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Policy and law. Media: fictional accounts of human trafficking. Summary and review
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Policy and law
There is a growing body of research that seeks to interrogate the assumptions and ideologies that underpin policy and legislation. Research has examined the applica- tion of law, for example via examining prosecutions (see Anti-Trafficking Review, Issue 6, Special Issue on Prosecuting Human Trafficking, May 2016).
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An example of this is Erin O’Brien and Michael Wilson’s (2015) qualitative study of the US TIP report over 12 years to chart changing policy and rhetoric in response to changes of presidential leadership and administration.
Their review adopted a discourse analysis (see Box 15. 6) of these reports. Findings mapped significant changes between the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations. These changes pertained particularly to the identified causes of trafficking, the articulation of victim identification and the definition of protection, and the empha- sis/focus on and reference to the link between prostitution and sex trafficking. O’Brien and Wilson noted that such an analysis brought to the fore the link between various ideological standpoints and the resulting differences in the policy and agenda focus on human trafficking over these periods of time, whilst also allowing the researchers to identify a consistent reliance on criminal justice responses as a priority, regardless of the administration in power.
Media: fictional accounts of human trafficking
Human trafficking captures media attention everywhere. It is the subject of signifi- cant news reporting, as some researchers have noted and explored (see Denton, 2010; Gulati, 2012). Human trafficking is also the subject of a significant body of fictional and creative non-fictional works. This ranges from films and television series, through novels, to photographs and documentaries. There is much to be gained by students and researchers in criminology bringing the practices of film and media studies together with criminological examinations of these representations. We know in many fields, such as rape and sexual assault, that changing cultural expectations and understandings of what a crime is (or is not), who a victim is (or is not) and narratives of blame and justice are important in the development of progres- sive law and policy to address a crime. In the field of human trafficking, there is an emotive and persuasive victim narrative and this is evident throughout fiction gener- ally. Examining the various accounts and representations of human trafficking, as well as considering the implications of these narratives, is an important area of research. Rather than choosing one example, we point readers to a 2016 Special Issue of Anti-Trafficking Review (see Andrijasevic and Mai 2016) focused on repre- sentations of human trafficking (offering examples of research into historical and contemporary representations of trafficking and slavery from Australia, Cambodia, Nigeria, Serbia, Denmark, the UK and the USA).
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SUMMARY AND REVIEW
We have outlined some of the existing approaches to the study of human trafficking. We are keen to encourage researchers to be aware of the key authors in the field, to be alert to cutting-edge debates and to be up front about their own perspective in relation to these. While we may disagree with researchers who adopt an abolitionist perspective, for example, we appreciate that such a position does not automatically compromise the qual- ity of the research. We have also been at pains to suggest that interviews are not the only way to the ‘truth’ of human trafficking. Rather, some of the most important research at the moment is the work that seeks to pay careful attention to popular discourse and to dismantle the myths and assumptions that underpin it, as one way to create more informed and nuanced understandings of the complexities of human trafficking. It is also critical that the production of data across the full spectrum of the human trafficking industry – from criminal justice data through non-governmental organization reports to TIP reports and assessments of support programmes – is subject to scrutiny. Scrutiny of the research methodologies employed can be a very worthwhile exercise that produces new avenues for inquiry as well as signposting useful research strategies and tools.
The study of human trafficking is a diverse field, attracting interdisciplinary
researchers. This chapter has outlined the background to the international response to human trafficking in order to have an understanding of how and why trafficking in persons has become a global issue. We have identified some of the significant gaps in knowledge around human trafficking, the absence of any formal mechanism for evaluation and the need for ongoing independent examinations of all aspects of human trafficking. We have outlined that research in the area of human trafficking is not just about understanding a crime, but also about examining the broader social, political and moral narratives that surround this phenomenon. We need to interro- gate the hyperbole that surrounds human trafficking as much as, if not more than, we need to understand the experiences of victims. Finally, we have indicated two key areas of research: interviews and documentary research, and we have mapped some key possibilities in both areas, and some limitations and challenges.
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3. What role does the US TIP report play in international engagements with human trafficking? What is the impact of the TIP report on how nation states respond to human trafficking?
4. What are the upsides and downsides of focusing on human trafficking? How can we address the downsides through criminological research?
5. Which measures are the states required to implement, and which ones are only encouraged by the Protocol? Why is this important/problematic and how can criminological research address this issue?
6. What are key contributions of criminological research to our knowledge on human trafficking? What are the key gaps and how can we address them in the future?
7. How can we overcome the challenges in researching human trafficking? What type of research design can assist us in achieving this goal?
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8. Why is it important to think beyond the ‘victim perspective’ in human trafficking research?
9. Review media reports on human trafficking, slavery and labour exploitation over a period of time or in different jurisdictions. How is the exploitation described and understood in these reports, i. e. who is responsible and what is the solution to the problem, if presented?
10. Watch three films on human trafficking (for example, Lilya 4-ever (2002), The Jammed (2017) and The Storm Makers (2014)) and consider the way in which they offer an understanding of why human trafficking occurs, who the victims are and what the solutions to trafficking should be.
11. Undertake a review of common understandings of human trafficking by survey- ing friends, fellow students and family about how they would define and describe this phenomenon. Review their responses.
12. Look at the reported number of victims of human trafficking in the country you live in and the number of prosecutions over the past 5–10 years. What are the reasons given for these differences by the agencies and authorities responsible for counter-trafficking efforts? What gaps in knowledge can you identify?
13. Identify the agency or agencies responsible for providing support to victims of trafficking in your country. What kinds of support do victims receive and what, if any, restrictions are placed on victims while accessing support? How are these support provisions evaluated? Are these published and/or publicly available? Can you identify key questions that need to be asked about support provisions that would enable us to better understand whether the support provided to vic- tims meets their needs?
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
The sources provided below are primarily places to begin in order to find out about the Trafficking Protocol and the latest developments in relation to this (see UNODC and USDOS) and international developments more broadly (ILO). The Anti-Trafficking Review and the Journal of Human Trafficking are good sources for academic literature as they are dedicated journals to this area. However, they are issue-based rather than discipline-based journals. So, for students of criminology, it is important to also look at other criminology journals (such as British Journal of Criminology, Theoretical Criminology, Feminist Criminology) where research on human trafficking that is criminological in nature is also published.
1. Anti-Trafficking Review: www. antitraffickingreview. org/index. php/atrjournal
2. International Labour Organisation (ILO): www. ilo. org/global/topics/forced-labour/ policy-areas/statistics/lang--en/index. htm (NB: the ILO is soon to introduce the Global Slavery Observatory and this will be an important resource)
3. Journal of Human Trafficking: www. tandfonline. com/loi/uhmt20
4. United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Convention against Transnational Organized Crime: www. unodc. org/unodc/en/organized-crime/intro/UNTOC. html
5. United States Department of State (UNOS), Trafficking in Persons Reports from 2001 onwards: www. state. gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt
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