The UK Criminal Justice System
and Researching Human
Trafficking
ROSE BROAD
ESRC PHD STUDENT
SCHOOL OF LAW
UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
Human Trafficking in the UK
 Legislation
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
Trafficking for sexual exploitation – Sexual Offences Act 2003
Trafficking for labour exploitation – Asylum and Immigration Act
2004
 Existing research
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The extent of the problem
Victim focussed
Organised crime framework – SOCA
Lack of research focussed on those convicted for the offences, both
within the UK and internationally
 Problems with research


General problems
Specific problems with researching ht through the criminal justice
system
Research Focus
• Young, easily manipulated and
•
•
•
•
•
impressionable victim
Originates from relatively
unknown country to consumers
of media
Loss of human agency and
therefore powerless to resist
demands of ‘traffickers’
Parents good, honest and naive
Trafficking as an activity of
transnational organised crime
gangs
Traffickers are migrant men
posing a tangible threat of the
other
Research considerations
 Personal experience
 Criminal justice experience
 Researching human trafficking and gaps in current knowledge
 Discrepancies between policy level and practical level
 Development of research questions
 Perpetrator focussed
 Potential data sources
 Problems with researching human trafficking
Definitions
 Inaccessibility of victims and perpetrators
 Access to markets

Initial Indications 1: Human trafficking & the cjs
 Processing human trafficking cases in the cjs
 Reliance on the victim – consequent and subsequent support
 ‘Status’ of the victim
 Multi-agency co-operation and co-ordination
 International co-operation and co-ordination
 Implications of legislation
 Issues of consent and exploitation
 Chain of evidence – activity in the country of origin
 Availability of information for purposes of sentencing
Theoretical Framework and Data
 Social constructions
 “in defining social problems, members of society construct
theories about them and make causal inferences about
conditions they find offensive, troublesome or intolerable”
(Spector and Kitsuse, 1987, p.48).
 Official constructions
Prioritisation of trafficking for sexual exploitation
 Emphasis on quantification of the problem

 Data
 NOMS data - 71 people convicted of trafficking offences
 Interview data from police, CPS and voluntary sector
organisations
Initial Indications 2
 48 male (68%) and 23 (32%) female offenders
 Age
 Range 20-60
 Mean 33
 Convictions
 Offences relating to trafficking for sexual exploitation
(facilitation/arrangement & arrival/departure) 69
 Offences relating to other exploitation 2
 63% had a prior relationship with the victim
 Significant relationship between the source of the offender’s
income regarding legality and financial motivation
 72% of relevant cases were determined as being sexually
motivated
rosemary.broad@manchester.ac.uk