Edited Book Titled Sex, State, and Silence

Introduction

This edited volume, Sex, State, and Silence: Legal and Psychological Perspectives on Prostitution and Human Trafficking, aims to offer an interdisciplinary, globally-informed examination of the regulation, representation, and lived realities of sex work and human trafficking. The volume seeks to interrogate the complex entanglements between legal structures, psychological impacts, and socio-political contexts that produce both silence and control in relation to sexual labor and exploitation.

A foundational premise of this volume is the need to conceptually differentiate between consensual sex work and human trafficking. While the two phenomena are often conflated in legal, policy, and popular discourses, this volume explicitly recognizes their distinct legal and sociological character.

Objective

Sex, State, and Silence will offer a significant scholarly contribution to multiple fields, including feminist legal theory, international human rights law, transnational feminism, global public policy, and trauma psychology. The volume addresses an urgent need for interdisciplinary scholarship that both respects the autonomy of sex workers and rigorously interrogates the conditions that produce trafficking and exploitation. Key contributions include:

• Clarifying conceptual ambiguities that often plague legal and policy discourses on sex work and trafficking.
• Examining the role of international legal instruments—including the Palermo Protocol, CEDAW General Recommendation No. 38 (2020), and ICCPR/ICESCR protections—in shaping national responses to trafficking and sex work.
• Exploring the psychological dimensions of exploitation, trauma, recovery, and resilience from a survivor-informed and trauma-sensitive perspective.
• Articulating intersectional frameworks for understanding the compounded vulnerabilities of marginalized individuals subject to sexual regulation.
• Providing regionally grounded and comparative insights into state policies, civil society interventions, and legal reform efforts. This volume is particularly timely in light of renewed global attention to gender-based violence, the Sustainable Development Goals (especially Targets 5.2 and 8.7), and debates around carceral versus rights- based approaches to prostitution and trafficking.

About the Publisher

This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global Scientific Publishing, an international academic publisher of the “Information Science Reference,” “Medical Information Science Reference,” “Business Science Reference,” and “Engineering Science Reference” imprints.

IGI Global Scientific Publishing specializes in publishing reference books, scholarly journals, and electronic databases featuring academic research on a variety of innovative topic areas including, but not limited to, education, social science, medicine and healthcare, business and management, information science and technology, engineering, public administration, library and information science, media and communication studies, and environmental science.

Target Audience

The proposed volume is intended for an academic and professional readership, including:

• Scholars and researchers in law, gender studies, sociology, psychology, public policy, and international relations.
• Graduate and postgraduate students engaged in research on sexual economies, human rights, migration, and gender-
  based violence.
• Legal professionals, judicial actors, and policy-makers seeking evidence-based, comparative insights into prostitution and anti-trafficking legislation.
• Practitioners in international organizations and NGOs working on trafficking prevention, sex workers’ rights, human rights advocacy, and psychological support services. The interdisciplinary and comparative nature of the volume makes it especially suitable as a core or supplementary text for university courses on gender and the law, global human rights, feminist jurisprudence, and trauma-informed policy analysis.

Topics

The volume will be organized around six major thematic clusters:

• Conceptual and Theoretical Foundations
  • Definitional boundaries: prostitution, sex work, and trafficking
  • Consent, coercion, and structural vulnerability
  • Legal constructions of morality and the regulation of sexuality
  • State silence and control as co-constitutive legal strategies
• International and Regional Legal Frameworks
  • The Palermo Protocol: compliance, critique, and implementation
  • CEDAW General Recommendation No. 38 (2020) and the rights of trafficked women and girls
  • ICCPR and ICESCR protections of autonomy and dignity
  • The Sustainable Development Goals: Target 5.2 on violence against women and 8.7 on trafficking and child labor
  • Regional human rights instruments (e.g., African, Inter-American, European systems)
• Psychological Perspectives on Exploitation and Agency
  • Trauma and resilience in the aftermath of trafficking
  • Psychological consequences of legal precarity, stigma, and detention
  • The role of mental health professionals in anti-trafficking interventions
  • Meaning-making, identity, and resistance among sex workers
• Intersectionality and Structural Exclusions
  • Intersections of caste, class, and gender in legal subjectivity
  • Queer, trans, and non-binary sex workers and the law
  • Migrant and refugee populations in the trafficking discourse
  • Disability, reproductive justice, and systemic neglect
• Jurisdictional and Regional Case Studies
  • South Asia: Legal pluralism, caste politics, and non-state regulation
  • Sub-Saharan Africa: Postcolonial governance, informal economies, and trafficking networks
  • Latin America: Carceral feminism, Indigenous resistance, and organized advocacy
  • Western Europe and North America: The Nordic model, anti-trafficking policing, and digital surveillance
  • Southeast Asia: Tourism economies, regional migration, and community-led responses
  • Middle East and North Africa: Religious governance, legal hybridity, and underground economies
• Policy, Practice, and Reform
  • Comparative analysis of decriminalization, legalization, and abolitionist models
  • Best practices in survivor-centered and trauma-informed support services
  • Accountability mechanisms for state and non-state actors in trafficking networks
  • Innovative, community-led strategies for rights protection and legal empowerment
• Digital Infrastructures, Surveillance, and Online Governance
  • Online sex work and the regulation of digital platforms (e.g., SESTA/FOSTA, content moderation laws)
  • The role of social media, encrypted apps, and gig platforms in sex economies
  • Digital surveillance and predictive policing in anti-trafficking efforts
  • Algorithmic discrimination, data privacy, and the criminalization of digital tools
  • Ethical dilemmas in the use of AI and facial recognition technologies
  • Resistance and self-organization in digital spaces: digital security, harm reduction, and advocacy

This volume endeavors to fill a critical gap in the literature by centering legal and psychological perspectives within a globally comparative, intersectional, and conceptually rigorous framework. It invites scholars, practitioners, and students to reconsider dominant narratives and contribute to more equitable, informed, and rights-respecting policies regarding prostitution and trafficking.

How to Submit?

Interested candidates can submit entries via the link given at the end of the post.

Important dates

• August 3, 2025: Proposal Submission Deadline
• August 17, 2025: Notification of Acceptance
• October 26, 2025: Full Chapter Submission
• December 7, 2025: Review Results Returned
• January 4, 2026: Final Acceptance Notification
• January 11, 2026: Final Chapter Submission

Editors

• Aradhya Singh, Assistant Professor of Law, India
• Sara Balkh, Director and Human Rights Ambassador, United States
• Amit Anand, Assistant Professor of Law, India

Contact

Aradhya Singh Assistant Professor of Law
Email: aradhya.singh@ddn.upes.ac.in

Sara Balkh Director and Human Rights Ambassador
Email: sarabalkh@una-oc.org

Click here to submit.