[1] It has been described as a "neo-abolitionist lobby group" that represents a "carceral feminist anti-trafficking practice," and has been criticized for essentializing women and promoting a controversial and "ideologically charged" definition of trafficking.
[5][6] In this regard, it is strongly opposed to the perspectives of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women and the sex workers' rights movement.
"[10] CATW has been described as a "neo-abolitionist lobby group" that represents an ideologically charged "carceral feminist anti-trafficking practice that primarily criminalizes, censors, and oppresses the agency, behaviors, and needs of structurally marginalized communities" and that contributes to "essentializing women with racialized and marginalized identities in sex work, with no discursive recognition of intersectional structural inequalities.
The CATW has influenced anti-sex industry and anti-trafficking legislation in places all over the world, including the Philippines, Venezuela, Bangladesh, Japan, Sweden, and the United States.
[21] CATW also encouraged its followers to get television network HBO to stop airing shows like Cathouse, which it claims promote sex trafficking and prostitution.
[22] In 2008, CATW held a discussion at the New York City Bar Association on the laws in Sweden and the US governing prostitution and human trafficking, entitled, "Abolishing Sex Slavery: From Stockholm to Hunts Point".
The organization has what it describes as "national coalitions" in countries including the Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Chile, Canada, Norway, France, Spain, and Greece.
[7] CATW is an organization subscribing to a "low-risk activism", meaning it claims to use tactics that typically do not disrupt the public or otherwise lead to disobedience.