scholarly journals Organizing the Exploitation of Vulnerable People: A Qualitative Assessment of Human Trafficking

2021 ◽  
pp. 014920632110469
Author(s):  
Dean A. Shepherd ◽  
Vinit Parida ◽  
Trent Williams ◽  
Joakim Wincent
Keyword(s):  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Qualitative Assessment ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Vulnerable People ◽  
Nongovernment Organizations

Focusing on the organizing practices by which vulnerable individuals are exploited for their labor, we build a model that depicts how human traffickers systematically target impoverished girls and women and transform their autonomous objection into unquestioned compliance. Drawing from qualitative interviews with women forced into labor in the sex industry, human traffickers, brothel managers, and other sources (e.g., doctors, nongovernment organizations, and police officers fighting human trafficking), we inductively theorize that organizing of vulnerable individuals for human exploitation involves four interrelated practices—(1) deceptive recruiting of the vulnerable, (2) entrapping through isolation, (3) extinguishing alternatives by building barriers, and (4) converting the exploited into exploiters—that together erode and eventually eliminate workers’ autonomy. We conclude by discussing implications of our research for theory—specifically, the literature on human exploitation and loss of worker agency.

scholarly journals Policing roulette: Sex workers’ perception of encounters with police officers in the indoor and outdoor sector in England

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Klambauer
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Positive Experiences ◽  
Indoor And Outdoor

The regulation of sex work continues to be a divisive topic in England and internationally. Policies governing the policing of the sex industry in England are continually revised and debated, but are seldom grounded in empirical evidence of sex workers’ experiences. Based on 49 qualitative interviews with sex workers in England, this article finds that indoor sex workers had far more positive experiences with the police than outdoor sex workers. Despite this difference, both indoor and outdoor sex workers perceive their interactions with the police through the lens of their stigmatized status as sex workers and do not expect respectful treatment by the police. This article presents compelling evidence that an enforcement-led approach to policing creates insuperable barriers to the success of protective policing.

Policing mental illness: Police use of section 136 – Perspectives from police and mental-health nurses

2021 ◽  
pp. 002580242199336
Author(s):  
Meron Wondemaghen
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Health Care Policy ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Mental Health Crisis ◽  
Care Policy ◽  
Mental Health Nurses ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Pilot Scheme

Ideological shifts in mental health-care policy such as deinstitutionalisation have meant police have had to make decisions about the care of persons with a mental-health crisis. This study examines how police in five English counties respond to crisis calls when employing the powers afforded in section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983, and the effectiveness of the national Street Triage pilot scheme. Qualitative interviews with 30 police officers and mental-health nurses (MHN) were collected as data sources. The analysis shows that police have previously struggled with the significant number of crisis calls, whilst also finding mental-health services inadequately sourced, leading to some detentions in police cells as alternatives to health-based places of safety. However, the scheme has made positive changes in alleviating these issues when MHN are co-located with police, highlighting the need to strengthen their partnership by facilitating the sharing of information, responsibilities and decision making in order to ensure police cells continue to be avoided as alternative places of safety.

A neverending stream : human trafficking in Medieval Europe

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Christopher Paolella
Keyword(s):  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
Labor Demand ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Agricultural Labor ◽  
Long Distance

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] This study focuses on human trafficking patterns from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern Era. I argue that while slavery, as a means of compelling agricultural labor, disappeared across much of Western Europe by the middle of the twelfth century, the commercial sex industry grew. As slavery died out, the slave trade withered across Western Europe and gradually reoriented itself around the Mediterranean basin. Yet, human trafficking networks remained in Western Europe, if in attenuated form. They continued to supply a smaller, but no less persistent, labor demand that was now fueled by brothels and prostitution rings instead of agriculture. I argue further that the experiences of women link the sex trade and the slave trade, and that twelfth-century socio-economic development linked the earlier long-distance slave trade and the local and regional trafficking networks of the later Middle Ages.

Addressing tent cities: an example of police/non-profit collaboration

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 931-943
Author(s):  
Brittany Solensten ◽  
Dale Willits
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Non Profit Organizations ◽  
The City

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine a collaborative relationship between non-profit organizations and a Midwest police department to address issues of poverty and homelessness. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative interviews were conducted with five non-profit organization workers along with three police officers about social problems in the city between September and December of 2017. Findings The collaboration between non-profit organizations and law enforcement was largely helpful and successful in integrating residents of tent city into existing housing programs within the city, limiting future law enforcement calls addressing latent homelessness issues. Research limitations/implications This qualitative study was exploratory in nature and data were drawn from a single city. Although key stakeholders were interviewed, results are based on a small sample of police and non-profit social service workers. Also, individuals who lived in the tent city were not interviewed. Practical implications This study demonstrates how an approach in addressing tent cities through non-profit organizations and law enforcement collaboration are arguably effective in humanely moving residents of tent cities into housing for a long-term solution to homelessness. Originality/value There is limited research about tent cities especially the long-term effectiveness of dismantling them with various methods. This paper demonstrates one city’s approach to combat homelessness by dismantling a tent city, with a follow-up a few years later showing the effectiveness of a more humane approach, which can set an example for future cities also combating homelessness.

