Trafficking in Women: The Business Model Approach

Trafficking in women has grown significantly in the past decade. Although this has been a long-standing phenomenon in Asia it has spread to many more areas of the world. In the wake of this growth three categories of analysis have emerged--the gender perspective the human rights perspective and the market-driven perspective. All of these perspectives contribute important insights into the phenomenon. Despite the growing analysis of this burgeoning trend there has been very little study of the business practices of the transnational crime groups that traffick women. While significant market analyses of the drug trade have been done by a variety of scholars and practitioners we have much less of an understanding of the organized crime businesses that engage in the trafficking of women. Without an understanding of the dynamics of the human trafficking trade there is a presumption that a single model exists which applies with only variations in the size of the groups that traffick the women. Using national data as well as actual cases this work suggests that there are significant regional and cultural differences in trafficking organizations. These differences are not merely of a descriptive character but have important implications for the ways that policy makers address the problem. (excerpt)