Trafficking Spectacle: Affect and State Power in Operation Cross Country X

Abstract:In the United States, efforts to abolish human trafficking are frequently connected to punitive tools of the criminal justice system. Arrests, detention, and prosecution are positioned as solutions to the violence and exploitation of trafficking, as opposed to structural changes that could ameliorate economic and social vulnerabilities. Operation Cross Country X, an FBI-led multistate sting operation, is indicative of current antitrafficking projects ostensibly designed to assist minors exploited through sex trafficking. In actuality, Operation Cross Country X functions as a regulatory mechanism, targeting adult sex workers for criminal punishments. In this article, we use the visual and textual artifacts published and disseminated by the FBI to understand Operation Cross Country X's role in perpetuating larger human trafficking discourses. By connecting performance theory to critical trafficking studies, we argue that press releases, photographs, and videos produced by Operation Cross Country X serve to legitimize the role of the state in antiviolence projects, regulate norms surrounding commercial sex, and obfuscate the inherent violence of the carceral system.