NCJ Number
238932
Journal
.SIAK - International Edition Volume: 2 Dated: 2012 Pages: 82-95
Date Published
2012
Length
14 pages
Annotation
In reviewing the effort to combat trafficking in women in Austria before World War I, this article emphasizes the cooperation in Austria between the state and civil sectors through the example of the Austrian League for the Protection of Young Women and Children.
Abstract
The unparalleled level of migration of lower class women from rural areas and small towns to developing cities and industrial regions/hubs, from the home countries to the colonies, and from Europe and Asia to America has been identified as the chief cause of the emergence of trafficking in women. In addition, the institutionalization of prostitution by the state is considered by researchers to have strongly influenced the increase in trafficking in women. The traffickers played on the victims' hopes that they could improve their poor living conditions elsewhere. Trafficking in women was a prominent topic of public deliberation and the development of states' and civil societies' countermeasures at the turn of the 20th century. The activity of the Austrian criminal prosecution authorities matched the public awareness of the issue in Austria from the late 19th century onward. The Central Office for the Suppression of the International Traffic in Young Women was established in Vienna in 1904. The Vienna Central Office listed figures for investigations opened on suspicion of trafficking in women from 1910 to 1913. According to those figures, approximately 320 investigations were opened in 1910 and 1911. Judicial authorities and politicians valued the collaboration with civil society organizations, as exemplified by the cooperation with the Austrian League. This historical collaboration is comparable to modern forms of cooperation in countering trafficking in women. 9 tables, 2 figure, 20 notes, and 44 references