White Slave Trade

TRATTA DELLE BIANCHE. — This is the recruitment of women, carried out through violence, deception, threats, or financial inducements, and their transport from one region to another, especially from one nation to another, with a view to prostitution.

I. NATURE OF THE PHENOMENON

It is a form of prostitution trade (v. PROSTITUTION) and an intermediary activity serving the lust of others, with a view to one’s own interest, like pandering (v. PANDERING), from which it differs through the added element of transport to another region or nation. Since this trade, conducted clandestinely and by methods resembling those used in the trade of Black slaves transferred from the African continent to the American one (v. SLAVERY), has taken the name of trafficking.

In antiquity there was a trade in female slaves who, besides performing domestic services, also served the lust of their masters; during the paganizing Renaissance, there was the phenomenon of trade in Moorish or Muslim female slaves; today there is the trade in so-called “white slaves” (without, however, excluding women of other colors), which often becomes mixed with the illicit trafficking of narcotics, jewelry, and espionage.

This trade has buyers, importers, brokers, exploiters, procuresses, and pimps. As early as the eighteenth century, Sarnelli wrote that procuresses “very often leave the cities and go to the villages and towns of the Kingdom, buying girls and then selling them in the cities like beasts at a fair to whoever offers the most” (G. Sarnelli, Ragioni cattol., legali e politi. in difesa delle repubbl. rovinate dall'insolentito meretricio, Napoli 1739, p. 29). The progress of international trade has also been reflected in the trafficking of white women, today often directed by international “gangsters”; it has an international, albeit clandestine, network, with recruiting centers in the large cities, especially in the great ports, and one of its largest outlets in Latin America.

The most customary means of recruitment is the offer of widely remunerated positions and employment, made through newspaper advertisements seeking “divas” for cinema, governesses, teachers, domestic servants, readers, etc. abroad, or the action of agents who, through insinuating manners and promises, elicit commitments that gradually reveal themselves for what they are, at the most suitable moment to prevent any reaction. There are also special employment agencies, disguised under the most diverse labels, such as clubs, commercial agencies, etc. Among the causes of the trafficking of white women, in addition to greed for money and moral depravity, one must add, in certain countries, imagination and the surplus of men separated from their families.

II. SUPPRESSION OF THE PHENOMENON

Trafficking reached very large proportions in the last century, to the point of provoking the reaction of all upright people. Thus there arose “The National Vigilance Association,” which, at a congress in London (1890), laid the foundations for common action, giving rise to the “Fédération abolitioniste internationale,” which, aiming at the abolition of legally sanctioned vice, succeeded in uncovering many enormities and brought about agreements between governments, as well as meetings and congresses. At the first diplomatic conference against trafficking in women (Paris, 15 July 1902), governments were urged to improve their legislation concerning the suppression of this crime and to bring it into harmony with what the conference had decided in order to put an end to the scandalous traffic. As a result of this conference, a first agreement was signed in Paris (18 May 1904). The second international conference was likewise held in Paris, on 4 May 1910. When the League of Nations was established, this international body was expressly entrusted, under a provision enshrined in the Covenant (art. 23), with general oversight of the agreements concerning the trafficking of women and children. At the first Assembly of the League of Nations (15 Dec. 1920), an international conference was convened, which took place in Geneva (30 June–5 July 1921) with the participation of 34 States, including Italy. The votes expressed were examined at the second Assembly of the League of Nations and led to the drafting of an international convention for the suppression of trafficking in women (30 Sept. 1921), ratified by 50 States. Another international convention, under the auspices of the League of Nations, was concluded on 11 Oct. 1933. The recruitment even of a consenting woman was prohibited before the age of 21; and, even at a greater age, any recruitment carried out by fraud, blackmail, violence, etc., was prohibited. A Permanent Committee on the Traffic in Women and Children was also established (s. 1921). Also as a consequence of a resurgence of the problem, caused by the war and the post-war period, the new United Nations Organization (v.). ONU, took a keen interest in the matter, taking up a project drawn up by the League of Nations in 1937 and suitably supplementing II. Amendments were thus made to the International Agreements of 18 May 1904 and 4 May 1910 by the Protocol approved at the General Assembly of the ONU on 3 Dec. 1948, and to the agreements of 30 Sept. 1921 and 11 Oct. 1933 by another Protocol, approved by the same Assembly on 20 Oct. 1947. Finally, at its fourth session, held in New York (2 Dec. 1949), the General Assembly of the ONU approved a Convention for the suppression of trafficking in human beings, to be signed by all Member States and also by non-member States, at the invitation of the ONU; this Convention strengthens and coordinates not only the previous measures for suppressing trafficking in women, but also proposes the abolition, in States where it still exists, of the regulation of prostitution (cf. the text of the convention in Justitia, 5 [1952], pp. 208–12).

III. THE OFFENCE OF TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN IN ITALIAN CRIMINAL LAW

In Italy, the Geneva Convention of 1921 was given effect by Royal Decree no. 2479 of 31 October 1923. At present, the Penal Code in force covers the offence of trafficking in women in arts. 535–537, imposing on those facilitating or conducting the disgraceful trade in minors or adults suffering from mental illness or physical incapacity a sentence of imprisonment from six months to three years and a fine of not less than L. 3,000, with increased penalties in certain specific circumstances (art. 535). To constitute the offence, it is sufficient that the offender knows that the victim, in going abroad, is destined for prostitution. If deceit or violence is involved, the victim of the offence may be a woman of any age, and the maximum term of imprisonment is increased to 5 years, while the maximum fine is raised to 5,000 lire. The offences provided for in arts. 536–537 are punishable even when committed by a citizen in foreign territory (art. 537). Within the Ministry of the Interior (Directorate-General of Public Security) there is a Central Office for the Suppression of Trafficking in Women, entrusted with informational and investigative duties, supervision of women’s employment agencies, and the suppression of trafficking. A national committee against trafficking in women had been operating in Italy since 1901, based in Rome. International associations whose purpose is the protection and rescue of young women, and therefore supervision and assistance in circumstances ranging from the simplest to the most serious, include the « Union internationale des amies de la jeune fille » (whose apostle was the Englishman William Coote) and the « Association catholique internationale des œuvres pour la protection de la jeune fille »; they are based in Switzerland, the former in Neuchâtel and the latter in Fribourg.