The Flesh is Weak, the Spirit Even Weaker Clients and Trafficked Women in the Netherlands

Abstract

Almost all existing studies and knowledge in the Netherlands on women trafficking for prostitution focus on the nature and extent of the “supply” side (criminal organizations and networks, transnational routes, recruitment techniques, exploitation forms, etc.), centre upon the life and situation of the women (regarded as victims, migrants, prostitutes or criminals) or are concerned with policy issues and interventions on women trade and prostitution.

In clear contrast with what happens in the study of other illegal markets — for example the illegal drug trade where research on all types of drug users proliferate — virtually no empirical research exists on the “demand” side of women trafficking for prostitution, both in the Netherlands and the rest of the world.² Some of the reasons may be that the consumption of sexual services by men is hardly defined as a social or crime problem, the relationship between clients and trafficked prostitutes is complex and problematic, and we are dealing with a large but discreet and invisible group surrounded by secrecy and taboos.