Traumatic Associations amongst Men and Women Selling Sex in the Philippines

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank you very much for sending me this article. I think the paper is ready to be published. I have several minor comments that the authors may want to address.

1) While Introduction is well-written, I do think that the context that is specific to the Philippines is largely missing. This missing piece is important to justify why it is important to understand the relationship between trauma and abuse and human trafficking in the study context. I have several articles in mind to address this issue. In my opinion, population-level data as well as conceptually constructed ideas may be useful here.

Antai, D., Oke, A., Braithwaite, P., & Lopez, G. B. (2014). The effect of economic, physical, and psychological abuse on mental health: a population-based study of women in the Philippines. International journal of family medicine, 2014.

Gill, M., & Cordisco Tsai, L. (2020). Building core skills among adult survivors of human trafficking in a workplace setting in the Philippines. International Social Work, 63(4), 538-544.

Sano, Y., Sedziafa, A. P., & Tenkorang, E. Y. (2016). Correlates of forced first sexual intercourse among women in the Philippines. Sexuality & Culture, 20(3), 717-730.

Yea, S. (2010). Trafficking in part (s): The commercial kidney market in a Manila slum, Philippines. Global Social Policy, 10(3), 358-376.

 

2) Can you add star to indicate the level of significance in tables? (e.g., *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001)

 

3) Some odds ratios are unusually high (e.g., 104.09). Would you check for a possible multicollinearity issue? 

 

3) It would be useful to provide some policy implications based on your results.

 

Good luck!

Author Response

Please see attached responses. Thank you! 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Review: Trauma and human trafficking are associated with the desire to mobilize or not among women and men in the sex trade in thePhilippines

The study investigates a very sensitive issue, namely, that of human trafficking of vulnerable people in the sex trade in the Philippines. Community mobilization improves resilience against abuse and other barriers experienced. Communities develop and implement own programs. The study has a small number of participants but the methodology and result section are explained in full.

 

The Abstract does not accurately reflects the purpose, aim, results and discussion of the study.

 

                                          

References

1. References follow journal style.

Strengths of the paper

1. This is such an important topic on a vulnerable population.
2. The study offers part solution to the participants
3. The authors are realistic about the limitations of the study and I would encourage them to attend to what they identify as limitations.

 Weakness of the paper

1. The manuscript needs to be language edited.
2. Inconsistencies throughout the manuscript.
3. Sample is small

Major Points

1. The title does not make sense, in fact, the title does not reflect what the study is about. I suggest a more academic/scientific title such as: ”Traumatic associations amongst male and female sex workers in the Philippines”. OR “Mobilisation conflict amongst victims of human trafficking in the sex trade in the Philippines”.
2. The “community” in this study should be clearly defined and exactly what is meant by “community mobilization”.
3. The “Introduction does not cover much information on “human trafficking”. I suggest including a section/short paragraph on it.
4. The fact that HiV/AIDS and “Human Rights” is mentioned more in the “Methodology section, perhaps this should be included in the title or key words.
5. The main issue for me is consistency: in the “Discussion” section, it refers to “Manila” based, but title states “Philippines”.

Minor Points

1. “Females trading sex”, “persons trading sex” and “males trading sex” can be replaced with “….sex workers”?

Author Response

Please see attached responses. Thank you!

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Amazing paper. I highly recommend that this is published. 

Reviewer 2 Report

Review: Traumatic associations amongst men and women selling sex in the Philippines

The study investigates a very sensitive issue, namely, that of human trafficking of vulnerable people in the sex trade in the Philippines. Community mobilization improves resilience against abuse and other barriers experienced. Communities develop and implement own programs. The study has a small number of participants but the methodology and result section are explained in full. This is a review of the revised manuscript.

1. The study seems much improved and appears more academic.
2. The results are plausible
3. English language use is much improved.

I wish to congratulate the authors on this topic and wish them well in the future.