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The market in trafficked children bought and sold for sexual exploitation is one of the most inhumane transnational crimes that appear to have been facilitated by globalisation and its many effects, such as growing disparity in wealth between North and South. Child sex trafficking (CST) in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) is an extremely complex problem, deeply rooted in historical injustice, gender inequality and poverty. In addition to the complexities of the child trafficking issue, the organisations that seek to combat CST are themselves not always a united force and display their own internal and inter-agency complexities. The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the key complexities of responding to CST in Thailand and Cambodia.

The methodology for this research consisted of 22 semi-structured interviews with anti-child trafficking experts in Thailand and Cambodia, in addition to field observations in various child sex tourism hubs in Southeast Asia.

The complexities of the CST problem in Thailand and Cambodia are discussed as well as analysis of the internal and inter-agency barriers faced by the organisations that seek to combat CST. The research finds that, due to limitations in donor funding, anti-trafficking organisations face difficulties in effectively responding to all aspects of the CST problem. The recommendation is made for improved advocacy networking against this transnational crime. Recent success stories are highlighted.

The research for this paper involved semi-structured interviews with staff from non-government organisations and United Nations agencies, but not with government representatives. The lack of available data from Thai and Cambodian government representatives limits the ability of the researcher to evaluate the effectiveness of anti-trafficking organisations’ response to the child trafficking issue. Also lacking is the voice of child trafficking victims, the key beneficiaries of anti-trafficking organisations’ aid and advocacy efforts.

There is an abundance of literature on the subject of CST but a dearth in scholarly literature on the subject of advocacy and policy responses to CST in Southeast Asia. This paper provides a valuable contribution the knowledge base on child trafficking by analysing both the complexities of the CST issue and the complexities, for anti-trafficking organisations, of effectively combating CST in the GMS.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the police officer understandings of human trafficking and their awareness of relevant anti-trafficking policy and legislation, and identify whether this awareness was confined to particular officer demographics.

The study utilised a mixed-methods design, drawing on data from an online survey of 87 police officers from an Australian state police agency.

Thematic analysis identified that, while the majority of participants held broad understandings of human trafficking consistent with the United Nations definition, a substantial number conflated the phenomenon with people smuggling. The majority of participants were also unaware of national anti-trafficking legislation and agency anti-trafficking policy, with constables significantly the least likely to be aware of these measures. Most of these officers, however, indicated they would take some form of case referral action in relation to a suspected case of trafficking, albeit across the sample these responses were inconsistent.

The findings underline the need for relevant training and concrete anti-trafficking policy within frontline agencies, which can facilitate the identification, investigation and referral of human trafficking cases.

While the Australian Federal Government’s response to human trafficking has been subject to ample critique, less attention has been paid to the supporting role played by state-level agencies and their frontline personnel. This paper demonstrates the practical barriers present within such agencies, identifying means to build a more effective response which may bolster the national anti-trafficking measures.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a transformative service-based model, which analyzes tripartite service interaction logics among trafficking survivors, anti-trafficking agencies and the community during a process of actively- and passively transformative exchanges. It aims to help researchers and practitioners better understand services that facilitate reintegration of trafficking survivors into society.

Using theory development from sociological and liminality schools of thought, this paper explores a variety of coping strategies that anti-trafficking agencies can offer human-trafficking survivors in post-trafficking service settings.

A novel transformative service-based framework extends current conceptualizations of social and service exchange in a tripartite interaction setting. Anti-trafficking agencies can create a supportive community environment to offer trafficking survivors passively transformative services and to cultivate and nurture their coping skills towards reintegration into society.

Important implications for transformative service-based theory and practice of serving trafficking survivors are discussed. In addition, the study limitations are addressed.

The transformative service-based model analyzes tripartite service interaction logics during a process of exchanges between trafficking survivors, anti-trafficking agency and community ecosystem to achieve meaningful post-trafficking reintegration into society.

Using the transformative service model, community ties need to be re-established for trafficking survivors to achieve successful reintegration into society, and for communities to heal and restore human dignity.

This research proposes a new framework for actively- and passively-transformative service logic for anti-trafficking agencies to offer assistance to trafficking survivors, based on sociological and liminality schools of thought.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the social understanding of stigma as a societal and cultural barrier in the life of a survivor of human trafficking. The findings illustrate several ways where stigma is internal, interpersonal and societal and impacts survivors’ lives, including the care they receive.

This study used qualitative methods. Data collection occurred during 2018 with efforts such as an online survey (n = 45), focus groups (two focus groups of seven participants each) and phone interviews (n = 6). This study used thematic analysis of qualitative data.

The research team found that a multiplicity of stigma occurred for the survivors of human trafficking, where stigma occurred across three levels from micro to meso to macro contexts. Using interpretive analysis, the researchers conceptualized how stigma is not singular; rather, it comprises the following: bias in access to care; barriers of shaming, shunning and othering; misidentification and mislabeling; multiple levels of furthering how survivors are deeply misunderstood and a culture of mistrust.

