Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T20:14:30.272Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gendered diffusion on gendered issues: the case of human trafficking

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2014

Vanessa Bouché  and
Dana E. Wittmer
Vanessa Bouché
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Texas Christian University, USA E-mail: vanessa.bouche@tcu.edu
Dana E. Wittmer
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Colorado College, USA E-mail: Dana.Wittmer@ColoradoCollege.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study aims to identify those factors that impact the comprehensiveness of state human trafficking legislation. To do so, we propose independent effects of policy diffusion and the percentage of females in a state legislature. Building on this framework, we then suggest a process of gendered diffusion, whereby female state legislators represent a unique diffusion network for “women’s interest” issues both within their own legislature, as well as across state networks. Taken together, this paper suggests that, for certain types of new issue areas, the demographic composition of state legislative chambers and the policy diffusion process are conditional on one another. This finding extends the bodies of scholarship concerning descriptive representation and policy diffusion, and presents a novel way to look at the policy-making process.

Keywords

descriptive representationhuman traffickingpolicy diffusionstate politicswomen’s issues
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 35 , Supplement 1 , April 2015 , pp. 1 - 33
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baldez, L. (2011) The UN Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW): A New Way to Measure Women’s Interests. Politics & Gender 7(3): 419–423.Google Scholar
Barnello, M. A. and Bratton, K. (2007) Bridging the Gap in Bill Sponsorship. Legislative Studies Quarterly 32(3): 449–474.Google Scholar
Barnello, M. A. (1999) Gender and Roll Call Voting in the New York State Assembly. Women & Politics 20: 77–94.Google Scholar
Berger, J. (2009) Sex Trafficking Arrests are Few, Despite Laws, New York Times, 4 December, A32.Google Scholar
Berry, F. S. and Berry, W. D. (1990) State Lottery Adoptions as Policy Innovations: An Event History Analysis. American Political Science Review 84: 395–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, F. S. and Berry, W. D. (2007) Innovation and Diffusion Models in Policy Research. In Paul A. Sabatier and Christopher Weible (eds.), Theories of the Policy Process. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 223–260.Google Scholar
Bouché, V. and Volden, C. (2011) Privatization and the Diffusion of Innovations. Journal of Politics 73(2): 428–442.Google Scholar
Boyd, C., Epstein, L. and Martin, A. (2010) Untangling the Causal Effects of Sex on Judging. American Journal of Political Science 54(2): 389–411.Google Scholar
Brandeis, L. D. (1932) Dissenting Opinion. New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 285 U.S. 262, 311.Google Scholar
Bratton, K. A. (2002) The Effect of Legislative Diversity on Agenda Setting – Evidence From Six State Legislatures. American Politics Research 30(2): 11–142.Google Scholar
Bratton, K. A. (2005) Critical Mass Theory Revisited: The Behavior and Success of Token Women in State Legislatures. Politics and Gender 1: 97–125.Google Scholar
Bratton, K. A. and Haynie, K. L. (1999) Agenda Setting and Legislative Success in State Legislatures: The Effects of Gender and Race. The Journal of Politics 61(3): 658–679.Google Scholar
Burrell, B. C. (1994) A Woman’s Place is in the House: Campaigning for Congress in the Feminist Era. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Cao, X. (2010) Networks as Channels of Policy Diffusion: Explaining Worldwide Changes in Capital Taxation, 1998-2006. International Studies Quarterly 54((3)): 823–854.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, S. J. (2001) Introduction. In Carroll S. (ed.), The Impact of Women in Public Office. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, xi–xxvi.Google Scholar
