Sex Trafficking in Brazil: Formal and Informal Institutions in the Fight Against the Crime

Abstract: Sex trafficking of women is an increasing phenomenon that affects mostly black women in Brazil. Governmental attempts to confront the crime have been made, however, the number of victims in the country continues to grow. The aim of this thesis is to examine the processes that impede the effectiveness of the policy and legislation in place which are made to protect the victims and counter the crime. For that, I want to unveil the informal structures that may interact with the formal strategies and to understand how this interaction takes place. I use the theoretical framework of feminist intersectionalities and of institutions to make qualitative analysis of both primary and secondary data. The historical processes of inequality that include gender, race and class struggles in Brazil are central in this work, as well as the weaknesses in Brazilian policy making and implementation. Through the empirical data I found that the role played by informal institutions is dysfunctional to the fight against sex trafficking in Brazil.