Trafficking in human beings: a literature review

- 1 - CHAPTER I - Research questions and methodology 1. Statement of the problem Human trafficking is the slavery of our time. Exactly 200 years ago, Britain and the United Stated formally outlawed the transatlantic slave trade. Today, nothing has changed, many countries are affected by people who migrate out of despair and it is easy for human traffickers to transform a dream into a market (Lagon, 2008/2009). International Organizations issued reports on the problem with facts and figures that are often unreliable, given the opaque manner of data collection. The United Nations estimated that at least 12 million people worldwide are victims of trafficking and that half of all victims of forced labor are women and girls (UNICRI, 2004): Member states often present data without a clear explanation of how the data has been collected. This study aims at the deconstruction and analysis of the existing literature on human trafficking. The document divides itself into a summary, an evaluation, synthesis and comparison, and the critique of the existing studies and reports. The research is mainly based on recent studies from leading authorities, and high-prestige or high-visibility sources such as the university presses of highly ranked universities or articles published in the leading journals in the field of human trafficking from late 1990s. Nevertheless, studies from international governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, think- tanks, governmental agencies and international newspapers have also been taken into consideration. The study did not focus on independent or freelance researchers or on human smuggling studies. Due to a restricted timeframe of seven months, only English, Italian, French and Spanish sources could be considered and analyzed.