Paper Example on Organized Crime and Human Trafficking

Introduction

Human trafficking is not new, and it is traceable back to the early eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through activities like the slave trade. The Anti-slavery struggles witnessed the obliteration of slavery as a progressive way purifying capitalism. Though this was an act that was fought against and abolished, studies on migration and labor regimes reveal that there has been a continuity of slavery that has been taking a different form and a different name which is human trafficking. Unlike the previous form of human trafficking through slavery, human trafficking is prevalent today and an enigma because it works through a system of organized crime. There are criminally interlinked gangs around the world that traffic approximately 4 million people across the borders of different countries every year and earning around $6 annually (Russell, 2017). Of the 4 million trafficked every year, a substantial number represents victims of sex trafficking (Russell, 2017). Human trafficking is an abuse of human rights that focuses on exploiting others, and it is a manifestation of social injustice that demands a serious from the government of different nations. The paper will discuss the issue of human trafficking as a form of organized crime and explore how it is crippling the society today.

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Globalization and Organized Crime

The debate associated with the relationship between crime and the state goes a long way back, and it is dominated by the concerns of identifying the causes of the crime and improving the efficiency of the criminal justice system. Studies, however, tend to be skeptical to the distinct characteristics organized crime in perspective of intricacy and the scope of its activities (Sheinis, 2012). Organized crime is a multinational issue that cuts through the state, civil society, and the production systems making it not easily discernable (Sheinis, 2012). Therefore, the challenge of having a clear definition of organized crime is a case in point. The definition of organized crime has undergone significant changes in criminal justice. The first definition offered in 1988 identified organized crime as any enterprise that is engaging in continuous illegal activities that have as its chief purpose the generation of profits, regardless of the national boundaries (Sheinis, 2012). However, this definition did not include the requirement of an organized structure. Germany, thus, proposed a different definition and it recognized organized crime as any group of individuals that consciously and deliberately co-operate criminal activities over an identified period, apportioning duties among themselves and always utilizing contemporary infrastructure systems, with the primary goal of amassing significant profits as quickly as possible (Sheinis, 2012). The latter definition identifies planning as a critical dimension of organized crime, demanding collaboration, the division of labor, and the use of modern technologies. However, it leaves out the aspects of corruption and violence as the methods of operation. Therefore, Interpol developed a new definition of organized crime, and it is known as any group that has a corporate structure whose main aim is obtaining money through illegal activities, often thriving on fear and corruption (Sheinis, 2012). The various unlawful activities often prevalent in organized crime include human trafficking, transnational selling of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, and selling of nuclear materials among others. There are three aspects of organized crime which are significant in analyzing human trafficking, and these are the organized crime as a project delinquency, as a delinquency in organizations, and as a collective delinquency. Project crime is an artisan work where one learns skills through apprenticeship, crime in the organization is an occupation crime, and collective crime acquires a corporate structure or connected networks of crime gangs (Sheinis, 2012). Therefore, from the definitions and aspects, it is evident that organized crime is a matter of transnational concern that does not only affect a single nation but the whole world.

Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is a global issue that distresses various areas of the world. The U.S Department of State stated that there are roughly 700,000 individuals who are victims of human trafficking in transnational borders every year (Hepburn & Simon, 2010). Palermo Protocol defined human trafficking as the process of hiring, transferring, moving, concealing, or acceptance of any individual by fraudulent means like using force, threats, abductions or deceit, or the act of accepting payment in exchanging for transferring people for the for the sole purpose of dominating and controlling the victim or for the sake of exploitation (Hepburn & Simon, 2010). The term exploitation is a broad phrase that can mean an illegal form of prostitution, forced sex, involuntary labor, and any slavery. The Palermo Protocol highlights that when an individual uses any means of manipulation mentioned, then it permits any consent on the part of the victim immaterial (Hepburn & Simon, 2010). The primary issue commonly addressed in the context of human trafficking is sexual exploitation for monetary gains. There have been pieces of evidence, however, revealing that trafficking of children shows the diversity of motives, as these children are either sold as sex slaves or for labor (Barner, Okech & Camp, 2014). Nonetheless, extreme cases of human trafficking reveal that children trafficking may involve disabled children forced to join the beggars and street vendors' network, or for forceful removal of their organs for supplying the shortage in this market both locally and internationally (Hepburn & Simon, 2010). Such incidences reveal that the valuation of human trafficking is changing. The relationship between body and money has caused the shift from labor to sex, from sex to disability, and disabilities to body organs. It is essential to comprehend the differences between human trafficking and smuggling. Smuggling happens when an individual pays another person so that the recipient may facilitate safe passage of borders illegitimately. In this case, the relationship between the smuggler and the smuggled concludes when the payees gets to their chosen destination and after paying the smuggler the smuggling fee. Human trafficking, on the other hand, occurs when the smuggler sells the smuggled into a condition of servitude. The primary variance between human trafficking and smuggling lies in the freedom of choice. An individual can easily select and accept to be smuggled into a given nation, but when he or she is compulsory engaged into manipulation, and the liberty is taken away, then the person becomes a victim of human trafficking.

