In Search of a Better Future? The Prostitution of Migrant Girls and Adolescents in the United States

Abstract

The dominant anti-trafficking model operates within a criminal justice framework grounded in a rigid victim-perpetrator binary. This approach effectively absolves the state of any responsibility for the structural inequalities that undermine the rights and well-being of children and adolescents. This article examines the conditions that drive highly vulnerable girls and adolescents to see trafficking into prostitution as their only available option. These ``most vulnerable victims{''} are exploited not only by traffickers-who profit from their abuse-but also by authorities, who often mistreat them for failing to embody the idealized image of an agencyless victim. Using a qualitative methodology based on in-depth interviews and chain-referral sampling, the study draws on the testimonies of 77 Central American migrant women who were trafficked as minors and exploited in the U.S. sex trade for an average of nearly seven years. Most were eventually freed through police raids. Paradoxically, many of these women described the authorities who rescued them as abusive and dehumanizing, while referring to the traffickers and club owners who exploited them as kind or humane. The findings suggest that age intersects with gender, class, national origin, and immigration status to shape how migrant girls and adolescents experience sexual exploitation. In many cases, this exploitation became-however paradoxically-a means of pursuing greater autonomy. As such, the current anti-trafficking framework fails to capture or address the complex realities faced by many underage migrant girls within the sex industry.