While this study was conducted in a single US city, it provides an opportunity to create dialogue and appeal for more research that will contend with a lens of seeing a multiplicity of stigma regardless of the political climate of the context. It was a challenge to recruit survivors to participate in the study. However, survivor voices are present in this study and the impetus of the study’s focus was informed by survivors themselves. Finally, this study is informed by the perspectives of researchers who are not survivors; moreover, collaborating with survivor researchers at the local level was impossible because there were no known survivor researchers available to the team.

There are clinical responses to the narratives of stigma that impact survivors’ lives, but anti-trafficking response must move beyond individualized expectations to include macro responses that diminish multiple stigmas. The multiplicity in stigmas has meant that, in practice, survivors are invisible at all levels of response from micro, meso to macro contexts. Therefore, this study offers recommendations for how anti-trafficking responders may move beyond a culture of stigma towards a response that addresses how stigma occurs in micro, meso and macro contexts.

The social implications of examining stigma as a multiplicity is central to addressing how stigma continues to be an unresolved issue in anti-trafficking response. Advancing the dynamic needs of survivors both in policy and practice necessitates responding to the multiple and overlapping forms of stigma they face in enduring and exiting exploitative conditions, accessing services and integrating back into the community.

This study offers original analysis of how stigma manifested for the survivors of human trafficking. Building on this dynamic genealogy of scholarship on stigma, this study offers a theory to conceptualize how survivors of human trafficking experience stigma: a multiplicity of stigma. A multiplicity of stigma extends existing research on stigma and human trafficking as occurring across three levels from micro, meso to macro contexts and creating a system of oppression. Stigma cannot be reduced to a singular form; therefore, this study argues that survivors cannot be understood as experiencing a singular form of stigma.

The purpose of the article is to analyse the Italian anti-trafficking system by examining its effectiveness in the protection of trafficked people.

The article examines the protection of trafficked people in Italy, focusing in particular on the implementation of Article 18 of the “Consolidated Act of Measures Governing Immigration and Norms on the Condition of Foreign Citizens” (Legislative Decree n. 286/1998), which provides victims with protection and a residence permit independent of their cooperation with the competent authorities in criminal proceedings against offenders.

The article demonstrates that, though the Italian legal framework on trafficking is considered one of the most innovative and advanced, especially in the area of victim protection, a number of inadequacies in its implementation undermine the effectiveness of the measures aimed at protecting trafficked people. These concern the absence of a clear and appropriate victim identification procedure; the lack of adequate training in trafficking among professionals; the incomplete application of a procedure called the “social path” for the issuing of the residence permit; the narrow interpretation by competent authorities of the requirements for the residence permit granted to victims; the long lapse of time for the issuing of the residence permit; difficulties in the conversion of the residency permit granted to victims into a work permit; and the scarcity of economic resources.

The article contributes to scientific and political debates on the effectiveness of anti-trafficking policies.

Human trafficking (HT) is a local, national and international problem with a range of human rights, public health and policy implications. Victims of HT face atrocious abuses that negatively impact their health outcomes. When a state lacks protective laws, such as Safe Harbor laws, victims of HT tend to be seen as criminals. This paper aims to highlight the legal present gaps within Missouri’s anti-trafficking legislation and delineates recommendations for the legal protection of victims of HT and betterment of services needed for their reintegration and healing.

This case-study is based on a policy analysis of current Missouri’s HT laws. This analysis was conducted through examining current rankings systems created by nationally and internationally recognized non-governmental organizations as well as governmental reports. Additionally, other state’s best practice and law passage of Safe Harbor legislations were examined. The recommendations were based on human rights and public health frameworks.

Missouri is a state that has yet to upgrade its laws lately to reflect Safe Harbor laws. Constant upgrades and evaluations of current efforts are necessary to protect and address HT at the state and local levels. Public health and human rights principles can assist in the upgrading of current laws as well as other states’ best-practice and integration of protective legislation and diversion programs to both youth and adult victims of HT.

Laws are continually being updated at the state level; therefore, there might be some upgrades that have taken place after the analysis of this case study was conducted. Also, the findings and recommendations of this case study are limited to countries that are similar to the USA in terms of the state-level autonomy to pass laws independently from federal law.

If Safe Harbor laws are well designed, they have greater potential to protect, support and assist victims of HT in their process from victimization into survivorship as well as to paving the way for societal reintegration. The creation and enforcement of Safe Harbor laws is a way to ensure the decriminalization process. Additionally, this legal protection also ensures that the universal human rights of victims are protected. Consequently, these legal processes and updates could assist in creating healthier communities in the long run in the USA and around the world.

From a public health and human rights perspectives, communities in the USA and around the world cannot provide complete protection to victims of HT until their anti-trafficking laws reflect Safe Harbor laws.

This case study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is a unique analysis that dismantles the discrepancies of Missouri’s current HT laws. This work is valuable to those who create policies at the state level and advocate for the protection of victims and anti-trafficking efforts.

