Combating human trafficking

This chapter provides students and practitioners with an introduction to the challenges that combating human trafficking presents to the criminal justice system. It outlines some of the key features of a criminal justice response to human trafficking at the international, regional and national levels. The challenges that human trafficking presents to this system are then presented, including overlapping definitions, the complexity of the crime, including transnational and organized crime elements, limited data, the forms of coercion that are used to control victims, the specific needs of children and the challenges inherent in addressing contextual factors. This chapter includes descriptions of current efforts to combat these challenges and concludes with some emerging opportunities to tackle these crimes going forward. Throughout, case studies and real-life examples allow readers to critically engage with the challenges that human trafficking presents to the criminal justice system.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the chapter, readers will be able to:

Understand key elements of the criminal justice system used to tackle human trafficking;

Understand and critically engage with the specific challenges that human trafficking presents to the criminal justice system;

Understand current efforts to combat human trafficking; and

Understand potential opportunities to tackle human trafficking in the future.