notion of victimhood has indeed become key to the ways in which prostitution of foreign women is being discussed in the media and the political sphere. The German and French regulatory modelswill serve as case studies, Germany having chosen a regulatory and France an abolitionist policy. In a context where academic research has often been caught up in national controversies over the proper regulation of the sex trade, a comparison between Germany and France offers an opportunity to assess the influence of legalframeworks on local administrative practices.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Mathilde Darley, Ph.D.