In 2008, Argentina passed Law 26.364 on the Prevention and Punishment of Trafficking in Persons and Assistance to its Victims, in a context of increasing international migration, with the concern about the displacement of women at the center of the global scene. Since then, criminal justice has played a leading role in the fight against ‘trafficking’. Based on the study of the causes for violation of Law 26.364, processed in the Federal Justice with a seat in Mar del Plata between 2010 and 2018, and on an ethnographic work and a series of in-depth interviews with women who do commercial sex and with municipal and judicial operators, in this article I analyze the effects of the deployment of anti-trafficking policies in the city, focusing on women who are characterized as victims of sexual trafficking by different state agencies and by the judiciary. The contributions of feminists who have pointed out that the law works as a gender technology allow me to think about the tensions between the way in which women characterized as ‘victims of trafficking’ are seen by judicial operators and the way in which they represent their experiences in the sex market. In a scenario where the testimonies of those that doesn ?t recognized in this way are dismissed, I propose that the anthropological perspective, which works with concepts close to the subjects, is fundamental so that the dialogue between legal and social truths could be fruitful.

Author Name: Estefanía Martynowskyj

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Keywords: ANTI-TRAFFICKING POLICIES; LAW; GENDER TECHNOLOGY; VICTIMIZATION

ISSN: 2250-7779

EISSN: 2314-1174

EOI/DOI:

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