Introduction
Human trafficking is a global problem that is continuously expanding and transforming. The United Nation Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons (UN Protocol, 2000) defines “human trafficking” as:
the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or been to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
The causes of this phenomenon are related to the modern processes of globalization, the implemented migration policies, and the existing socio-economic imbalances between the West and the so-called “Developing Countries”. The forms of exploitation linked to the trafficked people coincide with forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery or servitude, the removal of organs, and sexual exploitation (U.S. Department of State, 2015). Until a couple years ago, millions of people worldwide were estimated to have fallen into human trafficking networks dealing in labor and sexual exploitation (ILO, 2017). Specifically, it is noted that almost the 80% of 27,000 (26,750) trafficked victims detected in 110 countries are trafficked for sexual exploitation; among these almost 50% are women and 20% girls (UNDOC, 2018). Therefore, the women population is most relevant in this issue (UNODC, 2012; Wijkman & Kleemans, 2019). Sex exploitation of victims involves the exchange of commercial sex acts such as stripping, pornography, or prostitution for something of monetary value (UN Protocoll, 2000). The areas most affected are the Americas, Europe, and East Asia and the Pacific. Girls prevail in Central America, while women are mostly detected in the other regions. Based on TIP2 (2015), of the 28,263 sexual trafficking victims identified in 186 Nations, 57% obtained health services, 55% received mediation services in the host country and 52% were awarded government service. Even if data relating to sex exploitation is often quite allusive, since it’s a submerged and illegal phenomenon, among the studies that dealt with sexual trafficking, many focused on the factors of entry, shedding light on risk factors (Moore, Houck, Hirway, Barron & Goldberg, 2017; Task Force on Trafficking of Women and Girls, 2014), but fewer have analyzed the exit process (Walker, Gaviria & Gopal, 2018). Among those who focus on the period following the emancipation from traffic-related exploitation, many analyze the psycho-social effects of trafficking on survivors (Macias-Konstantopoulos & Ma, 2017), while others put their attention on the effectiveness of the forms of treatment dedicated to this particular target (Wilson, 2019; Muraya & Fry, 2016). Few, however, focus on the factors that come into play during the exit from exploitation: what happens? What elements facilitate the exit from criminal networks? What barriers do migrants face in changing their lives? In this respect, the present study aims to reconstruct the exit process of people involved in sex trafficking through trying to identify which factors intervene as facilitators or as obstacle barriers. At the same time, this study tries to highlight if and which controversial factors are present in the emancipation period from trafficking. In order to achieve this aim, we conducted a literature review; starting from the theoretical models used for prostitution, we explored the results of empirical research conducted in all continents. We expect to have a systematization of the literature in order to organize the empirical contributions that are often fragmented. It could be important not only for the researchers, but also for the policy makers, those who work in care services, or NGOs who are interested in understanding what factors can be used to support the victims in abandoning exploitation circuits.