Victim Intervention Marketing: An Application of Social Activist Marketing in Opposition to Human Trafficking

Abstract

Human trafficking’s most authoritative definitions suffer from internal inconsistencies and exploitation creep. This difficulty has caused all trafficking, rather than only its worst forms, to be categorized as slavery. We use victims’ voluntary, semivoluntary, and involuntary participation in human trafficking marketing channels and their related attitude-behavior consistencies to redefine human trafficking. This definition forms the conceptual foundation for a victim typology matrix, within which Frazier and Sheth’s (1985) influence strategies prescribe interventions. A sample of 190 United Nations’ cases supports the typology, and Chi-Square test results indicate a statistically strong relationship between the conditions under which victims enter and remain in human trafficking channels.