The Specificity of Criminogenic Factors, Perpetrators and Victims in the Case of Human Trafficking and Slavery

Abstract

Human trafficking is a growing phenomenon worldwide. The very high profitability and relatively low risks for the perpetrators contribute to the dangerousness and development of this specific type of crime. There are a number of criminogenic factors specific to human trafficking, some of them being classified as push factors and pull factors. The perpetrator can be part of both organized crime and smaller groups. Although possible, the hypothesis of a single perpetrator and the lack of participants is very rare, considering that we are talking about complex actions, with a transnational character and that are extending overtime. Very often the recruiter is a person the victim knows, respects or has feelings for. The victim is always a vulnerable person, vulnerability exploited by the perpetrator in very skillful ways, through promises and later through violence, threats and forcing the payment of a “debt”. Unlike other crimes where the distinction is clearer, the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim becomes unclear here, the perpetrator being perceived, paradoxically, as a factor of safety and comfort. The condition of the victim becomes so miserable, insecure and without escape that the perpetrator himself (who put and kept her in that situation) is perceived as the only hope for improving the situation. The same miserable condition of the victim contributes to her dehumanization in the eyes of the perpetrator and makes it impossible for him to feel pity or regret for his victim.