Human Trafficking and Global Policy: A Study on the Casual Factors of Human Trafficking

Victims of human trafficking may be exploited for prostitution, sweatshop labor, domestic work, and as child soldiers for armed conflicts. Elements of human trafficking include deception, recruitment, transportation, coercion, exploitation, and forced labor. Statistics of individuals trafficked vary according to source, but it is estimated that 700,000 to 4 million individuals become new victims of human trafficking every year. The literature on policies pertaining to human trafficking demonstrates a lack of international collaboration and inattention to the causal factors associated with human trafficking. This studied hypothesized that a positive relationship exists between a country’s view on prostitution, tolerance of male sexual violence, and the rate of human trafficking within that country. The United States along with five of the least compliant countries and five of the most compliant countries in addressing human trafficking as evaluated in the US State Department’s 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report were examined for statistics on the research variables. Research did not find statistically significant relationships between variables, but does suggest that there is a link between countries’ placements within the tier system and tolerance of male sexual violence. This research demonstrates that there needs to be a deeper investigation into the causal factors of human trafficking before the goal of strengthening domestic and global policy can be addressed