IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v28y2021i2p523-546.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Client care strategies, stressors, and solutions in frontline anti‐trafficking work

Author

Listed:
  • Corinne Schwarz

Abstract

Anti‐human trafficking efforts are increasingly folded into normative frontline work sectors. Service providers must expand their understanding of clients to include the needs of exploited or trafficked persons, even though they may not receive a commensurate increase in training or resources to accommodate these new cases. Using semi‐structured interviews with 54 service providers in the US Midwest, this paper argues that frontline workers move beyond “traditional” emotional labor to labor inflected with forms of crisis, dirty, edge, or extreme work when confronted with trafficking. The specific needs of trafficked clients require the utilization of normatively gendered client care practices: listening, empathizing, performing appropriate responses to clients' emotional displays. However, new or compounding stressors may emerge alongside these new service populations. In order to ethically provide services without risking increased burnout, street‐level bureaucracies must invest in resources for frontline workers to invest in their own emotional well‐being.

Suggested Citation

  • Corinne Schwarz, 2021. "Client care strategies, stressors, and solutions in frontline anti‐trafficking work," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 523-546, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:28:y:2021:i:2:p:523-546
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12586
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12586
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.12586?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zimmerman, Cathy & Hossain, Mazeda & Watts, Charlotte, 2011. "Human trafficking and health: A conceptual model to inform policy, intervention and research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 327-335, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Retina Rimal & Chris Papadopoulos, 2016. "The mental health of sexually trafficked female survivors in Nepal," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 62(5), pages 487-495, August.
    2. Konrad, Renata A. & Trapp, Andrew C. & Palmbach, Timothy M. & Blom, Jeffrey S., 2017. "Overcoming human trafficking via operations research and analytics: Opportunities for methods, models, and applications," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 259(2), pages 733-745.
    3. Corinne Schwarz & Hannah E. Britton, 2015. "Queering the Support for Trafficked Persons: LGBTQ Communities and Human Trafficking in the Heartland," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 3(1), pages 63-75.
    4. Clay-Warner, Jody & Edgemon, Timothy G. & Okech, David & Anarfi, John K., 2021. "Violence predicts physical health consequences of human trafficking: Findings from a longitudinal study of labor trafficking in Ghana," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 279(C).
    5. Björkman Nyqvist, Martina & Kuecken, Maria & La Ferrara, Eliana & Artadi, Elsa, 2018. "Understanding Human Trafficking Using Victim-Level Data," CEPR Discussion Papers 13279, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Geri L. Dimas & Malak El Khalkhali & Alex Bender & Kayse Lee Maass & Renata A. Konrad & Jeffrey S. Blom & Joe Zhu & Andrew C. Trapp, 2023. "Estimating Effectiveness of Identifying Human Trafficking via Data Envelopment Analysis," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 53(6), pages 408-424, November.
    7. Zhu, Chunli & Wu, Jianping & Liu, Mingyu & Wang, Linyang & Li, Duowei & Kouvelas, Anastasios, 2021. "Recovery preparedness of global air transport influenced by COVID-19 pandemic: Policy intervention analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 54-63.
    8. Konrad, Renata A., 2019. "Designing awareness campaigns to counter human trafficking: An analytic approach," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 86-93.
    9. Konrad, Renata A. & Saeed, Khalid & Kammer-Kerwick, Matt & Busaranuvong, Palawat & Khumwang, Wai, 2023. "“Fish-y” banks: Using system dynamics to evaluate policy interventions for reducing labor exploitation in the seafood industry," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:28:y:2021:i:2:p:523-546. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.