by Makini Chisolm-Straker (Editor), Katherine Chon (Editor)
FOREWORDS: Georges Benjamin with public health perspective; Ruth Simmons with historical perspective
PREFACE (Katherine Chon, Makini Chisolm-Straker): Describe why historical understanding of the impacts of debt bondage, slavery, indentured servitude, and trafficking are important to present-day public health's anti-trafficking efforts. Explicitly situate this textbook as a historical reference for root cause, primary prevention anti-trafficking work in contemporary USA. (3-5 pages)
SECTION I: MARKET DYNAMICS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING (EXAMPLE INDUSTRIES)1. Editor's Introduction - Katherine Chon, Makini Chisolm-Straker: Provide a brief overview of legal and illicit markets (historical and present) impacted by human trafficking (include reference to the Polaris typology report, US Government reports on goods and products made by forced labor and worst forms of child labor, federal investigations into major labor trafficking cases). Describe how industries infiltrate the fabric of all American lives, and how a successful public health approach requires multiple governmental agencies (e.g., HUD, DOE, DOA) engaged in exploitation and development prevention work. (2-3 pages)
2. Capitalism, Colonialism, and Imperialism: Roots for Present-Day Trafficking - William Tucker, Flavio Casoy, Sofia Rower: Provide basic historical foundation for trafficking understanding, as woven into the economic fabric of the USA. Author team speaks to roots of nationalism, racist ideology, sexism, classism, and religionism (specifically Christian hegemony) as foundational to European imperialism on the North American continent; using a historicallens, authors offer recommendations/suggestions for root cause changes to move toward a future without trafficking. (8-10 pages)
3. Agriculture (tomatoes) - Greg Asbed, Laura Germino, Sofia Rower: Provide a history of the work of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Florida (started in 1993) to organize the community to address the working conditions that people experienced in the tomato fields. Address inflection points to identify forced labor and human trafficking in the tomato industry, contribute to criminal justice accountability, and change labor practices in industry. Comment on relevant historical legacies of slavery and related policies that contributed to contemporary forms of forced labor and human trafficking; offer recommendations/suggestions for industry-specific changes to advance contemporary anti-trafficking goals. (8-10 pages)
4. Factories and Manufacturing - Lou Debaca, Florrie Burke: Provide a history of federal cases of forced labor and human trafficking in factories and manufacturing sector (including the Daewoosa case in the U.S. Pacific Island territories) and the historical legacies that shaped and enabled contemporary forms of human trafficking. Offer recommendations/suggestions for industry-specific changes to advance contemporary anti-trafficking goals. (8-10 pages)
5. Domestic Work and Involuntary Servitude - Thomas Perez, Erica Sagrans, Ima Matul: Provide a history of federal cases of forced labor in domestic work, development of a "bill of rights" for domestic workers, work of National Domestic Workers Alliance on human trafficking. Offer recommendations/suggestions for industry-specific changes to advance contemporary anti-trafficking goals. (8-10 pages)
6. Policies and Illicit Massage Businesses - Katherine Chon, Sharmila Parmanand: Provide an overview of human trafficking in illicit massage businesses and historical legacies, particularly in relation to social, economic, and military policies in East Asia and impact in USA. Offer recommendations/suggestions for industry-specific changes to advance contemporary anti-trafficking goals. (
Back Jacket
A public health approach to human trafficking requires a nuanced understanding of its root causes. This textbook applies a historical lens to human trafficking from expert resources for the multidisciplinary public health learner and worker. The book challenges the anti-trafficking paradigm to meaningfully understand historical legacies of present-day root-causes of human trafficking. This textbook focuses on history's utility in public health. It describes history to contextualize and explain present times, and provides public health lessons in trafficking prevention and intervention. Public health recognizes the importance of multiple systems to solve big problems, so the chapters illustrate how current anti-trafficking efforts in markets and public systems connect with historical policies and data in the United States. Topics explored include:
- Capitalism, Colonialism, and Imperialism: Roots for Present-Day Trafficking
- Invisibility, Forced Labor, and Domestic Work
- Addressing Modern Slavery in Global Supply Chains: The Role of Businesses
- Immigration, Precarity, and Human Trafficking: Histories and Legacies of Asian American Racial Exclusion in the United States
- Systemic and Structural Roots of Child Sex Trafficking: The Role of Gender, Race, and Sexual Orientation in Disproportionate Victimization
- The Complexities of Complex Trauma: An Historical and Contemporary Review of Healing in the Aftermath of Commercialized Violence
- Historical Context Matters: Health Research, Health Care, and Bodies of Color in the United States
Author Biography
Makini Chisolm-Straker, MD, MPH has served in the anti-trafficking field for over 15 years. She conducts original public health research about human trafficking; for example, Dr. Chisolm-Straker collaborated with Covenant House New Jersey to develop the first validated, labor and sex trafficking screening tool (for use among young adults experiencing homelessness). Dr. Chisolm-Straker educates clinicians on how to serve this patient population and advises and collaborates with policymakers on ethical, inclusive, person-centered anti-trafficking prevention and intervention efforts. She served on the S.O.A.R. initiative of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to develop a comprehensive, introductory educational program for healthcare practitioners serving patients with trafficking experience. Dr. Chisolm-Straker is interested in how primary prevention rooted in history and understanding of systems and intersectionality of experiences lead to effective anti-trafficking action. Dr. Chisolm-Straker earned her Medical Doctorate and Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and her Master of Public Health with a Certificate in Public Health and Humanitarian Aid from Columbia University in New York City.
Katherine Chon, MPA is a Bloomberg American Health Initiative Fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, in Baltimore, Maryland, focused on violence prevention based on eighteen years of experience developing organizations and shaping strategies to combat human trafficking. Ms. Chon is the founding director of the Office on Trafficking in Persons at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), strengthening the Nation's public health response to human trafficking through data-driven policies, programs, and primary prevention. She is the federal executive officer of the National Advisory Committee on the Sex Trafficking of Children and Youth in the United States and serves on numerous federal interagency working groups including the Senior Policy Operating Group of the President's Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Prior to government service, Ms. Chon was the co-founder and president of Polaris, establishing the global organization's innovative programs to assist survivors of trafficking, expand anti-trafficking policies, and fundamentally change the way local communities respond to human trafficking. Ms. Chon is an advisor to Brown University's Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice and a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Committee on Approaches to Estimating the Prevalence of Human Trafficking in the United States. She received her Master in Public Administration from Harvard University Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Any views expressed within this textbook are solely those of the respective authors and editors and do not necessarily represent the views of HHS or the United States.