phd thesis on human trafficking

UCL Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science

Human Trafficking, Smuggling and Exploitation Research Group

Our focus with this research group is on building a stronger and more nuanced evidence-base on human trafficking, smuggling and exploitation in their various forms (including what is increasingly referred to as ‘modern slavery’). These are broad umbrella terms that encompass a wide variety of complex and often contested areas. As such, we recognise the need for nuance and specificity in analyses and interventions. We are particularly interested in applied research that advances understanding and supports more informed, effective and ethical responses. We work across qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods research, depending on a particular project’s aims, scope and research questions. We have a strong track record for high-quality research that is rigorous, context-sensitive, and informed by solid domain understanding. We have worked with various organisations across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Our research has been influential in informing policy, practice and public debate, including through challenging myths and misinformation. The real-world impact of our research has been recognised through a world-leading impact case study in the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021). If you have any questions about this research group or would like to get in touch about a potential collaboration, please contact the group lead Dr Ella Cockbain ( [email protected] ).

We have a strong track record in securing funding for research in this space, with £2.2 million in research funding since 2013 for projects related to human trafficking and exploitation in various forms, including two major fellowships (a Wellcome Early Career Fellowship and an ESRC Future Research Leaders Fellowship). A selection of current and past projects is included below. In addition to these funded projects, we have also supported many students to secure competitive PhD scholarships.

Current Projects

• Examining the social, spatial and temporal systems behind human trafficking (Principal Investigator Dr Ella Cockbain, 2019-24) : Funded under the ESRC’s Transnational Organised Crime call, this £456,000 project investigates the structure of trafficking networks and spatial and temporal patterns in identified and suspected trafficking in the UK. The project takes a largely quantitative approach, closely informed by extensive domain knowledge and sensitive to contextual nuance. It draws extensively on sensitive data from the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and the Modern Slavery Helpline, kindly provided by project partners the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Unseen. A key focus for the grant is also about encouraging more nuanced, evidence-informed policy and practice in the anti-trafficking space. The team for this grant includes co-investigators Professor Kate Bowers, Dr Lisa Tompson, Dr Aiden Sidebottom and Dr Matt Ashby, and Research Assistant Dr Donia Khanegi (all UCL Security and Crime Science). More information on this project available here
• Precarious work and labour market abuses (co-Principal Investigators Dr Ella Cockbain and Dr Chris Pósch, 2022-24) : Co-funded by the ESRC and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), this £742,000 project was commissioned by the Director of Labour Market Enforcement to assess the scale and nature of labour market non-compliance in the UK. This mixed-methods study focuses specifically on the experiences of people in precarious work. The cornerstone is a large-scale representative survey, administered by Kantar as an associated study to the Understanding Society survey. Those results will inform complementary in-depth interviews with precarious workers, and focus groups with workers and employers. The team includes co-investigators Dr Sam Scott (University of Gloucestershire), Professor Ben Bradford (UCL Security and Crime Science) and Professor Virginia Mantouvalou (UCL Laws), and Research Assistant Jack Beadsworth (PhD candidate at UCL Laws), with support from leading NGO FLEX (Focus on Labour Exploitation). For more information, please see this blogpost or the project webpage .
• Wellcome Early Career Fellowship (Principal Investigator Dr Alys McAlpine, 2022-27) : This prestigious five year fellowship (£610,000) was awarded to Dr McAlpine to investigate ways of strengthening violence prevention through innovative and interdisciplinary intervention modelling. Taking human trafficking as the focus, this project brings together public health, crime science and complexity science to advance violence prevention research. The fellowship is co-hosted by the UCL Institute for Global Health (IGH) and UCL Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science. More information on the project is available here .
• Exploring policing practices in London in relation to sex work (Principal Investigator Dr Jyoti Belur, 2022-23) : Funded by the Metropolitan Police Service (£50,000 excl. VAT), this project was commissioned to improve understanding of how the MPS currently polices in relation to sex work, identifying tensions, challenges, areas of good and bad practice, and recommendations for change. The project involves in-depth interviews with both policing and non-policing stakeholders, including sex worker-led organisations. While we explicitly do not conceptualise sex work as ‘exploitation’ in and of itself, the overlap in policing of sex work and of human trafficking/’modern slavery’ brings this project into the research group’s scope. The research team includes co-investigator Dr Ella Cockbain, and Research Assistant Michele Bal (both UCL Security and Crime Science).