Push Factors

Even though the characterization of victims of human trafficking is relatively anecdotal and inclines to be based on generalities, there are occurrences where there are some exemptions thus triggering the emergence of several push factors for human trafficking. The push factors may involve economic conditions and personal qualities of the victim along with the characteristics if their families, communities in which they live, and peer networks.

Individual Characteristics

According to Kamala et al. (2001), a victim of human trafficking that falls within the category of personal characteristics is an individual who is already vulnerable and is lacking choices because of his or her personal conditions as contrasting to the underlying forces in their society. Such a person different from a passive victim drafted by the human trafficker because they may be in a reality where they are seeking an alternative to their current situation such as poverty and poor living conditions. Some of these victims are often uneducated, and thus they lack significant job prospects or are children who ran away from their families due to societal pressures. However, not everyone exposed to these conditions always becomes a victim of human trafficking. Studies have, however, revealed that poverty is a significant element of human trafficking because the human traffickers perceive this as an opportunity to lure vulnerable individuals into trafficking (Munro, 2012). In human trafficking cases involving a child, it may have been because the parent believes that this is a move that will offer the child better opportunities ahead or benefit the adult. Therefore, some parents often play a significant role in the trafficking of their children especially if they find themselves in a position where income is restrained and cannot support their children. The idea of sending their child away is often with hopes that the child will live in better condition than that which they offer.

Family and Social Networks

A significant number of research concerning human trafficking hypothesize that there is a concrete relationship between human trafficking and the nature of an individual's relationships. Most of the people from a divorced or single parent family are highly likely to be victims of human trafficking (Barner, Okech & Camp, 2014). Additionally, children and women running away from abusive families are potentially vulnerable to human trafficking. This stems from the idea that the death of one parent may lead to poverty, forcing the orphaned children to look for different sources of income. Such children become vulnerable because they lack someone to protect them. The other reason for this vulnerability originates from the idea that a stranger may easily come in disguise pretending that he or she knows one of the parents that live away and wants to take the child to the other parent (Munro, 2012). If the child is currently unhappy, he or she will quickly agree to this suggestion without realizing the consequences that lay ahead.

Community Characteristics

The community in which a person lives plays a crucial role in creating human trafficking opportunities. One of the characteristics is inadequate educational facilities. Though education has become a necessity across the world that offers a child a chance to be well educated and have sound reasoning, there are many communities especially in Asia and Africa where there are inadequate learning institutions (Russell, 2017). Poor and lack of education system deny children the chance to become aware of the dangers in their society, and they end up living ignorantly. However, in some cases, the children desire to go to school and experience better opportunities to the extent that if a stranger promise to grant these wishes to come true, the child will easily accept without realizing that they are being recruited to be trafficked. Additionally, lack of education opportunities creates a society that can easily be exploited by foreigners for sexual exploitation among other criminal activities (Russell, 2017). Other studies also suggest that patents from such environments often send their children away to further their education without the knowledge of the fate that is waiting for their children (Russell, 2017). Therefore, human traffickers take advantage of underdeveloped societies by promising them opportunities to lure them into their trap of human trafficking.

Pull Factors

Various studies argue that human trafficking is an excellent source of inexpensive labor, and it is because of this that human trafficking has remained to be a lucrative business for employers who are seeking to reduce their cost of labor. In the global perspective, these victims tend to perceive themselves as possessing a substandard immigration status. Besides, since these victims are from diverse cultural backgrounds concerning culture and language, they become more dependent on their trafficker or agent. Children, in this cas...