Author: Nikki Berg Burin, Department of History and American Indian Studies, University of North Dakota

Abstract: -

Contents:

	Progressive Era Anti-Vice Laws (p. 335)
	Crime and Immorality During the 1950s Oil Boom (p. 340)
		Indicator 1 (p. 341)
		Indicator 2 (p. 341)
		Indicator 3 (p. 342)
		Indicator 4 (p. 343)
		Indicator 5 (p. 343)
	A Human Rights Approach to Campbell’s Study (p. 349)
	References (p. 351)

Extract: »I do not attempt to fill the gaps in Campbell’s empirical research with this essay, but instead offer a critical analysis of his observations on prostitution in 1950s Williston so as to provide guidance about the kinds of questions and methods that should be applied to an in-depth historical study of the topic. My analysis has three parts: first, a brief overview of the Progressive Era anti-vice legislation that drove the commercial sex industry underground and perhaps out of Campbell’s sight by the 1950s; second, a critique of the indicators he provided as evidence for the lack of social problems during the oil boom—all of which are flawed when applied to prostitution and sex trafficking; and third, an overview of North Dakota’s legislative response to prostitution and sex trafficking during the state’s twenty-first century oil boom, which reveals the progress and stagnation of the state’s understanding of these issues and offers insights into how one might go about a new study of boomtown prostitution and sex trafficking in 1950s North Dakota. In all three periods the nuanced reality of the commercial sex industry and the complex experiences of the people within it have been obscured by the persistent influence of the boomtown trope.« (Source: Article, p. 334-335)

Reviews: -

Wikipedia: History of the Americas: History of the United States / History of the United States, History of North Dakota | Prostitution: Prostitution in the United States / Sex trafficking in the United States | Sex and the law: Sexual violence / Sexual assaults in the United States