Judging Sexual Exploitation: A "Cultural" Crime?
Résumé
This contribution deals with criminal trials, an underexplored arena in studies on sex trafficking and exploitation. It starts from two observations: first, many of the defendants and victims in trafficking cases in France are foreigners, and secondly, legal professionals often tend to apprehend this crime through a "culturalist" lens. Based on observations conducted in criminal courts (chambre correctionnelle) and interviews with defense lawyers, prosecutors and judges, I aim at analyzing the role of the alleged "culture" of both offenders and victims in the production of a "judicial truth" justifying the sentence. By drawing on research on sentencing and gender and judging, this chapter develops the hypothesis that culturalist arguments in trials for sexual exploitation involving foreigners reinforce relationships of domination by extending, in a euphemized form, race and gender stereotypes that naturalize differences. In doing so, they contribute to preserving a national public order strongly relying on the perpetuation of a gendered and sexual moral order.
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