title: Sexual trafficking in women: international political economy and the politics of sex.
abstract: A recent manifestation of the North/South, East/West political-economic divide is the international sex trade in women, of which trafficking in women for purposes of sexual employment is a large subset.  Trafficking in humans in general, and women in particular, has taken center stage in many nation-states as an issue of a threat to national security and societal cohesion. This article explores some of the basic facts about trafficking and spotlights it as a truly global phenomenon, with its contemporary origins in the international capitalist market system.  Furthermore, it argues that the international political economy of sex not only includes the supply side--the women of the third world, the poor states, or exotic Asian women--but it cannot maintain itself without the demand from the organizers of the trade--the men from industrialized and developing countries.  The patriarchal world system hungers for and sustains the international subculture of docile women from underdeveloped nations.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Bertone
mesh_terms: D001519:Behavior; D003415:Crime; D004467:Economics; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D011056:Political Systems; D011057:Politics; D012742:Sex Offenses; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012940:Social Problems; D014930:Women
keywords: Behavior; Capitalism; Crime; Critique; Economic Factors; Literature Review; Political Factors; Political Systems; Prostitutes--women; Sex Behavior; Sexual Abuse--women; Social Problems; Women; World