The Cross-National Market in Human Beings

TLDR

Human trafficking involves moving people across borders for enslavement, including sex trade, forced labor, body part extraction, and debt bondage, and operates as a large market with its own distribution channels and pricing systems. The article aims to describe cross‑border human trafficking as a marketing system, explain its societal effects, and demonstrate that its extent may be far greater than governments perceive. The authors estimate the extent of cross‑border trafficking by analyzing data from several countries where it is believed to be substantial.

Abstract

Human trafficking, as defined here, is moving human beings across borders for the purpose of enslaving them. Human trafficking may be in the sex trade, forced labor or service, extraction of body parts, or other forms of exploited labor or debt bondage. The market is believed to be extensive, with its own distribution channels, pricing systems, and other market functions. The purposes of this article are to present an understanding of cross-border human trafficking as a marketing system, to explicate the societal effects of that system, and to show how the extent of cross-border trafficking may be estimated, using as an example several countries where it is believed to be a substantial problem. Additionally, we seek to show that cross-border human trafficking may be a much more serious problem than what is visible to governments.