Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

It’s Your Business: The Role of the Private Sector in Human Trafficking

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
The Palgrave International Handbook of Human Trafficking

Abstract

Human trafficking concerns the private sector. Both sex and labor trafficking have been identified in legitimate businesses, and research has begun to show how a range of other businesses are wittingly or unwittingly facilitating the crime. Research can be further sparked by a clear theoretical framework that systematically addresses how and why the private sector is involved in human trafficking. This chapter examines the merits of three existing theoretical frameworks in guiding empirical research on the role of the private sector in human trafficking. These frameworks include theoretical notions on organized crime, corporate crime, and social and economic networks involved in crime. Each theoretical framework provides different explanations for private-sector involvement in human trafficking and has varying implications for research and anti-trafficking efforts.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 549.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 699.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aaronson SA, Higham I (2013) “Re-Righting Business”: John Ruggie and the Struggle to Develop International Human Rights Standards for Transnational Firms Human Rights Quarterly 35:333–264.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agathangelou A (2004) The global political economy of sex: Desire, violence, and insecurity in Mediterranean Nation States. Palgrave MacMillan, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aronowitz A, Theuermann G, Tyurykanova E (2010) Analysing the business model of trafficking in human beings to better prevent the crime. OSCE Office to the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings. Vienna, Austria.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aronowitz AA (2009) Human trafficking, human misery: The global trade in human beings. Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, CT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arrow KJ (1968) The economics of moral hazard: further comment The American Economic Review 58:537–539.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arrow KJ (1974) The limits of organization. Norton, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker WE, Faulkner RR (2009) Social capital, double embeddedness, and mechanisms of stability and change. American Behavioral Scientist 52:1531–1555. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764209331525.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bales K (2004) Disposable people. New slavery in the global economy. University of California Press, Berkely.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bales K (2016) Blood and Earth: Modern slavery, ecocide, and the secret to saving the world. Spiegel & Grau, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baricuatro, et al v. Industrial Personnel and Management Services, Inc., et al. (2014). U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (New Orleans).

    Google Scholar 

  • Benson ML, Moore E (1992) Are white-collar and common offenders the same? An empirical and theoretical critique of a recently proposed general theory of crime. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 29:251–272.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bouché V (2017) An empirical analysis of the intersection of organized crime and human trafficking in the United States. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brammer S, Jackson G, Matten D (2012) Corporate social responsibility and institutional theory: New perspectives on private governance Socio-economic review 10:3–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Broad R (2015) ‘A Vile and Violent Thing’: Female Traffickers and the Criminal Justice Response British journal of criminology 55:1058–1075.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown DK, Deardorff A, Stern R (2004) The effects of multinational production on wages and working conditions in developing countries. In: R.E. Baldwin, A.L. Winters (eds) Challenges to globalization: Analyzing the economics. University of Chicago Press, pp 279–330.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruinsma G (2014) Differential Association Theory. In: Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, pp 1065–1075.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campana P, Varese F (2015) Exploitation in human trafficking and smuggling. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research 22:89–105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carrington PJ (2014) Crime and social network analysis. In: Scott J, Carrington PJ (eds) The SAGE handbook of social network analysis. Sage Publications Ltd, pp 236–255. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446294413.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chambliss WJ (1978) On the take: From petty crooks to presidents. Indiana University Press Bloomington.

    Google Scholar 

  • Charnysh V, Lloyd P, Simmons BA (2015) Frames and consensus formation in international relations: The case of trafficking in persons. European Journal of International Relations 21:323–351 https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066114530173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chellen, et al v. John Pickle Company, et al. (2006). U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma (Tulsa).

    Google Scholar 

  • Clear TR (2011) A private-sector, incentives-based model for justice reinvestment. Criminology & Public Policy 10:585–608.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crane A (2013) Modern slavery as a management practice: Exploring the conditions and capabilities for human exploitation. Academy of Management Review 38:49–69. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2011.0145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crawford A, Evans K (2017) Crime prevention and community safety. In: Leibling, A, Maruna, S, McAra, L (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Criminology (sixth edition). Oxford University Press, Oxford, p 797–824.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Vries I (2018) Connected to Crime: An Exploration of the Nesting of Labour Trafficking in Legitimate Markets The British Journal of Criminology azy019. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azy019.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dearden L (2018) Police launch raids targeting gang who trafficked girls around England to be raped. The Independent (January 9, 2018).

