U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Mapping the Inhuman Trade: Preliminary Findings of the Database on Trafficking in Human Beings

NCJ Number
207374
Journal
Forum on Crime and Society Volume: 3 Issue: 1 & 2 Dated: December 2003 Pages: 81-103
Author(s)
Kristiina Kangaspunta
Date Published
December 2003
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the database of the Global Programme Against Trafficking in Human Beings of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to present information from various countries on such trafficking, along with data on the characteristics of traffickers and their victims as well as trafficking routes.
Abstract
The United Nations Protocol Against Trafficking in Persons identifies three elements of such trafficking: the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons; the use of improper means, such as force, abduction, fraud, or deception; and the objective of exploitation, such as sexual exploitation, forced labor, servitude, or slavery. The database on trafficking in humans developed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has obtained trafficking information from official government reports, information disseminated by intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, research reports, conference material, and media reports. Data on countries of origin, transit, and destination indicate that Africa, Asia, and the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have been the main regions for recruiting trafficking victims. Developed countries have been the destination countries where victims have been exploited for profit. Central and Eastern European countries have been transit countries. Eighty-three percent of the cases in the database involved female victims, and 48 percent involved children; only 4 percent had male victims. Any one case could include combinations of victims. Offenders were most often from the Russian Federation, Nigeria, and Ukraine. 11 figures, 14 references, and appended examples of data collections on trafficking in humans