David M. Halperin is W. H. Auden Distinguished University Professor of the History and Theory of Sexuality in the English Department at the University of Michigan and the author, most recently, of
Trevor Hoppe is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University at Albany, State University of New York, and author of
David M. Halperin is W. H. Auden Distinguished University Professor of the History and Theory of Sexuality in the English Department at the University of Michigan and the author, most recently, of
Trevor Hoppe is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University at Albany, State University of New York, and author of
Carceral Politics as Gender Justice?: The “Traffic in Women” and Neoliberal Circuits of Crime, Sex, and Rights
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Published:March 2017
Elizabeth Bernstein, 2017. "Carceral Politics as Gender Justice?: The “Traffic in Women” and Neoliberal Circuits of Crime, Sex, and Rights", The War on Sex, David M. Halperin, Trevor Hoppe
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This essay draws upon recent works in sociology, jurisprudence, and feminist theory in order to assess the ways in which feminism, and sex and gender more generally, have become intricately interwoven with punitive agendas in contemporary U.S. politics. Melding existing theoretical discussions of penal trends with insights drawn from ethnographic research on the contemporary anti-trafficking movement in the United States, the chapter elaborates upon the ways that neoliberalism and the politics of sex and gender have intertwined to produce a carceral turn in feminist advocacy movements previously organized around struggles for economic justice and liberation. Taking the anti-trafficking movement as a case study, it further demonstrates how human rights discourse has become a key vehicle both for the transnationalization of carceral politics and for the reincorporation of these policies into the domestic terrain in a benevolent, feminist guise.
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