Carroll, S. J. (2003) Representing Women: Congresswomen’s Perceptions of Their Representational Roles. In Rosenthal C. S. and Fenno R. Jr (ed.), Women Transforming Congress. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 50–68.Google Scholar
Center for Women Policy Studies (2009) US Policy Advocacy to Combat Trafficking. http://www.centerwomenpolicy.org/programs/trafficking/ (accessed 25 July 2014).Google Scholar
Center for American Women and Politics (2014) Women in State Legislatures 2013, http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast_facts/levels_of_office/documents/stleg.pdf (accessed 25 July 2014).Google Scholar
Chuang, J. (2006) Beyond a Snapshot: Preventing Human Trafficking in the Global Economy. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 13(1): Article 5.Google Scholar
Clawson, H. J., Dutch, N., Lopez, S. and Tiapula, S. (2008) Prosecuting Human Trafficking Cases: Lessons Learned and Promising Practices. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice.Google Scholar
Cowell-Meyers, K. and Langbein, L. (2009) Linking Women’s Descriptive and Substantive Representation. Politics & Gender 5: 491–518.Google Scholar
Davis, A. J. (1930) The Evolution of the Institution of Mothers’ Pensions in the United States. American Journal of Sociology 35: 573–582.Google Scholar
Dye, T. R. (1990) American Federalism. Lexington Books, MA: Health.Google Scholar
Elkins, Z., Guzman, A. T. and Simmons, B. A. (2006) Competing for Capital: The Diffusion of Bilateral Investment Treaties, 1960-2000. International Organization 60(4): 811–846.Google Scholar
Fahy, S., Farrell, A. and McDevitt, J. (2006) Human Trafficking: Media Representation of a Historic Problem. Presentation at the American Society of Criminology, Los Angeles, CA, 6 November.Google Scholar
Farrell, A. (2009) Understanding the Determinants of Police Identification of Human Trafficking Cases. Paper presented at the First Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking, Lincoln, NE, 31 October.Google Scholar
Farrell, A. and Fahy, S. (2009) The Problem of Human Trafficking in the U.S.: Public Frames and Policy Responses. Journal of Criminal Justice 37: 617–626.Google Scholar
Farrell, A., McDevitt, J. and Fahy, S. (2010) Where Are All the Victims? Understanding the Determinants of Official Identification of Human Trafficking Incidents. Criminology and Public Policy 9: 201–233.Google Scholar
Fellowes, M., Gray, V. and Lowery, D. (2006) What’s on the Table? The Content of State Policy Agendas. Party Politics 12(1): 35–55.Google Scholar
Gerrity, J. C., Osborn, T. and Mendez, J. M. (2007) Women and Representation: A Different View of the District. Politics and Gender 3: 179–200.Google Scholar
Gibbs, J. T. and Bankhead, T. (2001) Preserving Privilege: California Politics, Propositions, and People of Color. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.Google Scholar
Glick, H. R. and Hays, S. P. (1991) Innovation and Reinvention in State Policymaking: Theory and the Evolution of Living Will Laws. Journal of Politics 53(3): 835–850.Google Scholar
Gozdziak, E. M. and Bump, M. N. (2008) Data and Research on Human Trafficking: Bibliography of Research-Based Literature, Institute for the Study of International Migration, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/224392.pdf (accessed 5 January 2013).Google Scholar
Hays, S. P. (1996) Influences on Reinvention During the Diffusion of Innovations. Political Research Quarterly 49(2): 631–650.Google Scholar
Jenkins, S. (2012) How Gender Influences Roll Call Voting. Social Science Quarterly 93(2): 415–433.Google Scholar
Kara, S. (2009) Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Day Slavery. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Light, A. R. (1978) Intergovernmental Sources of Innovation in State Administration. American Politics Quarterly 6: 147–165.Google Scholar
Lloyd, P., Simmons, B. A. and Stewart, B. M. (2012) The Global diffusion of Law: Transnational Crime and The Case of Human Trafficking. Mimeo.Google Scholar
Lutz, J. M. (1986) The Spatial and Temporal Diffusion of Selected Licensing Laws in the United States. Political Geography Quarterly 5: 141–159.Google Scholar
