ABSTRACT
Despite significant challenges to studying human trafficking, the body of reliable research on the phenomenon is growing, particularly for studies that are industry-, gender-, and place-specific. At the same time, however, frameworks that center place, industry, or group can reinforce biases that certain places and groups are intrinsically more dangerous, while others are inherently more vulnerable to exploitation and thus more deserving of “rescue.” In this chapter, we conduct a comparative cross-regional, multi-scale review of the trafficking literature to assess the extent to which certain factors are associated with heightened risk to trafficking and exploitation. The study shows how migration and mobility intersect with a range of other socio-structural, political, economic, and individual-level dynamics across regions to produce heightened or reduced risk of trafficking and exploitation.