    Google Scholar 

  • Dugato M, Favarin S, Giommoni L (2015) The risks and rewards of organized crime investments in real estate. British Journal of Criminology 55:944–965.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eckert S (2013) The Business Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act: Fighting Forced Labor in Complex Global Supply Chains. J Int’l Bus & L 12:383.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farrell A, Fahy S (2009) The problem of human trafficking in the US: Public frames and policy responses. Journal of Criminal Justice 37:617–626. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2009.09.010.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Farrell A, McDevitt J, Pfeffer R, Fahy S, Owens C, Dank M, Adams W (2012) Identifying challenges to improve the investigation and prosecution of state and local human trafficking cases.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farrell A, Owens C, McDevitt J (2014) New laws but few cases: understanding the challenges to the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking cases. Crime, Law and Social Change 61:139–168. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-013-9442-1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Farrell A, Pfeffer R (2014) Policing human trafficking: Cultural blinders and organizational barriers. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 653:46–64. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716213515835.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feld SL (1997) Structural embeddedness and stability of interpersonal relations. Social Networks 19:91–95.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fight human contraband (Editorial) (2000) The post and courier, p A14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finckenauer JO (2005) Problems of definition: What is organized crime? Trends in organized crime 8:63–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fortin J (2017) Flight attendants fight human trafficking with eyes in the sky. New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foster TW (1997) Trafficking in human organs: An emerging form of white-collar crime? International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 41:139–150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Francisco, et al. v. Wiley (2013). U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado (Denver).

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallagher A (2011) Improving the effectiveness of the international law of human trafficking: A vision for the future of the US Trafficking in Persons reports Human Rights Review 12:381–400.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gambetta D, Reuter P (1995) Conspiracy among the many: the mafia in legitimate industries. In: Fiorentini, G, Peltzman, S (eds). The Economic Dimensions of Crime. Palgrave Macmillan, London, p 99–120.

    Google Scholar 

  • Granovetter M (1985) Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness. American journal of sociology 91:481–510. https://doi.org/10.1086/228311.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hagan J (2010) Who are the Criminals. The Politics of Crime Policy from the Age of Roosevelt to the Age of Reagan. Princeton University Press, NJ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirshleifer J (1973) Where are we in the theory of information? The American Economic Review 63:31–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hosken G, Masweeneng K (2018) Alleged human trafficking mastermind speaks. Sowetan Live (January 15, 2018).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson M.O (2010) Social and economic networks. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jägers N, Rijken C (2014) Prevention of human trafficking for labor exploitation: The role of corporations. Nw UJ Int’l Hum Rts 12:47–229.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jahic G, Finckenauer JO (2005) Representations and misrepresentations of human trafficking. Trends in Organized Crime 8:24–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnston A, Friedman B, Sobel M (2015) Framing an emerging issue: How US print and broadcast news media covered sex trafficking, 2008–2012. Journal of Human Trafficking 1:235–254.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kadushin C (2012) Understanding Social Networks: Theories, Concepts, and Findings. Oxford University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirman A (2001) Market organization and individual behavior: Evidence from fish markets. In: Rauch JE, Casella AS (eds) Networks and markets. Russel Sage Foundation, New York, p 155–196.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latonero M (2011) Human trafficking online: The role of social networking sites and online classifieds, University of Southern California, USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leman J, Janssens S (2015) Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling in Southeast Europe and Russia: Learning Criminal Entrepreneurship and Traditional Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, London, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindh A (2015) Public Support for Corporate Social Responsibility in the Welfare State: Evidence from Sweden. Scandinavian Political Studies 38:75–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malm A, Bichler G, Van De Walle S (2010) Comparing the ties that bind criminal networks: Is blood thicker than water? Security Journal 23:52–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maltz M (1985) Toward defining organized crime. In: Alexander HE, Caiden G (eds) The politics and economics of organized Crime. D.C. Heath, Lexington, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maltz M (1994) Defining Organized Crime. In: Kelly RJ, Chin K-L, Schatzberg R (eds) Handbook of organized crime in the United States. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT and London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marriott International (2017) 2017 Marriott sustainability and social impact report. Marriott International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin P (2018) Business Leaders Join New Massachusetts Initiative To Stop Sex Trafficking. WGBH News (May 30, 2018).