This paper aims to establish the existence and enforceability of State responsibility for human trafficking, making special reference to children and Malta. Given that trafficking has been described by the European Court of Human Rights as a form of modern slavery, the paper's hypothesis is that the State has a responsibility to ensure that all possible steps are taken to combat the practice and to protect possible victims.

The paper is divided into three parts: the first part makes a concise review of the international criteria applied in response to human trafficking, the second part examines the pertaining situation relating to human trafficking in Malta and the final part makes an analysis of the recent judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in Rantsev v. Cyprus and Russia.

The paper demonstrates that the affirmation of State responsibility to combat human trafficking is enforceable, with reference to the Rantsev judgement which clearly attributes a positive obligation on States under Article 4. It also highlights the difficulty in tracing judgments related to human trafficking as evidenced by the review of the Maltese position, although this appears to be an issue common to a number of States which indiscriminately put together all cases for trafficking (drug trafficking and human trafficking).

The paper only uses first‐hand sources and Maltese judgements are supplemented with original research into cases as reported in the press. The third part of the work analyses the recent judgement of the European Court of Human Rights in Rantsev v. Cyprus and Russia (2010), speculating as to its impact on all member states of the Council of Europe, including Malta.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of the antimoney laundering measures in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in response to its commitments to the Financial Action Task Force and treaties in combatting money laundering.

To explore the effectiveness of the Saudi antimoney laundering measures, this research’s data have been obtained by a qualitative approach that uses a combination of primary and secondary resources. It relies on analyzing Anti-Money Laundering Law (AML) and the process of money laundering detection in Saudi Arabia in relation to three cases from Saudi courts supported by journal articles, academic books and reliable websites.

This study concludes that the Saudi AML has been efficient and effective in the battle against money laundering. This study finds that there is close coordination and collaboration between financial institutions, banks and governmental agencies in Saudi Arabia to combat this phenomenon. This study also concludes that the AML is compatible with other criminal laws such as the Anti-Bribery Law, the Anti Trafficking in Person Law and the Anti-Drug Trafficking Law.

This paper relies mainly on publicly available information regarding the detection of money laundering schemes and the confiscation of proceeds of crime in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a main source of information. There data available on the money laundering cases in the Saudi prosecution and criminal courts were limited due to the lack of public disclosure of such cases because of their sensitivity. This was made up for by using reliable sources in which some cases were reported.

This paper underlines the efficient aspects of the current AML that contribute to reduction of money laundering in Saudi Arabia. This paper emphasizes on the importance of the structure of collaboration between regulatory, financial and law officers to implement the rule of law and achieve justice.

The purpose of this study was to examine the support available from identification through to recovery for survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking in the United Kingdom (UK) following the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act in 2015.

Twenty-nine semi-structured individual and group interviews were conducted with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) providing direct support to survivors and law enforcement engaged in initial identification, rescue and support.

Thematic analysis identified that survivors' experiences of support and negotiation of state processes is challenging, requiring lengthy periods of waiting. This experience is often compounded by variations in knowledge of processes and systems by front line staff, resulting in negative impacts on outcomes for survivors.

The small number of research participants could be regarded as a limitation but is common in qualitative, exploratory studies. A larger study should be conducted to test these initial findings. The implications propose a revision of policy especially for asylum-seeking survivors.

The study was conducted two years after the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act, 2015, during a period in which gaps in processes and support for survivors were beginning to emerge. This study offers a timely assessment of these gaps and argues for a review of policy and its implementation.

Although some research has been done with entertainment workers in KTV bars, little has been done to gain a qualitative understanding of the vulnerabilities of masseuse women. This is due to a prevalent focus on girls under 18 years, thereby excluding most masseuses. The purpose of this paper is to understand the reality of life as perceived by Phnom Penh’s female masseuses in the lower-priced massage parlors is therefore largely unknown.

In total, 98 female participants completed an interview answering both open and closed questions concerning relationships, stigma and discrimination and personal sexual abuse among other topics.

This study finds that many women working in the massage parlor industry are vulnerable to various threats, including sexual exploitation and abuse. Dependency structures within the massage parlor as well as with their families seem to play a key role in the life situations that can be positive as well as negative, and in some cases both.

This is not a prevalence study so all figures are tentative. The women were deeply concerned that they might be stigmatized further so they may not have revealed the extent of their challenges.

More research and work with this vulnerable group is vital. They should be recognized as a vulnerable group who have rights.

The findings provide a baseline evaluation of the vulnerable conditions of the massage industry for women in Cambodia. Specifically, that stigma, discrimination, physical and sexual abuse, as well as a lack of access to education are all vulnerabilities not commonly covered, especially with adult women working in the entertainment industry.

Understanding the reality of life as perceived by Phnom Penh’s female masseuses in the lower-priced massage parlors is therefore largely unknown so a study of this kind is necessary.