Policing Human Trafficking

2014 ◽  
Vol 653 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Farrell ◽  
Rebecca Pfeffer
Keyword(s):  
Federal Government ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Labor Trafficking ◽  
Local Police ◽  
Police Agencies ◽  
Perceptions Of Police ◽  
Using Data

Since 2000, the federal government and all fifty states have passed laws that criminalize the trafficking of persons for labor and commercial sex. To date, relatively few human trafficking cases have been identified, investigated, and prosecuted by local criminal justice authorities. Using data from case records and qualitative interviews with police, prosecutors, and victim service providers in twelve counties, we discuss the challenges local police face in identifying cases of human trafficking. We find that the culture of local police agencies and the perceptions of police officials about human trafficking do not support the identification of a broad range of human trafficking cases. Since local definitions of human trafficking are still evolving, police focus on sex trafficking of minors, which they perceive to be the most serious problem facing their communities. Reluctance to differentiate between vice and sex trafficking minimizes the problem of human trafficking and makes labor trafficking seem largely nonexistent.

scholarly journals "I realized that cops are just regular people" : changing youth attitudes toward the police through community policing programming.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth J. Leroux
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Community Policing ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
At Risk Youth ◽  
Subsequent Increase ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Remedial Intervention ◽  
Positive Contact ◽  
Youth Attitudes ◽  
Attitudes Toward The Police

Existing literature examining youth-police relations has consistently found that willingness to engage with the police is directly influenced by youth attitudes toward the police. Research findings suggest that increasing positive attitudes toward the police among adolescent populations will result in a subsequent increase in behaviours supportive of the police and law enforcement. The current study was a mixed-method evaluation (including survey data and qualitative interviews) of a community policing pilot program designed to increase positive contact between at-risk youth and police officers. The program was effective in positively changing youth attitudes toward the police. Interview results provide evidence of a direct mechanism for increasing trust and cooperation with the police. Survey results indicate that positive contact with the police can shift general attitudes toward the police and reduce perceptions of police discrimination. Further, survey findings support the program as a remedial intervention for youth with previous negative police contact.

scholarly journals Politiets brug af peberspray

2017 ◽  
Vol 103 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diverse: Garly Andersen & Vedel Kessing
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Health Risks ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Health Authority ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Danish Health ◽  
International Human ◽  
National Police ◽  
Comprehensive Study

English title: Police use of pepper sprayThis article discusses the use of pepper spray by police since its introduction to Denmark in 2008. Pepper spray contains pepper extract and has been assessed as capable of causing serious health risks by the Danish Health Authority. International human rights bodies have also expressed concerns about the use of pepper spray. Despite this, no comprehensive study or evaluation of the use of pepper spray has ever been conducted in Denmark. The article uses qualitative interviews with police officers and people exposed to pepper spray, as well as a review of reports from police officers about their use of pepper spray, in an examination of whether Danish rules and practices fully comply with human rights requirements and recommendations. The situations in which pepper spray is typically used are described with a focus on where it is used and who it is used against. The authors express concern about the use of pepper spray in a number of situations and argue that its authorization should be more restrictive and precisely regulated. Finally, the article describes a dialogue with the Danish National Police and the pending police act regulating pepper spray.

scholarly journals Stop traffick: Tackling demand for sexual services of trafficked women and girls

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 42-60
Author(s):  
Edward Keegan ◽  
Nusha Yonkova
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Commercial Sex ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Research ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Sexual Services

The research focuses on the characteristic, knowledge, and experiences of buyers of sex, focusing on human trafficking and exploitation. Recognising that those trafficked for sexual exploitation are often exploited in the commercial sex industry, the research adopts an understanding of ‘demand’ in the context of human trafficking which includes demand for women in prostitution. In order to study buyers, a mixture of quantitative and qualitative research tools was used, including online questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. Through these methods, a total of 763 buyers engaged with the research, across four EU Member States (Ireland, Finland, Bulgaria and Lithuania). A number of important findings emerged in the research. Buyers interviewed were seen to have a complex view of sellers. They overwhelmingly viewed the sale of sex as a transaction between two consenting adults, but also saw sellers as different from other women. At the same time, although up to a third of buyers had witnessed or suspected exploitation, a gap emerged with regard to those who had reported such fears. Finally, irrespective of their knowledge of human trafficking, or measures targeting those who knowingly purchase sex from trafficked victims, buyers rarely considered trafficking when purchasing sex.Keywords: human trafficking; sexual exploitation; prostitution; demand; buyers

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