Past Projects

Examples of key past projects iclude:

• An ESRC Future Research Leaders Fellowship for research into human trafficking for labour exploitation (Principal Investigator Dr Ella Cockbain, Mentor Prof Kate Bowers, 2014-18). This £204,000 fellowship drew extensively on both qualitative and quantitative data from the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), provided by the National Crime Agency. It also included a systematic review of the evidence-base on labour trafficking.
• An initial analysis of precarious work in the UK , using data from the Understanding Society survey (Principal Investigator Dr Chris Pósch, 2019-20). Commissioned by the Director of Labour Market Enforcement (DLME) and funded by BEIS at £10,000 excl. VAT.
• A scoping study of how best to measure the scale and nature of labour market non-compliance in the UK (Principal Investigator Dr Ella Cockbain, 2018-19). Commissioned by the Director of Labour Market Enforcement (DLME) and funded by BEIS at £25,000 excl. VAT.
• A mixed-methods study into the sexual exploitation of boys and young men in the UK (Principal Investigator Dr Carol McNaughton-Nicholls, 2013-14). Funded by the Nuffield Foundation (£97,000), this study was a collaboration between NatCen Social Research, UCL and Barnardo’s. The UCL team (led by Dr Ella Cockbain) was responsible for a rapid evidence assessment and large-scale quantitative analysis of gendered differences in child sexual exploitation (CSE).

We have a wide range of researchers working in this space, with complementary skills and experience. Brief biographies are provided below.

• Dr Ella Cockbain (research group lead) : Ella is an Associate Professor in Security and Crime Science at UCL, and a visiting research fellow at Leiden University. Her research focuses primarily on human trafficking, child sexual exploitation, and labour market abuses. She is committed to nuanced, evidence-informed and context-sensitive responses to these complex social phenomena, and has done a lot of work around challenging misconceptions and misinformation. She is the former co-chair of the UK’s Modern Slavery Strategy and Implementation Group on prevention, and a current member. A previous ‘Future Research Leaders’ fellow of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Ella currently leads two major studies: one focusing on human trafficking (ESRC-funded), the other on labour market abuses (with co-lead Chris Pósch, funded by the ESRC and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy). She supervises numerous PhDs relating to human trafficking, smuggling and exploitation, and is leading the new teaching module on these topics.
• Dr Matt Ashby : Matt is a Lecturer in Crime Science. His research focuses on crime analysis, how crime concentrates in time and space, and how police can use data to solve crime problems. Matt’s research has been funded by organisations including the College of Policing and UK Home Office. Matt is a former police officer, has a PhD in Crime Science and is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He teaches crime mapping and data analysis, as well as training police practitioners on problem solving. Matt has worked on research with Barnardo’s into child sexual exploitation (funded by the Nuffield Foundation) and is currently a co-investigator on a major ESRC-funded grant on human trafficking, for which he leads on the analysis of data from the UK’s NRM (National Referral Mechanism) system.
• Dr Jyoti Belur : Jyoti is an Associate Professor in Policing at the UCL Department of Security and Crime Science. She qualified in Economics at the University of Mumbai, and worked there as a lecturer before serving as a senior officer in the Indian Police Service. She has undertaken research for the UK Home Office, College of Policing, ESRC and the Metropolitan Police Service, and as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow. She is the programme convenor for the BSc in Professional Policing. She is currently a member of the London Policing Ethics Panel and the HMICFRS Academic Reference Group. A qualitative research methods expert, Jyoti’s research interests include policing, police training and education, evaluations, and violence against women and children. She is currently supervising PhD and Masters research projects on the policing response to human trafficking, and leading research on London policing responses to sex work and trafficking of adults for sexual exploitation.
• Professor Ben Bradford : Ben is Professor of Global City Policing at UCL and Director of the Centre for Global City Policing. His research concentrates in particular on questions of trust, legitimacy, cooperation and compliance in justice settings. He also has interests in aspects of ‘street-level’ police practice, the use of new technologies in policing, the ethics of policing, and perhaps above all the effect of police activity on those who experience it. He has significant experience of the use of surveys and experimental methods in these areas of research, and has worked extensively with police organisations across the UK, as well as a wide range of other governmental and non-governmental actors. He is currently a co-investigator on a major grant assessing the scale and nature of labour-market non-compliance affecting precarious workers in the UK, commissioned by the Director of Labour Market Enforcement and building on earlier UCL-led projects in this space.

Professor Kate Bowers : Kate is the Head of Department of UCL Security and Crime Science and Director of the Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science. Kate’s research focuses on using data analytics and multi-disciplinary techniques to develop strategies for the prevention and detection of crime. Her particular interests lie in using analysis to predict crime patterns and developing the evidence base on what works to reduce crime. She has worked on several research projects related to human trafficking, including as a mentor on Ella Cockbain’s past ESRC Future Research Leaders Fellowship on labour trafficking, and as a co-investigator and the deputy director on the current ESRC grant on human trafficking.

