3 results
1 - Criminal pyramid scheme: organised crime recruitment strategies
- Edited by Carole Murphy, St Mary's University, Twickenham, London, Runa Lazzarino, University of Oxford and Middlesex University, London
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- Book:
- Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 June 2023
- Print publication:
- 06 December 2022, pp 25-40
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Summary
Introduction
While the experiences of victims of modern slavery and human trafficking (MSHT) are becoming better understood, a greater threat emerges from the involvement of organised crime. The profit motives and violence associated with organised crime makes MSHT more dangerous for victims and difficult to detect and address. As law enforcement has sought to respond to the role of organised crime in MSHT, the tactics being used to facilitate MSHT have evolved. In many countries, particularly where there is demand for outward migration, a worrying trend has emerged where communities, families and victims themselves become complicit in their own recruitment, becoming invested in their own exploitation and subsequently reluctant to seek assistance. This chapter traces the creation of a ‘criminal pyramid scheme’, with criminals at the top driving the recruitment and exploitation of victims, communities and families in the middle, encouraging potential victims to migrate, and victims themselves making up the largest layer, expecting to profit and send their earnings home by exposing themselves to exploitation.
Human trafficking as an organised crime
Following the adoption of the UN Convention on Transnational Organised Crime, the head of what was then the UN Drug Control and Crime Prevention Programme (now United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC]) argued that human trafficking was the fastest growing form of organised crime. Pino Arlacchi pointed to ‘reports that drug traffickers are switching to human cargo to obtain greater profit with less risk’ (UN News, 2001). That was in 2001, and one of the protocols to the UN Convention focused specifically on human trafficking – seeking to prevent and punish traffickers and protect victims of trafficking. UNODC was subsequently tasked with assisting state parties in drafting legislation, developing strategies and providing resources to implement the protocol.
Although the protocol came into force as international law in 2003, the UK Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group released a report in 2012 pointing out that ‘little is known about the profile of people who essentially fuel this criminal industry, what level they occupy within the criminal chain, their characteristics and personal circumstances, their reasons for becoming involved in trafficking activities, their perceptions of their activities and their opinion of those they traffic’ (Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group, 2012).
3 - Online child sexual exploitation in the Philippines: addressing demand
- Edited by Carole Murphy, St Mary's University, Twickenham, London, Runa Lazzarino, University of Oxford and Middlesex University, London
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- Book:
- Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 June 2023
- Print publication:
- 06 December 2022, pp 60-72
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
International awareness of online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC) has increased in recent years. In particular, the Philippines is documented as a principal source for the production of online child sexual abuse materials (Hernandez et al, 2018: 306). Environmental and structural factors such as ‘poverty, family breakdown and dysfunction, poor parenting and supervision of children’ (Gill, 2021: np), are identified as circumstances that have been linked to the prevalence of child sexual exploitation (CSE). Another important way to understand this issue is via the dynamics of international demand for child sexual exploitation materials (CSEM) external to the Philippines and the domestic and international practice and policy efforts to disrupt supply and demand. Based on a dearth of academic literature on demand, the focus of this chapter is to explore how international attention on CSE and OSEC in particular has supported a range of interventions tackling exploitation in the country, in this case the Philippines, but neglects to engage with the location of the perpetrator, a challenge unique to OSEC. The chapter also critiques the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, published annually by the US State Department, arguing that instead of focusing solely on the response of each country where exploitation occurs, it also needs to engage with international demand. Throughout this chapter, the term local is used to distinguish responses in the Philippines from those directly implemented by international donors. It refers to being Philippine based. While OSEC is understood as one aspect of CSE, the TIP report takes a more expansive view. The report focuses on ‘trafficking in persons’, which is defined as ‘sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age’ (US Department of State, 2021). Thus, OSEC is included as a component part of the phenomena and response reviewed annually by the TIP report. Lastly, the chapter considers the implications on policy in the UK, specifically the Online Safety Bill, where OSEC has been prioritised, but questions remain whether such actions will deter demand and impact CSEM sourced from the Philippines.
7 - Forestry Crimes and Our Planet
- from Part I - Wicked Problems and Policies
- Edited by William Nikolakis, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, John L. Innes, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
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- Book:
- The Wicked Problem of Forest Policy
- Published online:
- 24 July 2020
- Print publication:
- 30 July 2020, pp 197-230
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Summary
Forestry crimes include illegal logging, which is a contributing factor to deforestation across the globe. An estimated 189 to 565 million cubic metres of timber are cut illegally in some form. Forestry crimes are estimated by INTERPOL and the United Nations to be valued at US$51–152 billion annually. Much of this harvest is used for wood fuel and charcoal, and the proceeds from illegal logging are sometimes used to fund terrorist groups. Globally, (excluding illegal logging for wood fuel and charcoal). To date, the only effective interventions have been the efforts by the Brazilian government using targeted law enforcement efforts to combat illegal logging, the result of which was a 76% reduction in deforestation.