Political determinants of efforts to protect victims of human trafficking

Johanna Schönhöfer

doi:10.1007/s10611-016-9643-5

Abstract

In focusing on characteristics of national cabinets and parliaments, this paper seeks to understand domestic factors that are conducive to the enforcement of policies which protect victims of human trafficking in 33 democratic member countries of the European Union (EU) and the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). It argues for the need to consider the role of policymakers when trying to understand what drives the implementation and enforcement of international treaties that combat organized crime, such as the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, in national policies. In so doing, the paper applies theoretical arguments of comparative politics to criminology. Multivariate analyses show that the share of female parliamentarians and the proportion of left wing and social democratic parties in cabinet are significantly and positively associated with stronger efforts to protect victims of human trafficking. Future research should expand the insights of this analysis through case studies on parliamentary behaviour, legislative proposals, and votes related to human trafficking.

Highlights

Human trafficking generates billions in profit at the expense of thousands of victims each year [1, 2: 75; 3]
What information do these numerical values of the index convey? The original coding material of the index “protection” reveals that common reasons for declines in the “protection” index scores within these four countries encompass failure to effectively identify victims of human trafficking and a lack of proactive endeavours to detect trafficking victims in risk populations [90: 124– 125; 91: 149–152; UNOCD 2009: 240–241]
Even though the provision of comprehensive protection services for victims of human trafficking thematically relates to social justice and support for underprivileged minorities, findings of this paper indicate that in practice victim protection is more closely related to criminal than social justice, as indicated by the positive effect of parliamentary support for the strict enforcement of law and order policies in models 3 and 4 of Table 1

Summary

Introduction

Human trafficking generates billions in profit at the expense of thousands of victims each year [1, 2: 75; 3]. This makes understanding the dynamics leading to measures and policies designed to protect victims of trafficking a critical task. In cases where victims are trafficked across borders countries can be origin, destination, or a site of transit for victims of human trafficking. Transit countries are states which are passed through by victims of trafficking during their transport from origin to destination countries. In the context of domestic trafficking recruitment of victims, transport, and exploitation takes place within the same country

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Conclusion