Skilbrei, May-Len --- "Criminological perspectives on human trafficking" [2019] ELECD 2991; in Mitsilegas, Valsamis; Hufnagel, Saskia; Moiseienko, Anton (eds), "Research Handbook on Transnational Crime" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 236

Book Title: Research Handbook on Transnational Crime

Editor(s): Mitsilegas, Valsamis; Hufnagel, Saskia; Moiseienko, Anton

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 18

Section Title: Criminological perspectives on human trafficking

Author(s): Skilbrei, May-Len

Number of pages: 11

Abstract/Description:

The chapter gives an overview of key topics and perspectives in criminological research on human trafficking. It argues that criminologists have made valuable contributions in the exploration of why it exists, its modus operandi, how governments approach it and what consequences policies have, as well as what perpetrator and victim constructions exist. Criminological research has the potential of contributing further to these and other questions, particularly by utilising criminologists’ abilities to understand crime in its larger sociocultural context, problematise the representability of crime statistics and estimates of the extent of crime, and explore the role of gendered and ethnic stereotypes in existing knowledge and policy. Much is taken for granted in relation to the extent and character of trafficking, as well as concerning the people involved, and criminology can contribute towards changing this by engaging in more theoretically informed explorations of trafficking and by applying knowledge from the study of other crimes and strategies of regulation in other fields.