Dr Donia Khanegi : Donia has an academic background in forensic and crime science, with research interests including organised crime, drug trafficking, drug policy, human trafficking, and behaviour change. Having recently completed her PhD on the negative societal impacts of the illicit drug trade and drug related behaviour change, Donia now works as a research fellow at the JDI. She is currently working on a major ESRC-funded human trafficking grant, applying social network analysis to investigate the structure and organisation of labour trafficking networks in the UK.

Dr Alys McAlpine : Alys is a  Wellcome Trust Fellow  (2022-2027) researching human trafficking prevention in the UK. Her background is in public health approaches to violence prevention. In 2021, she completed an ESRC-funded PhD at the  Gender, Violence and Health Center  (GVHC) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), in collaboration with  Freedom Fund . Her thesis applied social network analysis and agent-based modelling to explore social and intermediary networks facilitating labour migration in the Myanmar-Thailand corridor. Building on this work, she and colleagues received an ESRC methods innovation grant (2021-2022) to further explore the use of complex system modelling for violence prevention intervention development. Her current research is exploring how to integrate public health and crime science approaches to prevent human trafficking and respond to the mental health needs of trafficking survivors in the UK.

Dr Krisztián Pósch : Chris is a Lecturer in Crime Science at the Department of Security and Crime Science at UCL, and a visiting research fellow at the Department of Methodology at the London School of Economics. He has a background in psychology, research methods, and statistics. His methodological interest lies in employing innovative causal inference techniques and survey methods to address real-world problems. Much of his work focuses on public perception of the police and the impact of police practices and interventions. Currently, Chris is the work package leader of the quantitative branch of the TASERD project (‘An independent research programme on the causes of ethnic/racial disparities in the police use of Taser’) funded by the College of Policing, the lead evaluator for the ‘Awareness Academy’ programme funded by the Metropolitan Police, and the co-lead with Ella Cockbain of the ‘Assessment of the Scale and Nature of Labour Market Non-compliance in the UK’ funded by the ESRC and BEIS.

Dr Aiden Sidebottom : Aiden Sidebottom is an Associate Professor in the Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science at University College London. His main research interests are problem-oriented policing, crime analysis and crime prevention. Aiden is a m ember of the academic advisory board for  Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services  and a judge for the  Goldstein Award for excellence in problem-oriented policing.   Aiden  is a co-investigator on the current ESRC-funded project on human trafficking, where he leads on the engagement and impact strand. He has also worked extensively on the issue of missing children, which intersects with risks of exploitation.

Dr Lisa Tompson : Lisa is a Senior Lecturer at the New Zealand Institute for Security and Crime Science and an honorary Research Fellow at UCL’s Department of Security and Crime Science, where she used to work. Lisa’s research interests coalesce around generating evidence to help practitioners and policy-makers to prevent crime. Her research has been commissioned by a range of UK agencies, such as the Home Office, Environment Agency, Regional Government Offices and Local Authorities, as well as Police Forces and Local Authorities. Lisa takes a data science approach to problem-solving and has developed methods for analysing several emerging and hidden crime types. She is a co-investigator on the current ESRC-funded trafficking project, leading on analysis of data from the UK’s Modern Slavery Helpline.

There are numerous doctoral researchers working at UCL Security and Crime Science on PhD research into various aspects of human trafficking, smuggling, exploitation and/or neighbouring issues, in the UK and internationally. They are an important part of our vibrant research community and we have regular research group meetings (particular thanks go to Francesca Costi and David Suber for their important contributions to setting up this group and organising these sessions). Below you can find brief summaries of current doctoral research projects (contact details included with consent). Please do get in touch if you are interested in doing a PhD with us at UCL Security and Crime Science.

Alexandre Bish

PhD supervisors : Dr Ella Cockbain and Professor Her v é Borrion, both UCL Security and Crime Science

Working title : Modelling migrant-smuggling and trafficking dynamics on the Central Mediterranean route to Europe.

Research focus : My PhD research looks at scripting and modelling migrant smuggling dynamics on the central Mediterranean route to Europe with a focus on Libya and Niger. The main methods used include crime scripting, social network analysis and statistical analysis. Data is drawn from interviews with migrants, migrant smugglers, and key informant interviews. This research is funded by an EPSRC studentship (via the SECReT doctoral training centre).

Email: [email protected]

Kane Brooks

PhD supervisors : Dr Sanaz Zolghadriha and Professor Kate Bowers, both UCL Security and Crime Science

Working title : The role of social media intelligence in organised crime investigations involving child criminal exploitation.

Research focus : This project examines evidential opportunities innate to social media usage by young persons engaged in organised criminal conduct. The phenomenon of county line gangs has received significant media attention. However, the criminal investigation techniques deployed by practitioners have undergone less public scrutiny. Social media intelligence, also known as internet intelligence investigations (III), is the operational tactic used by law enforcement organisations to collect evidence from suspects and victims in a wide range of criminal investigations. This is a crucial intelligence development tool for organised crime investigations involving child criminal exploitation (CCE).

