Free Paper Sample on Unmasking Human Trafficking: A Closer Look

The Intersection of Organised Crime and Human Trafficking in the United States. An Empirical Analysis

Human trafficking has been around the world for quite some time. Slave trade is an earlier form of trafficking in persons, formally abolished through anti-trafficking legislation created from the early 20th century. Today, thousands of children, women, and men are trafficked in their countries or abroad despite the trafficking of persons being a serious abuse of human rights and a grave crime. Almost all nations worldwide are impacted by trafficking, either as a country of origin, transition, or destination for the victims. Human trafficking falls under organized crime, a criminal activity that comprises a group of people, whether international, national, or local, that engage in the trafficking of persons for profit. Organized criminal organizations can be formed within a criminal gang, corporation, business, or family. In developing necessary criminal justice solutions to fight the trafficking of persons as forms of organized crime, there is a need for an evidence-based approach. Therefore, this paper will empirically analyze the connection of organized crime and the trafficking in persons in the U.S., that is, the extent of trafficking of persons in the country is perpetrated by organized crime groups.

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Trafficking in humans is widespread in the U.S., and cases are rising in the country. A human trafficking report in (2019) by the State Department placed the U.S. among the top three nations of origin for human trafficking in the U.S. alongside the Philippines, and Mexico. In 2018, 230 federal traffickings in human prosecutions began, which was a decrease from 282 in 2017 (U.S. State Department, 2019). In contrast, federal convictions increased from 499 in 2017 to 526 in 2018 (U.S. State Department, 2019). Over 70% of the cases resulted in jail sentences of over fivers years (State Department, 2019). Organized crime groups target homeless youths, children in foster care, children with substance abuse issues, and undocumented immigrants’ children (Vermeulen, 2010).

Further, Sex demand in the U.S. is higher to the extent that organized criminal gangs have to fill the demand with local supply. Around 300,000 American youths are in danger of encountering sex exploitation, and approximately 199,000 incidents happen within the country every year (U.S. State Department, 2019). Indeed, over 85% of victims are locally traded within the U.S. borders. And only 15% of the victims are brought to the country (Meshelemiah & Lynch, 2019).

In the U.S., there are many prosecuted cases involving organized crime in human trafficking. A study by Bouche (2017), found that a search of trafficking in human cases that have been indicted by the federal government from 2000 to 2015 show that they were approximately 862 cases encompassing 2096 offenders. The data show that there has been a steady rise in the number of trafficking in human cases prosecutions throughout that period. Nevertheless, the indictments rise is attributed primarily to trials of cases with less than three defendants. 22% of all federally prosecuted cases charged three or more co-perpetrators in the same case of human trafficking (Bouche, 2017). It does not mean that cases with one or two offenders do not comprise an organized crime; nonetheless, determining whether or not they are organized crime needs reasoning beyond the information put forward in the case.

On the one hand, the federal prosecutors prosecute one or two people in the majority of human trafficking cases, demanding more effort to determine whether they are operating like an organized crime group irrespective of whether or not the prosecutorial approach exposes it. On the other hand, of all the 2096 human trafficking offenders, 58% % are part of an organized criminal network (Bouche, 2017). Despite most cases being prosecuted with only one or two offenders, most defendants being prosecuted are co-perpetrators in a case with three or more offenders. They, therefore, can be viewed as operating as part of an organized crime group.

The available empirical data and crucial professional input on human trafficking as an organized crime suggest that many criminal groups specialize in specific services. For instance, of the federally prosecuted cases, 34% of the trials included minors and adult sex trafficking, 24% engaged children only sex trafficking, 18% engaged only in labor trafficking, and 17% were involved in adults’ commercial sex trafficking (Bouche, 2017). As such, there are many reasons for the trafficking of persons, including sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, forced labor, organ harvesting, and child begging. According to Vermeulen et al. (2010), there are various types of active players in trafficking in human markets, including organized criminal gangs, individual personal traffickers, friends, family, and trafficking victims. However, most human trafficking cases are linked to organized crime networks. Each level of the system entails a particular function of the operation typically undertaken by a specialist not involved in anything else than this role, such as recruitment, transportation, and exploitation.

Conclusion

Trafficking of persons is a problem in the United States since the demand is high. Thus, organized crime groups engage in the vice to make profits. Victims are recruited, transported, and exploited. Concerning the cases being prosecuted by the federal government, over 50% of them exhibit organized crime groups involved in the vice. Several cases involving three or more defendants have been prosecuted as an organized crime with the offender facing a jail term of at least five years. In this light, the paper concludes that most human trafficking cases inside and outside of the U.S. involve organized crime groups. Therefore, criminal justice responders such as judges, prosecutors, doctors, and schools should use it to address the trafficking of persons’ epidemic.

References

Bouche, V. (2017). An empirical analysis of the intersection of organized crime and human trafficking in the United States. National Criminal Justice Reference Service, Office of Justice Programs. https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/250955.pdf

Meshelemiah, J. C., & Lynch, R. E. (2019). Landmark policies in trafficking in the USA and trafficking in person ratings across the globe. The Cause and Consequence of Human Trafficking: Human Rights Violations. https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/humantrafficking/chapter/chapter-2-landmark-policies-in-trafficking-in-the-usa/

U.S. Department of State. (2019, November 27). 2019 trafficking in-person report. United States Department of State. https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-trafficking-in-persons-report/

Vermeulen, G., Van Damme, Y., & De Bondt, W. (2010). Perceived involvement of "organized crime" in human trafficking and smuggling. Revue Internationale de Droit Penal, 81(1), 247-273. https://www.cairn.info/revue-internationale-de-droit-penal-2010-1-page-247.htm