MacDonald, J. A. and O’Brien, E. E. (2011) Quasi-Experimental Design, Constituency, and Advancing Women’s Interests: Reexamining the Influence of Gender on Substantive Representation. Political Research Quarterly 64(2): 472–486.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mansbridge, J. (1999) Should Black Represent Blacks and Women Represent Women? A Contingent Yes. The Journal of Politics 61(3): 628–657.Google Scholar
Mansbridge, J. (2005) Quota Problems: Combating the Dangers of Essentialism. Politics & Gender 1: 622–638.Google Scholar
McVoy, E. C. (1940) Patterns of Diffusion in the United States. American Sociological Review 5: 219–227.Google Scholar
Mintrom, M. and Vergari, S. (1998) Policy Networks and Innovation Diffusion: The Case of State Education Reforms. Journal of Politics 60: 126–148.Google Scholar
Mooney, C. Z. (2001) Modeling Regional Effects on State Policy Diffusion. Political Research Quarterly 54(1): 103–124.Google Scholar
Mooney, C. Z. and Lee, M.-H. (1995) Legislating Morality in the American States: The Case of Pre-Roe Abortion Regulation Reform. American Journal of Political Science 39: 599–627.Google Scholar
Mooney, C. Z. and Lee, M.-H. (1999) Morality Policy Reinvention: State Death Penalties. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 566(1): 80–92.Google Scholar
Murphy, P. (1997) Domestic Violence Legislation and the Police. Women and Politics 18(2): 27–53.Google Scholar
Newton, P. J., Mulchahy, T. M. and Martin, S. E. (2008) Finding Victims of Human Trafficking. US Department of Justice, https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/224393.pdf (accessed 5 January 2013).Google Scholar
Peterson, P. E. and Rom, M. (1989) American Federalism, Welfare Policy, and Residential Choices. American Political Science Review 83: 711–728.Google Scholar
Pierce, P. A. and Miller, D. E. (1999) Variations in the Diffusion of State Lottery Adoptions: How Revenue Dedication Changes Morality Politics. Policy Studies Journal 27(4): 696–706.Google Scholar
Poggione, S. (2004) Exploring Gender Differences in States Legislators’ Policy Preferences. Political Research Quarterly 57(2): 305–314.Google Scholar
Reichel, P. L. (2008) Cross-National Collaboration to Combat Human Trafficking Learning From the Experience of Others, https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/223286.pdf (accessed 5 January 2013).Google Scholar
Reingold, B. (1992) Concepts of Representation Among Female and Male State Legislators. Legislative Studies Quarterly 17(4): 509–537.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reingold, B. (2000) Representing Women: Sex, Gender, and Legislative Behavior in Arizona and California. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Reingold, B. and Swers, M. (2011) An Endogenous Approach to Women’s Interests: When Interests are Interesting in and of Themselves. Politics & Gender 7(3): 429–435.Google Scholar
Saint-Germain, M. A. (1989) Does Their Difference Make a Difference? The Impact of Women on Public Policy in the Arizona Legislature. Social Science Quarterly 70(4): 956–958.Google Scholar
Salt, J. and Stein, J. (1997) Migration as Business: The Case of Trafficking. International Migration 35(4): 467–494.Google Scholar
Shipan, C. R. and Volden, C. (2008) The Mechanisms of Policy Diffusion. American Journal of Political Science 52(4): 840–857.Google Scholar
Simmons, B. A. and Elkins, Z. (2004) The Globalization of Liberalization: Policy Diffusion in the International Political Economy. American Political Science Review 98(1): 171–189.Google Scholar
Stream, C. (1999) Health Reform in the States: A Model of State Small Group Health Insurance Market Reforms. Political Research Quarterly 52(3): 499–526.Google Scholar
Sutherland, E. H. (1950) The Diffusion of Sexual Psychopath Laws. American Journal of Sociology 56: 142–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swank, D. (2006) Tax Policy in an Era of Internationalization: An Assessment of a Conditional Diffusion Model of the Spread of Neoliberalism. International Organization 60(4): 847–882.Google Scholar
Swers, M. L. (1998) Are Congresswomen More Likely to Vote for Women’s Issue Bills than Their Male Colleagues? Legislative Studies Quarterly 23(3): 435–448.Google Scholar
Swers, M. L. (2001) Understanding the Policy Impact of Electing Women: Evidence from Research on Congress and State Legislatures. PS: Political Science and Politics 26(2): 217–219.Google Scholar