Jonathan Camilleri

PhD supervisors : Dr Ella Cockbain and Dr Jyoti Belur, both UCL Security and Crime Science 

Working title : Investigating agency, choice and exploitation in sex work in Malta through the perspective of sex working and non-sex working stakeholders. 

Research focus : This Malta-based project (i) probes local non-sex working stakeholders’ perceptions on agency, choice and exploitation in sex work, (ii) and examines these perceptions against primary data on how people in sex work navigate complex choices across a spectrum of agency and oppression, and within the context of individual, social, environmental and systemic factors. Primary data is collected via in-depth interviews with a range of people with lived experience of sex work in Malta, and with non-sex working stakeholders and practitioners. This research is funded by the Tertiary Education Scholarships Scheme (Malta).

Email :   [email protected]  

Francesca Costi

PhD supervisors : Professor Kate Bowers and Dr Sanaz Zolghadriha, both UCL Security and Crime Science

Working title : Studying crime during the pandemic: how technology has changed the human trafficking business structure in the UK.

Research focus : My PhD research looks at the changes in human trafficking during the Covid-19 pandemic and the adaptability of human trafficking illicit crime enterprise to the new era of digitalisation. This project is focused on studying and analysing the modus operandi that offenders have adopted in using adult website services (AWS) in sexual exploitation and trafficking reaching a new level of cyber-sophistication in their business model. This research is funded by a Dawes-UCL SECReT scholarship, and is part of the Dawes Centre for Future Crime.

Email : [email protected]

Clara Cotroneo

PhD supervisors : Professor Joachim Koops (Leiden University, Institute of Security and Global Affairs) and Dr Ella Cockbain (UCL Security and Crime Science)

Working title : Anti-trafficking policies and practices in Europe

Research focus : my research investigates and examines the EU approach to trafficking in human beings in times of crisis. In particular, I am interested in identifying inconsistencies in policy and field practices, with the objective of flagging up potential risks for victims.

Email : [email protected]

Aliai Eusebi

PhD supervisors : Dr Enrico Mariconti (UCL Security and Crime Science), Dr Marie Vasek (UCL Computer Science) and Dr Ella Cockbain (UCL Security and Crime Science).

Working title : Ethical machine learning for online safety 

Research focus : My PhD research is designed to operationalise the role of ethics in machine learning for online safety. The technical reality of machine learning is permeated by a constellation of ethical concerns related to transparency, fairness, and privacy, among others. I am interested in exploring actions to mitigate black-box, biased, and privacy violating AI when responding to socially-sensitive problems like  online child sexual exploitation. This research is funded by an ESRC studentship. 

Email :  [email protected]

Phirapat Mangkhalasiri

PhD supervisors : Dr Jyoti Belur and Dr Ella Cockbain, both UCL Security and Crime Science

Working title : Human Trafficking for Child Sex Trafficking and Child Labour Trafficking in Thailand: Challenges of Investigation and Prosecution in the Criminal Justice System

Research focus : This study aims to map out how child sex trafficking and child labour trafficking cases are currently being investigated and prosecuted in Thailand, to identify gaps and challenges in the successful investigation and subsequent prosecution of child sex trafficking and child labour trafficking cases, and to draw solutions from the literature and from practitioners to address some of these challenges. This study involves extracting data from police investigative case files, as well as interviews with police officers, prosecutors, judges, social welfare officers and NGOs. This research is funded by a scholarship from the Thai Government.

Email : [email protected]

Mohammad Saheed

Supervisors : Dr Jyoti Belur & Dr Ben Bradford

Working title : Assessing the response of the London Metropolitan Police & Counter Terrorism Policing towards Modern Slavery

Research focus : My research is a qualitative based study. The data will be collected by conducting semi-structured interviews of Police officers working within the Modern Slavery Team of the London Metropolitan Police & officers working within Counter Terrorism Policing. The study aims to identify perceptions and misperceptions related to victim characteristics and examine the impact of current training initiatives.

Valentina Stincanu

Supervisors : Dr Enrico Mariconti, Dr Ella Cockbain and Dr Alina Ristea, all UCL Security and Crime Science

Working title : Mixed Methods Research into the Development of Human Trafficking in Cyberspace – A Country-Specific Case Study Analysis  

Research focus : The PhD is a mixed methods analysis of human trafficking and anti-trafficking activity, with a particular interest in the trafficking-online nexus. It will involve a variety of complementary studies, including quantitative analysis of human trafficking statistical data, social media analysis and fieldwork around governmental and non-governmental organisations’ prevention campaigns, as well as social media analysis into advertisements and opportunities abroad. This research aims to examine the role of cyberspace in facilitating both human trafficking and anti-trafficking activity.

