SPP Professor Works to Eradicate Modern Slave Trade

by Jocelyn Rappaport

Human trafficking is a growing aspect of transnational crime, rising with the increase in regional conflicts, natural disasters, lack of employment in developing countries, international mobility, trade, and communications. According to School of Public Polciy Professor Louise Shelley, human trafficking is the most lucrative of organized crime activity after drug and arms trade.

A leading expert on transnational crime and terrorism with a particular focus on the former Soviet Union, Shelley is presently completing a book for Cambridge University Press entitled  Human Trafficking: A Global Perspective in which she examines the  consequences of trafficking on social, political, and economic life internationally. Shelley is the founder and director of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) that moved with her from American University to Mason. TraCCC analyzes effective antitrafficking policies, hosts fora on the subject, and develops academic courses on trafficking and a range of transnational crime, corruption issues at SPP.

Shelley notes that human trafficking affects the security of a nation because of the multiple actors who profit, such as organized crime, terrorists as well as the corrupt officials who facilitate this trade. The phenomenon has grown more global as traffickers move victims across continents where there is demand for cheap labor, sexual services, or children. TraCCC has found that trafficking can be a two-way street. For example, women are trafficked out of Russia for sexual exploitation, and men from Central Asia are moved into Russia for labor exploitation.

Human trafficking is not just an international problem. Shelley indicates that it is a problem here at home. Although most victims in the United States are exploited for labor, an official U.S. government estimate suggests that thousand of foreigners annually are trafficked into the United States for sexual exploitation. The largest number of our victims of sexual exploitation, however,  are teenage American youth.

Shelley recommends more attention be paid to the business of human trafficking. She analyzes the various business models different regions use. Some are trade models requiring training to target maximum profit, while others focus on volume.

Shelley says, “Much more can be accomplished if we analyze the traffickers, their modes of operation, and the ways in which their proceeds are used and laundered.” She goes on to say that while the legislative focus is on the victim, more attention can be devoted to dismantling the criminal network. She says that much more education regarding this phenomenon is needed.