    Google Scholar 

  • Mattar M (2012) Corporate Criminal Liability: Article 10 of the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Journal of International Affairs: 107–122.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sykes, GM, Matza, D (1957) Techniques of neutralization: A theory of delinquency. American Sociological Review 22(6): 664–670.

    Google Scholar 

  • McSween M (2011) Investing in the Business against Human Trafficking: Embracing the Fourth P-Partnerships Intercultural Hum Rts L Rev: 6–283.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moody J (2005) Fighting a hydra: A note on the network embeddedness of the war on terror. Structure and Dynamics 1(2).

    Google Scholar 

  • Moody J, White DR (2003) Structural cohesion and embeddedness: A hierarchical concept of social groups. American Sociological Review:103–127.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munro VE (2008a) Exploring exploitation: Trafficking in Sex, Work and Sex Work. In: Della Giusta M, Munro VE (eds) Demanding Sex: Critical reflections on the regulation of prostitution. Ashgate Abingdon, Oxon, p 83–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munro VE (2008b) Of rights and rhetoric: Discourses of degradation and exploitation in the context of sex trafficking. Journal of Law and Society 35:240–264.

    Google Scholar 

  • Obokata T (2005) Trafficking of Human Beings as a Crime Against Humanity: Some Implications for the International Legal System International & Comparative Law Quarterly 54:445–458.

    Google Scholar 

  • OSCE (2014) How to prevent human trafficking for domestic servitude in diplomatic households and protect private domestic workers. Handbook. Vienna: OSCE/Office of the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings. https://www.osce.org/handbook/domesticservitude.

  • Papachristos AV, Smith C, M. (2014) The Embedded and Multiplex Nature of Al Capone. In: Morselli C (ed) Crime and Networks. Routledge, New York, p 95–115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Passas N (2000) Global anomie, dysnomie, and economic crime: Hidden consequences of neoliberalism and globalization in Russia and around the world Social Justice 27:16–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paternoster R, Simpson S (1993) A rational choice theory of corporate crime. In: Clarke RV, Felson M (eds). Advances in criminological theory, Vol. 5. Routine activity and rational choice. Transaction Publishers, Piscataway, NJ, US, p 5:37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pickles J, Zhu S (2013) The California Transparency in Supply Chains Act. Capturing the Gains Working Paper 15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pierce SC (2010) Turning a blind eye: US corporate involvement in modern day slavery. J Gender Race & Just 14:577–600.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piquero NL, Piquero AR (2006) Control balance and exploitative corporate crime. Criminology 44:397–430.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piquero NL, Tibbetts SG, Blankenship MB (2005) Examining the role of differential association and techniques of neutralization in explaining corporate crime. Deviant Behavior 26(2): 159–188.

    Google Scholar 

  • Podolny JM (1994) Market uncertainty and the social character of economic exchange. Administrative science quarterly:458–483. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393299.

    Google Scholar 

  • Polaris (2018) Human Trafficking in Illicit Massage Businesses. Polaris, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Queen v. Faroz Ali and Jafar Kurisi (2015). UNODC Case Law Database. Available via UNODC. https://sherloc.unodc.org/cld/en/v3/sherloc/cldb/index.html. Accessed 21 Oct 2018.