Swers, M. L. (2002a) The Difference Women Make: The Policy Impact of Women in Congress. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Swers, M. L. (2002b) Transforming the Agenda: Analyzing Gender Differences in Women’s Issue Bill Sponsorship. In Rosenthal C. (ed.), Women Transforming Congress. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 260–283.Google Scholar
Swers, M. L. (2005) Connecting Descriptive and Substantive Representation: An Analysis of Sex Differences in Cosponsorship Activity. Legislative Studies Quarterly 30: 407–433.Google Scholar
Tiebout, C. M. (1956) A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures. Journal of Political Economy 6: 416–424.Google Scholar
Thomas, S. (1991) The Impact of Women on State Legislative Policies. Journal of Politics 54(4): 958–976.Google Scholar
Thomas, S. (1994) How Women Legislate. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, S. and Welch, S. (2001) The Impact of Women in States Legislatures: Numerical and Organizational Strength. In Carroll S. (ed.), The Impact of Women in Public Office. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 166–181.Google Scholar
United Nations (2009) Global Report on Trafficking in Persons. United Nations. http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/global-report-on-trafficking-in-persons.html (accessed 5 January 2013).Google Scholar
United States Department of Justice (2004) Assessment of US Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons. United States Department of Justice. http://www.justice.gov/archive/ag/anu-rpt.html (accessed 5 January 2013).Google Scholar
United States Department of Justice (2005) Assessment of US Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons. United States Department of Justice. http://www.justice.gov/archive/ag/anu-rpt.html (accessed 5 January 2013).Google Scholar
United States Department of Justice (2011) Characteristics of Suspected Human Trafficking Incidents, 2008–2010. United States Department of Justice. http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=2372 (accessed 5 January 2013).Google Scholar
United States Department of State (2007) Trafficking in Persons Report. United States Department of State. http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2007/ (accessed 5 January 2013).Google Scholar
Väyrynen, R. (2003) Illegal Immigration, Human Trafficking, and Organized Crime, WIDER Discussion Papers, World Institute for Development Economics. http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/working-papers/discussion-papers/2003/en_GB/dp2003-072/ (accessed 5 January 2013).Google Scholar
Volden, C. (2006) Experimenting with Welfare Reform: Emulating Success, Cutting Costs, or Racing to the Bottom? Social Science Quarterly 87(4): 791–797.Google Scholar
Volden, C., Wiseman, A. and Wittmer, D. (2013) Women’s Issues and Their Fates in Congress. Paper presented at the Annual Midwest Political Science Association Meeting, April, Chicago.Google Scholar
Walker, J. L. (1969) The Diffusion of Innovations Among the American States. American Political Science Review 63: 880–899.Google Scholar
Walker, R. M., Avellaneda, C. and Berry, F. S. (2007) Explaining the Diffusion of Innovation Types Amongst High and Low Innovative Localities: A Test of the Berry and Berry Model. Paper presented at the 7th Public Management Research Association Conference, October, Tucson.Google Scholar
Weitzer, R. (2006) Moral Crusade Against Prostitution. Society. March/April 33–38.Google Scholar
Williams, P. (1999) Human Commodity Trafficking: An Overview. In Williams P. (ed.), Illegal Immigration and Commercial Sex: The New Slave Trade. London: Frank Cass Publishers, 1–10.Google Scholar
Wittmer, D. and Bouche, V. (2013) The Limits of Gendered Leadership: Policy Implications of Female Leadership on “Women’s Issues”. Politics & Gender 9: 245–275.Google Scholar
Wooldridge, J. (2003) Cluster-Sample Methods in Applied Econometrics. The American Economic Review I 93(2): 133–138.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Bouché and Wittmer Supplementary Material

Appendix

Download Bouché and Wittmer Supplementary Material(File)
File 143.3 KB