Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery [Hardcover]

Siddharth Kara (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 17, 2008

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kara, a former investment banker and executive, uses theoretical economics and business analysis to propose measures that could eradicate sex trafficking by undermining the profitability of the illegal activities associated with the crime. At considerable personal risk and expense—he is nearly attacked by a gang of pimps in Mumbai—the author penetrates seedy underworlds and forced labor markets to meet the women and children in the dungeon of human disgrace in Asia, Europe and the U.S. He highlights ubiquitous and disturbing trends—the heavy involvement of law enforcement agencies and personnel in trafficking and slavery—but this book's intentions suffers from Kara's self-professed rudimentary economic analysis, which often borders on the offensive (a theoretical calculation of the lifetime value of a sex slave) and an unscientific, ad hoc research model. While the evidence indicates the urgent need for action—a woman or child is trafficked for sexual exploitation every 60 seconds—Kara's economic approach fails to shed new light on the human cost of sex slavery and seems at the best of times beside the point, although the detailed statistical information he compiles—on everything from the costs of running a brothel in Queens, N.Y., to massage parlor and bonded labor economics worldwide—is a resource for researchers in the field. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Sex trafficking is more of a problem than most people realize. Read this well-written book and find out.

(Kirk Douglas )

Sex trafficking is a crime that shames us all. To fight it we need to research it, know it in depth, and calibrate measures accordingly. Siddharth Kara's compelling economic and strategic analysis is very useful to our work. Readers will gain a deep understanding of the functioning of modern-day slavery as well as what can be done to eradicate it.

(Antonio Maria Costa, executive director, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime )

I approached this book with a certain weariness. Having worked on the subject of sex trafficking for many years, I was unenthusiastic about yet another exposé or cri de coeur from a business executive turned human rights advocate. I could not have been more wrong. This is a unique and inspiring book—an honest, lucid, and immensely intelligent account of a devastating yet pervasive aspect of contemporary globalization. It deserves to be widely read by anyone who wants to understand one of the most persistent and complex human rights violations of our times.

(Jacqueline Bhabha, Harvard Law School )

Siddharth Kara has done a great service by laying bare the realities of sexual exploitation of women and girls around the world and the scale of this modern slavery. His analysis is rooted in an understanding of the way unregulated economic globalization has impoverished whole regions, failed to improve the miserable lot of women in many countries, and facilitated global criminal networks. His book should be widely read and his recommendations taken very seriously.

(Baroness Vivien Stern, King's College London )

This book could not be more important. After years of witnessing slavery and meeting with slaves, Siddharth Kara illuminates one of our most pressing human rights issues. He offers brand new research and reliable facts, shattering the myths and sensationalism that tend to surround this topic. Everyone should read this book: it will change the way we think about our world.

(Zoe Trodd, Harvard University )

An impressive, scholarly book that will prove an asset for the global anti-trafficking movement in the next decade.

(Holly Burkhalter Stanford Social Innovation Review Fall 2008)

A disturbing and illuminating study of one of the underbellies of economic globalization: the global sex trafficking industry.

(Padraig Carmody Irish Times 1/7/09)

An eloquent, campaigning book that addresses an evil that belittles our humanity.

(Jonathan Birchall Financial Times 1/25/09)

The best book ever written on human trafficking for sexual exploitation. Representing a new period of solid yet humane scholarship, this breakthrough analysis represents a quantum leap in the study of this subject. Simply beyond anything I have seen anywhere.

(Kevin Bales, president of Free the Slaves )

This is an important and necessary work and it will educate many people about sex trafficking around the globe.

(Meredith Ralston H-Human-Rights 4/1/10)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (November 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231139608
• ISBN-13: 978-0231139601
• Product Dimensions: 1 x 6.2 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #528,423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A shocking and informative treatise November 27, 2008

By Ramachander Gollamudi

Format:Hardcover

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

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye Opening July 17, 2009

By William N. Reale

Format:Hardcover

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.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery January 21, 2009

By Elizabeth Stanley

Format:Hardcover

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.