Email : valentina [email protected]  

David Leone Suber

Supervisors : Dr Ella Cockbain and Professor Ben Bradford, both UCL Security and Crime Science

Working title : Assessing the effects and models of border enforcement practices over smuggling and trafficking networks, and migrant vulnerability, in and to Europe.

Research focus : This research looks at how smuggling networks operate and transform, and why are they so resilient in the current environment of global migration flows and border enforcement strategies at Europe’s land borders. This study involves a systematic review of academic literature on border enforcement and human smuggling, as well as fieldwork from the Turkish-Syrian and Turkish-Iranian border, the Balkan route and the UK-France cross-Channel route, involving a multitude of research methods, including interviews with migrants and smugglers, data extraction from social media channels used for smuggling, and law enforcement data. This research is funded by an ESRC studentship.

Email : [email protected]

We have taught MSc students about these issues for many years now, and are delighted to now be offering a new specialist MSc module from 2023/24. Entitled ‘Human trafficking, smuggling and exploitation’, this module will provide MSc students cutting-edge research-led teaching and the ability to explore complex and contested issues in more depth. In addition, each year many Departmental MSc students choose to focus on topics related to human trafficking/smuggling/exploitation for their dissertation research projects. Our staff have supervised a wide variety of MSc projects in this field over the years, including the following examples from students whose MSc research was subsequently published in academic journals:

• Kristen Olver (MSc Countering Organised Crime and Terrorism, 2017/18) MSc research published as: Olver, K. and Cockbain, E. (2021), ‘ County lines’ criminal exploitation in the West Midlands, UK: professionals' perspectives on key legislation, organisational challenges and strengthening responses . Child Abuse Re view.
• Clara Galiano López ( MSc Countering Organised Crime and Terrorism, 2018/19). MSc research published as Galiano López, C., Hunter, J., Davies, T., & Sidebottom, A. (2021), Further evidence on the extent and time course of repeat missing incidents involving children: A research note .   The Police Journal .
• Ada Volodko (MSc Countering Organised Crime and Terrorism, 2017/18). MSc research published as: Volodko, A., Cockbain, E. and Kleinberg, B. (2020), “Spotting the signs” of trafficking recruitment online: exploring the characteristics of advertisements targeted at migrant job-seekers . Trends in Organized Crime.
• Alexander Babuta (MSc Crime Science, 2015/16), MSc research published as Babuta, A. and Sidebottom, A. (2018), Missing children: On the Extent, Patterns, and Correlates of Repeat Disappearances by Young People. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice .

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Charting the international legal framework applicable to modern day human trafficking

Horzum, Ekin Deniz (2017) Charting the international legal framework applicable to modern day human trafficking. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

This thesis argues that the international legal framework applicable to human trafficking is inadequate to address contemporary challenges. It also explains why and how human trafficking is a controversial phenomenon due to its complex nature, which is shaped by real-world incidences. Overall, this thesis stresses that human trafficking is real, and that survivors are human beings, who do matter. Drawing on international law, in order to capture the inadequacy of international legal framework, this thesis discusses the definition of human trafficking in comparison to the terms modern-day slavery and migrant smuggling, and considers obligations to protect, including identification and non- criminalisation of human trafficking victims. In the context of definitional analysis, this thesis not only looks at the international legal regulations pertaining to related phenomena, but also critically reviews international law to help address how human trafficking is defined and understood by the international community, including the media, scholars and international courts, alongside real-world incidents. The definition of human trafficking and obligations to protect are evidently interrelated; without defining human trafficking, identification of trafficking victims, as required by the obligations of protection, is not possible. In this respect, there are two main aspects in which international law does not adequately respond to human trafficking crimes: defining human trafficking and identifying its ‘victims’/survivors, as is explained in this thesis.

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Re-thinking Anti-Trafficking Law and Practice: European and Commonwealth Caribbean Perspectives

HAYNES, JASON,KENROY (2015) Re-thinking Anti-Trafficking Law and Practice: European and Commonwealth Caribbean Perspectives. Doctoral thesis, Durham University.

Human trafficking has increasingly been referred to in academic circles as ‘modern slavery’. It thrives in conditions of poverty, prejudice, inequality and discrimination, and has a deleterious impact on its victims. Its perpetrators come from all walks of life, and are actively involved in myriad forms of exploitation, which generate billions in profits on an annual basis. Since the passage of the Trafficking Protocol in 2001, there has been a marked increase in anti-trafficking policy and legislation at the international, regional and domestic levels. Notwithstanding this, however, the effectiveness of these measures remains a hotly contentious issue. It is against this backdrop that this thesis has been conceptualised; the overarching aim being to critically assess the existing law and practice on human trafficking at the European and Commonwealth Caribbean levels, and to explore and evaluate possibilities for an enhanced regulatory framework. To achieve this aim, several objectives are actively pursued over the course of nine chapters. The first objective involves a deconstruction and critical evaluation of the various 'hegemonic assumptions' that underlie the conventional criminal justice and human rights approaches to human trafficking. The second involves a critical examination of the existing law and practice on human trafficking at the European and Commonwealth Caribbean levels from a comparative socio-legal perspective. The main argument advanced is that, at present, there is a ‘disconnect’ between anti-trafficking law and practice, which has an adverse impact on the prevention of human trafficking, the prosecution of traffickers and the protection of trafficked victims. The final objective involves an exploration of a non-exhaustive list of possibilities for reform that are aimed at ameliorating this ‘disconnect’. The methodological approaches of the thesis to its research question involve doctrinal analyses, comparative analyses, as well as socio-legal analyses.

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Ph.d. student fights human trafficking.

Kelsey Morgan keeps her promise

Kelsey Morgan made a pledge 11 years ago and she’s been working on it ever since.

She promised Lilian of Uganda that she would fight to end human trafficking.

Before being trafficked, Lillian owned a small printing business in Kampala, Uganda and had been struggling to make ends meet. A woman approached her one day and offered her a job in China where she could make more money in a month than she saw in an entire year. When she arrived in China, her passport and visa were taken from her, she was brutally raped, and then forced into prostitution. By the time she was able to escape, she was suffering from severe PTSD and was pregnant. 

“I will never forget the car ride back to our aftercare shelter with Lillian,” Morgan recalls. “She was so grateful to be home and alive. As she shared her story with me, she emphasized how many girls were still suffering in sexual exploitation. ‘There are so many girls there. So so many,’ she cried when she told me. She asked me to help them and on that day in 2011, I promised her that I would do everything in my power to help. I committed myself to ending human trafficking and supporting the recovery and restoration of survivors.”

So, Morgan worked developing a model to combat trafficking until 2015, when the UCI alumna, who has an undergraduate degree in international studies, founded her own nonprofit organization, Willow international. And, in 2021, Willow and another organization with the same mission, 10ThousandWindows, teamed up to form EverFree . Over the years, the organizations have helped thousands of human trafficking survivors heal.

Frustrated with the lack of evidence on what programs were working to support recovery and keep survivors free, Morgan met with the dean of the School of Social Ecology with the hopes of partnering with graduate students a few years ago. Instead, she ended up joining the Ph.D. program in social ecology to develop an assessment tool to ensure survivors have access to the support and resources they need and to help programs measure their impact. With her doctorate in hand next year, Morgan aims to advance the field of international human rights. 

“Human trafficking is a pervasive, global issue impacting more than 40.3 million victims worldwide, with severe implications for its victims,” she stresses. “Globally, victims face significant mental and physical health complications and many experience revictimization. After exiting exploitation, the reintegration process is a long-term, complex process requiring myriad services. Policymakers, funders, and practitioners need sound research to analyze the impact of current victim service programs and to provide practical solutions for protection, prevention, and reintegration. Yet, very few evaluations have ever been conducted and the handful of evaluation tools that do exist do not include survivor input and have significant weaknesses and limitations.”

That’s why Morgan’s dissertation research aims to develop a validated and valuable tool that can guide outcome research, increase outcomes for survivors of human trafficking, and guide policymakers, funders, and practitioners. Her project consists of 3 phases: 

• adaptation of the Poverty Stoplight and validation of indicators for use within the anti-trafficking sector, 
• local adaptation of the validated tool for a pilot, and 
• pilot implementation and study. 

“I love my program at UCI and working with Richard Matthew and Angela Robinson,” says Morgan, who has a 2-and-a-half-year old daughter. “My desire is for every child around the world to be free, safe, and have the opportunity to thrive.” — Story by Mimi Ko Cruz / Video by Han Parker / Photo by Karen Tapia

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Dissertation on : HUMAN TRAFFICKING : A WORLD WIDE EPIDEMIC BRIEF IDEA OF THE TOPIC

Human Trafficking is the third most registered international crime worldwide after drug and weapon trafficking. Human trafficking is a booming international trade, making billions of dollars at the expense of millions of victims; who are robbed of their dignity and freedom. The key concept of human trafficking is ―exploitation of people against their free will. With the transnational operation called human trafficking, slavery remains alive and thriving. Trafficking in persons is a global issue. No country can claim that its borders are not affected in some way by trafficking. Trafficking in persons is the equivalent of modern-day slavery. Slavery is illegal throughout the world, it is a violation of human rights, and it is a crime. Reaching an idea of what exactly HUMAN TRAFICKING is demands a lot of perception. This is because every case and circumstances of human trafficking is exceptional in its own course. To substantiate this, in a general case of human trafficking it is seen that a person (who later on becomes the victim) is taken from their village or town or city to another place, based on false promises of employment in a promising sector (commonly domestic help or labourer) with a handsome pay. Now this pay is made to look more than what this person gets in his/her own region. Such lucrative deals are the base or the main reasons for trafficking to start off in a region in the first place. Nevertheless when they arrive at the destination, what welcomes them is a shock of reality. They either never get the job that they were promised in the first place. The pay that they were promised is below their imagination. And from thereon, the situation starts deteriorating. In many cases it is unacceptable. They are handed over to placement agencies where they are further sent to different houses as domestic help and to different industries for different kind of small scale labour jobs. Primarily if we see these circumstances is that of human smuggling. But since the recruiter makes misleading promises, this case is moulded into the shape of human trafficking. In transnational trafficking, it is commonly seen that those people who are taken away from their home country in the pretext of being given good jobs, their passports are taken away from them. And other such related personal documents are confiscated. There is no escape for these victims. They are held as hostages are drowned in huge debts which can cost them their lives, if they ever tried to escape. Therefore whilst giving a global perspective to Human Trafficking calls for understanding the concept of it as well as educating civilians as to how they must recognize and respond and tackle the traffickers and trafficking happening in their communities and periphery. Tracking down these intricate details of the dynamics of human trafficking is much more important than just haphazardly going forward with new laws and policies or whatsoever.

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Human trafficking has been a topic of discussion from long time. But in recent decades the number has been rising up and up. Dark agencies, terrorist groups, corrupt politicians often are seemed to linked up with this heinous crime. This assignment sheds some light on this topic.

Mirela Arqimandriti

This paper will examine the topic of Human Trafficking in Europe. Trafficking in persons is a serious crime and a grave violation of human rights (United Nations Office on Drug and Crime, UNDOC, 2014). The paper structure is made up of five parts and conclusions. Part one examines the definitions of human trafficking. Part two shows data about human trafficking while part three investigates what are the main drivers as to why human trafficking exists and persists. This chapter will consider factors of human trafficking existence such as poverty, low status of women in society, as well who the victims of human trafficking are. Part four will give as an overview of Human Trafficking in Europe and in particular in Albania, Montenegro and Serbia have into consideration Tier classification. In part fifth a specific emphasis will be given the way how state parties report to the Committee of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on Human Trafficking issue and how the CEDAW committee prepare the concluding observation on this topic. A sample on two countries Austria as Tier 1 and Serbia as Tier 2 is presented in the appendix 1 in the form of a table. The conclusion is that despite the campaigns to abolish slavery over two hundred years ago, slavery still exists in our society and today and it is called human trafficking. Human trafficking is an internationally organized crime which involves the trade of human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation, forced labour, domestic servitude or for the removal of organs. Unfortunately, is worldwide estimated that this industry is one of the most profitable one after drug trafficking.

Sociology Compass

Elena Agathangelou

Ryan Jacobs

Dr. Tanmay Sanyal

Human Trafficking is the third most registered international crime worldwide after drug and weapon trafficking. It is the major crime in India also. In India, poverty, lack of education, urbanization, low valuation of girls etc. are identified as the main causes of human trafficking. The government of India as well as West Bengal and several NGOs try to combat trafficking but it is unstoppable. Legal fight against human trafficking in India is inadequate. So, to fight out this social crime, growing awareness is extremely necessary. Side by side, literacy rate should also be increased as a preventive measure to this crime. This research article focuses on three bases i) Global Basis ii) Indian Basis and iii) Basis of West Bengal in recent time perspective.

Denis Katulume

This research paper is conducted purposely to assess the methods used by the government of Uganda in its efforts to combat human trafficking both at national and international level. The paper goes ahead to show the different tactics used by human traffickers in the process of human trafficking; defines the legal framework on human trafficking at regional, national and international level; the causes of human trafficking in Uganda and also the different forms of human trafficking. The last part of the research paper contains the recommendations to government and the general public in the fight against human trafficking then after the conclusion of the entire report.

Angeles Cano Linares

Zuraini Ab.hamid , Khairil Azmin Mokhtar

Slavery and forced labour have been accepted to be against humanity. These practices are expressly prohibited by the Federal Constitution in Malaysia. Although the prohibition of human trafficking is not expressly mentioned in the Constitution, it could be regarded as one of the most heinous crimes according to the letter, intent and spirit of the constitution. This is related to the fact that human trafficking is much associated with modern day slavery and therefore is against the ideology of the Malaysian nation and acceptable norms of the international community and Islamic law and Shariah values. The paper will explore the available international human rights and the laws governing human trafficking in Malaysia. The research is based on the current situation and cases of human trafficking in Malaysia.

Isabella Mercone

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Selected Topics in Migration Studies

• © 2023
• Frank D. Bean 0 ,
• Susan K Brown 1

Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine, USA

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• Encompasses different aspects of migration
• Covers multiple disciplinary perspectives and parts of the world
• Provides a global perspective on the field of Migration Studies

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About this book

This book provides a collection of key papers about migration, focusing on multiple aspects of international and internal migration in various times and places. Because migration has been such an important part of global peopling, the book contains synopses of major geographic movements from ancient and early history as well as the present. It includes material from anthropology, archaeology, criminology, demography, economics, ethnic studies, geography, health sciences, history, law, public policy, political science, psychology, and sociology. By providing a treatment of migration that is multifaceted, comparative, and multi-disciplinary, it offers not only a basis for conceptualizing broad features of migration and their changes, but also one for discerning the formal and informal policy auspices that have influenced migration. The book thus constitutes a significant resource for students, teachers, practitioners, scholars, and researchers interested in or working on aspectsof migration in any field. It should be particularly useful for people seeking information and knowledge about migration from fields other than their own.

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Theology, Migration, and the Homecoming

An Introduction to Migration Studies: The Rise and Coming of Age of a Research Field

Introduction: Contemporary Insights on Migration and Population Distribution

• Migration and population movement
• Migration and immigration
• Migration in Africa
• Asylum and Human Rights
• Migration and Language
• Gender and migration
• Asylum and Trauma
• Asylum, Refugees and Human Trafficking
• Citizenship and Immigration
• Migration and Diversity
• Migration Policy
• Population Distribution
• Labor Migration and Migrant Workers
• Citizenship and Naturalization
• Methods for Estimating Internal Migration
• Forced migration
• Registration Data to Measure Migration in the EU
• Island Migration
• High-Skilled Migration

Table of contents (56 chapters)

Front matter, african island migration: i. walker, southern african migration: e. campbell.

• Eugene K. Campbell

Trans-Saharan Slave Trade: M. Kehinde

• Michael Kehinde

Western African Migration: P. Adebusoye

• Paulina Makinwa Adebusoye

Asylum and Human Rights: T. Southerden

• Thomas Southerden

Asylum and Language Analysis: P. Patrick

• Peter L. Patrick

Gender and Asylum: A. Shuman, C. Bohmer

• Amy Shuman, Carol Bohmer

Medical and Psychological Evidence of Trauma in Asylum Cases: S. Berthold

• S. Megan Berthold

Refugee Roulette: J. Ramji-Nogales, P. Schrag, A. Schoenholtz

• Jaya Ramji-Nogales, Philip G. Schrag, Andrew I. Schoenholtz

Relationship Between Asylum and Trafficking: J. Gauci

• Jean-Pierre Gauci

Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Asylum: R. Lewis

• Rachel Lewis

Contexts of Migration

Changing contexts: from multiculturalism to transnationalism s. castles.

• Stephen Castles

Citizenship in the Context of Immigration – Comparative Perspectives: T. Faist, K. Schmidt-Verkerk, C. Ulbricht

• Thomas Faist, Kerstin Schmidt, Christian Ulbricht

Group-specific Effects of Contexts of Migration: S. Model

• Suzanne Model

Migration, Diversity, and the Welfare State: K. Banting

• Keith G. Banting

Role of Contexts and Political Culture in Political Incorporation: A Case Study of Chilean Migration to Toronto: P. Landolt

• Patricia Landolt

Human Trafficking

Child trafficking: w. adelson.

• Wendi Adelson

Human Trafficking: F. Sarrica

• Fabrizio Sarrica

Human Trafficking Policy Responses: K. Sreeharsha

• Kavitha Sreeharsha

Editors and Affiliations

Frank D. Bean, Susan K Brown

About the editors

Dr. Brown is a tenured Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. She is a sociologist/demographer whose areas of specialization are immigration, residential segregation and urban sociology. As a result of conducting research in these areas, she has also developed considerable expertise in geography and urban policy. In addition to her academic and research specializations, she also brings more than fifteen years of journalistic experience as a reporter and editor starting when she was on the staff of the Harvard Crimson and including nearly twelve years with the St. Louis-Post Dispatch.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : Selected Topics in Migration Studies

Editors : Frank D. Bean, Susan K Brown

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19631-7

Publisher : Springer Cham

eBook Packages : Social Sciences , Social Sciences (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

Hardcover ISBN : 978-3-031-19630-0 Published: 02 March 2023

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-031-19633-1 Published: 03 March 2024

eBook ISBN : 978-3-031-19631-7 Published: 01 March 2023

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XI, 342

Number of Illustrations : 1 b/w illustrations

Topics : Migration , Population Economics , Human Geography , Human Geography

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