  • Reuter P (1985) The organization of illegal markets: An economic analysis vol 84. vol 9. US Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riccardi M (2014) When criminals invest in businesses: Are we looking in the right direction? An exploratory analysis of companies controlled by mafias. In: Caneppele S, Calderoni F (eds) Organized crime, corruption and crime prevention. Springer, p 197–206.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scherer AG, Palazzo G (2011) The new political role of business in a globalized world: A review of a new perspective on CSR and its implications for the firm, governance, and democracy. Journal of management studies 48:899–931.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneiberg M, Bartley T (2008) Organizations, regulation, and economic behavior: Regulatory dynamics and forms from the nineteenth to twenty-first century. Annual Review of Law and Social Science 4:31–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schrager LS, Short JF (1978) Toward a sociology of organizational crime. Social problems 25:407–419.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shelley L (2010) Human trafficking: A global perspective. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shelley L, Bain C (2015) Human Trafficking: Fighting the Illicit Economy with the Legitimate Economy. Social Inclusion 3:140–144 https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v3i1.215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shelley L, Lee M (2007) Human trafficking as a form of transnational crime. In: Shelley L (ed) Human trafficking. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, p 116–137.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shover N, Bryant KM (1993) Theoretical explanations of corporate crime. Understanding corporate criminality 3:141–176.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmons B, Lloyd P (2010) Subjective frames and rational choice: transnational crime and the case of human trafficking. mimeo. Government Department, Harvard University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon J (2009) Governing through crime: How the war on crime transformed American democracy and created a culture of fear. Oxford University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simpson SS (2002) Corporate crime, law, and social control. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith CM, Papachristos AV (2016) Trust thy crooked neighbor: multiplexity in Chicago organized crime networks. American Sociological Review 81:644–667.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith DC (1971) Some things that may be more important to understand about organized crime than Cosa Nostra. U Fla L Rev 24:1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith DC (1980) Paragons, pariahs, and pirates: a spectrum-based theory of enterprise. Crime & Delinquency 26:358–386.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stiglitz JE (2000) The contributions of the economics of information to twentieth century economics. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 115:1441–1478. https://doi.org/10.1162/003355300555015.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sundararajan A (2016) The sharing economy: The end of employment and the rise of crowd-based capitalism. Mit Press, Cambridge MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutherland EH (1940) White-collar criminality. American sociological review 5:1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutherland EH, Cressey DR (1947) Principles of criminology. Philadelphia: Lippincott.

    Google Scholar 

  • Todres J (2012) The private sector’s pivotal role in combating human trafficking. California Law Review Circuit 3:80–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (2017) UN Human Rights Office unveils global standards for businesses to tackle discrimination against LGBTI people. New York/Geneva.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Case law database, Retrieved January 30 2019. http://www.unodcorg/cld/index.jspx.

  • USA v. Askarkhodjaev, et al. (2010). U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).

    Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Department of State (2016) Trafficking in Persons Report. 2016. U.S. Department of State / Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. https://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2016/index.htm.

  • Uzzi B (1996) The sources and consequences of embeddedness for the economic performance of organizations: The network effect. American sociological review:674–698.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wasserman S, Faust K (1994) Social network analysis: Methods and applications. Cambridge university press, Cambridge, England.

    Google Scholar 

  • Western Union (2013) Western Union joins effort to fight human trafficking. Western Union Press Releases (November 6, 2013).

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang SX, Spiller MW, Finch BK, Qin Y (2014) Estimating labor trafficking among unauthorized migrant workers in San Diego. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 653(1): 65–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716213519237.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Violence and Justice Research Laboratory, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    Ieke de Vries, Megan Amy Jose & Amy Farrell

Authors
  1. Ieke de Vries
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Megan Amy Jose
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Amy Farrell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ieke de Vries .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Justice and Policy Studies, Mount Royal University, Calgary, AB, Canada

    John Winterdyk

  2. Former Professor of Feminist Legal Studies, Cardiff, UK

    Jackie Jones

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

de Vries, I., Jose, M.A., Farrell, A. (2020). It’s Your Business: The Role of the Private Sector in Human Trafficking. In: Winterdyk, J., Jones, J. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Human Trafficking. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63058-8_45

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation