The financial aspects of human trafficking: A financial assessment framework
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1748895820981613 |
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895820981613
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2022, Vol. 22(4) 581 –600
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1748895820981613
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The financial aspects
of human trafficking:
A financial assessment
framework
Rose Broad
Nicholas Lord
The University of Manchester, UK
Charlotte Duncan
Police Analyst, UK
Abstract
This article presents a framework for analysing, assessing and systematising the varying
financial aspects of human trafficking. We analysed 378 human trafficking cases, scrutinising
police case file data to determine patterns and scenarios of associated financial aspects and
transactions and corroborating these with police analysts. Our contributions are threefold: (1)
to demonstrate the feasibility of analysing the before, during and after financial components
of human trafficking while recognising obstacles to uncovering their entirety; (2) to reaffirm
that while most known trafficking cases are not substantially profitable in financial terms, they
involve varied operational and infrastructural financial costs; and (3) to argue that although
financial institutions, such as banks, can be central to the dialogue with enforcement, the
ability of many trafficking enterprises to operate outside formal financial institutions calls for
a consideration of the interfaces and overlaps of the finances of trafficking within and outside
the banking system.
Keywords
Criminal enterprise, finances of crime, human trafficking, modern slavery, money laundering
Corresponding author:
Rose Broad, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
Email: rosemary.broad@manchester.ac.uk
981613CRJ0010.1177/1748895820981613Criminology & Criminal JusticeBroad et al.
research-article2020
Article
582 Criminology & Criminal Justice 22(4)
Introduction
This article presents a framework for analysing and systematising the financial aspects
of human trafficking, seeking to better understand the finances required for, and gener-
ated from, such criminal enterprise. An array of financial aspects can be associated with
the processes of human trafficking, but these dynamics have not been widely conceptu-
alised or empirically investigated. While policy and social scientific attention has focused
on human trafficking1 since the mid-1990s, only since the late 2010s have there been
calls for law enforcement and financial institutions to work more closely to understand
how traffickers control finances, to expand the knowledge and understanding of the
financial elements of associated activities and to understand where intervention is pos-
sible (Europol, 2015; Keatinge and Barry, 2017).
The focus on financial aspects of trafficking has increased since the (tentative) intro-
duction of corporate responsibility into the human trafficking discourse through section
54 of the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 (see Lord and Broad, 2018 for a discussion of
developments in relation to corporate responsibility) and also through identification of
problems that exist across multiple jurisdictions with investigation and prosecution pro-
cesses. Research has indicated a consistent and problematic evidential burden on victim
testimony prompting states to seek additional sources of corroborative evidence for suc-
cessful prosecutions including evidence of linked financial transactions (Broad and
Muraszkiewicz, 2019; Farrell et al., 2016; HMICFRS, 2017; Winterdyk, 2017).
This article is structured as follows. First, we review the case for foregrounding the
money component of trafficking enterprises to better understand the associated financial
transactions and equip anti-trafficking responses. A systematic financial assessment
framework has the potential to guide both empirical investigation and enforcement/regu-
latory interventions, and while the significance of the finances of trafficking enterprise
has now been recognised, there has been little attempt to shape what this approach should
look like. Second, we outline the data sources and analytical techniques that inform the
development of our financial assessment framework, detailing our analysis of police
case file data, internal police documents on policy and strategy, and interviews from
enforcement actors working in the domain of human trafficking. Third, we present the
structure of the financial assessment framework, demonstrating how analysts can con-
struct the trafficking ‘business model’, identify possible finances and key actors involved,
evaluate the costs and incidence of associated activities and prioritise these in terms of
those which are integral to the trafficking enterprise, and which activities offer the most
plausible route to intervention. Our financial assessment framework was predetermined
but adapted during the data analysis phase and in collaboration with police investigators,
to ensure the concepts used had both theoretical and operational value. At this point, we
provide concrete insights from our data that are illustrative of the financial aspects.
Finally, we provide some concluding thoughts, including discussion of the role of the
framework for policy analysis.
Our intention with this article is not to provide an exhaustive framework of all finan-
cial aspects of human trafficking, but to present an analytical assessment framework that
can inform empirical research and enforcement/regulation. In these terms, our contribu-
tions are threefold: (1) to demonstrate the feasibility and obstacles of analysing the finan-
cial aspects of human trafficking; (2) to reaffirm that while many trafficking cases that
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