The Trafficking in Women: An Individual Fate or Social Responsibility?

Abstract

The text is based on research work (Zentner K. Mensch im Dunkel. Qualitative Fallstudie zu osteuropäischen Opfer von Frauenhandel. Ein Beitrag zur Psychotraumatologie [Person in the Dark: Qualitative Case Study on East European Victims of the Trafficking in Women. Contribution on Psycho‐Traumatology]. Peter Lang Verlag: Frankfurt am Main, 2009). The individual research study was not publicly funded and was carried out exclusively on the initiative of the author on the subject of the extreme traumatisation of victims of trafficking in women and deals with how in‐depth understanding of a case can be reached by relating the depth‐hermeneutic method of scenic understanding (Lorenzer A. Tiefenhermeneutische Kulturanalyse [Depth‐hermeneutic cultural analysis]. In Kultur‐Analysen, Lorenzer A (ed.). Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag: Frankfurt am Main, 2000b; 11–98), even if the people being interviewed are severely inarticulate. First the scientific and methodological way of questioning in this study is discussed, as well as the background to trafficking in women. Two examples of interviews illustrate the method and its results. Finally the sociological and clinical perspectives are summarised.