Date of Award
Summer 8-2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department/Program
Forensic Mental Health Counseling
Language
English
First Advisor or Mentor
Chitra Raghavan
Second Reader
Shuki J. Cohen
Third Advisor
Kendra Doychak
Abstract
This study examines how the use of elaboration as a means of compliance, used by victims of sex trafficking in long-term relationships with their exploiters, supports the presence of chronic coercive control. A discourse analytical framework is used to capture the non-explicit coercive dynamics in conversations between sex workers and their exploiters. This study also employs the theoretical framework of coercive control to examine how victims use elaboration as a means of compliance to navigate the implicit and ongoing threats incorporated in an environment of coercive control. Linguistic analyses of the language that victims use with their traffickers compared to language used with other individuals are consistent with a chronically-engrained pattern of internalized coercive control. We found clear linguistic patterns that indicated an imbalance of power, which was maintained over a long-term exploiter-victim relationship.
Recommended Citation
Pomerantz, Jessica, "Elaboration within Compliance:
Linguistic Patterns within Coercive Control in Sex Trafficking" (2018). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/jj_etds/79
Included in
Community-Based Research Commons, Discourse and Text Linguistics Commons, Domestic and Intimate Partner Violence Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons