Female Traffickers in Human Trafficking

Introduction

Human trafficking has been regarded as one of the most prominent international crime that is often researched. The article "'A vile and violent thing': Female traffickers and the criminal justice response" by Rose Broad is informative and insightful because the author looks at human trafficking from an unusual point of view, on women traffickers and the way the law treats them. The article is suitable for researching about human trafficking because the author have looked at various reasons as to why women who are the most preferred sex for human trafficking is chosen for this activity and the way in which the women are led into it. For those seeking criminology dissertation help, this article provides a unique perspective that can enrich the research process.

Summary of the article

The author briefly outlines the definition and history of human trafficking; she then goes into the policy and how the law views the traffickers themselves. The main focus of the study is the identification of roles that women play in trafficking and the reasons behind their involvement as well as overall gender differences in the criminal act of human trafficking. In addition to that, the author looks how the law handles the cases, in particular, the blurry line between the women traffickers being as guilty as the male perpetrator or forced into the jobs, by violence or because of their interpersonal relationship with the perpetrator (Broad, 2015).

Critical Analysis

The title of the study is properly mentioned which is evident as in the article it has been highlighted that the study is regarding the female traffickers and criminal justice response towards them. As asserted by Denzin (2017), a proper abstract assist the researcher to identify initially whether or not the paper fulfils the requirement of the mentioned topic. In this study, a clear abstract has been provided in the paper which helped to develop an overview regarding the key ideas being informed in the study. The aim of the study is develop idea regarding female trafficking and the criminal justice reposes towards it. In this study, the aim is clearly justified by the background of the research presented in the introduction that has helped in understanding key purpose of the study.

The author in this study at first directly dives right into the gendered side of how the law and people look at the human trafficking, how its thought of the women being the ideal victims and the people that traffic them must be sadistic men. The author did not provide a clear overview or definition of what human trafficking is all about. As mentioned by Hart (2018), lack of proper definition or overview regarding the topic creates a gap for the common readers who do not have any knowledge regarding the topic to fail to understand the subject. Thus, many readers who have no knowledge about human trafficking who would not be on the same page as others who have overview regarding the topic to understand the facts presented in the study. Thus, a clear overview regarding the topic is required to be mentioned before diving deep into the gender side of human trafficking to help readers develop effective understanding regarding the topic.

The author did not mention what exactly comes under the term human trafficking, for forced marriages or even forced surrogacy and ova removal and another organ harvesting (Broad, 2015). Thus, this is going to create confusion in the minds of the readers to differentiate between the terms (Hart, 2018). Further, the author did not mention any in-depth information regarding forced labour and sex labour which are one of the few reasons due to which women are the most trafficked gender around the world. Thus, this informs that the author have not been able to highlight all the reasons that leads to human trafficking of women.

In this study, the author have clearly mentioned the history of law in the UK and the way the three acts: sexual offences act 2003, the Immigration and asylum act 2004 and the section 71 coroners and justice ask 2009 have become one act of the Modern slavery Act 2015 for tacking actions against human trafficking. The author focuses on the severity of the crime of trafficking by stating that the maximum sentence of 14 years in the United Kingdom as well as deportation to the country of origin of the offender. The article also compares the law to other lengths of sentences in Europe, eg. Spain is havening the maximum sentence as well as Germany (Broad, 2015). As mentioned by Farrell et al. (2015), information about legislation developed by the government against any crime provides concepts regarding legal approaches that can be implemented to stop the crime. Thus, the information regarding the legislation related to human trafficking informed by the author is effective to allow people have knowledge regarding the cover of the legislations that can be taken to help victims of human trafficking.

The report showed that a quarter of all convicted for human trafficking where women during the period 1998-2002, they argue that the female traffickers are under pressure to recruit other women in order to get free or to avoid violence or abuse (Surtees2008 UNODC2012) the authors found that women's involvement in trafficking is explicitly due to intimate relationships with the male perpetrator. They are described to be using women as it is easier for them to gain the trust of other women and to build a relationship in order to lure them (Broad, 2015). However, the author failed to provide justification about the way these women are structured and why they do what they do with proper reasons as not mentioned in the report. This informs that the author has failed to provide detailed arguments for the statement developed in writing the study. The information mentions that a brief literature review is been provided in the paper which is evident as from the mentioned information concepts regarding female trafficking and criminal justice response for them in various countries could be identified. As mentioned by Ritz et al. (2016), lack of valid literature in the paper cesses ideas which can be generated from the study for better development of the paper. This is because presence of a proper literature review informs previous data regarding the topic based on which further ideas are developed for fruitful establishment of study.

In this study, the analysis of the data was seen to be done by using an interpretive approach where epistemologies of the questions are developed for expanding the concept of the problem (Broad, 2015). As asserted by Wilson (2017), interpretive approach is beneficial for the social studies as it allows creating in-depth knowledge by gaining empathic understating regarding the way that lead the society to act in the way. Thus, adopting this method was beneficial for the researcher to execute the study regarding human trafficking of females. This is because it allowed the researcher to closely interact with the participants and inspect closely the reports used for collecting information regarding the study ensure greater validity and reliability of the research. As argued by Babones (2016), disadvantage of interpretive approach is that the researchers are tends towards involving emotion and biases in the study. This is because they analyse the information from their own perspective that may vary with others creating diversion from what is actually happening. Thus, it leads to create data errors in the study. In order to avoid error in data collected through biases while using interpretive approach, the researcher require to evaluate the collected data from the perspective of other researchers to ensure the analysis reached are true in nature and is not influenced by the personal emotions of the researcher.

The study uses exploratory research design which offer strength to the research to have improved understanding regarding the research topic. Thus, it allows the researcher to effectively identify why and the reason behind the happening of things (Duncan and Fiske, 2015). This is evident as the design lead the researcher to identify that intimate partnership with men allows the female to be exploited which leads to they being trafficking to other country. Further, female who are previous victims of trafficking acts as perpetrator because they wish to get out of the trade by replacing other females in their position. The exploratory research design helps to test any concept develop before mentioning them (Broad, 2015). This is evident from the study where through the help of the design the researcher checked each concept develop by analysing various reports to ensure they are true. As argued by Hofman et al. (2017), exploratory design is seen to seldom offer adequate amount of answers for the research questions. Thus, to avoid this disadvantage the explanatory design is to be used where adequate answers for research questions are provided allowing the researcher to develop better understanding and reach improved conclusion in the study (Kish, 2017).

The key population of interest for developing information regarding the topic are the females who are victims of human trafficking. The sample for the study include three qualitative data sets which are interviewee of police officers and prosecutors who have worked on female trafficking cases, previous sentence reports of traffickers involved in female trafficking and risk assessment reports that are developed by using Offender Assessment System (Broad, 2015). The sample size is appropriate for the study as it is been collected from wide number of sources and for a brief period of time that offers understanding regarding the issues of female trafficking over a certain tenure. As mentioned by Emmel (2015), lower number of sample limits the execution of the study as it increases margin of error. This may lead to render the study to be meaningless leading lower validity of the research. However, in this study no such incidences are to be faced as the sample size is appropriate to avoid any error in the results assuring meaningful and valid research. The sample used in the study is representative in nature because the selected participants and the used reports reflects the entire member of prosecutors, police officers, risk assessors and others who are involved in working on the topic of female trafficking.

The study uses mixed data collection method to collect information regarding reason that leads to female trafficking and the criminal justice developed in response. As mentioned by Fusch and Ness (2015), mixed data collection has the advantage of offsetting the weakness or limitation faced by the study while using either of the data collection method. Thus, using mixed method helped the researcher in the study to collect data with few limitations for identifying reason of female trafficking and nature of criminal justice responses given for such cases. As per McCusker and Gunaydin (2015), mixed method of data collection is often complex in nature. This results in creating confusion in the mind of the researcher which leads them to execute errors in the study. Moreover, use of mixed method is seen to be time consuming as it requires detailed planning to identify resources required for the study. Further, in mixed research it is often unclear regarding the way to respond to the discrepancies which arises while interpretation of the results. Thus, to avoid this limitations the researcher could used quantitative method for collecting data as it is requires less time and uses statistical data for generalising findings (Denzin, 2017).

The study uses thematic analysis method for analysing the data collected in the research (Broad, 2015). As mentioned by Terry et al. (2017), thematic analysis offers flexibility to the researcher by allowing them to implement multiple theories across different epistemologies. It is also suitable for analysing large amount of data as well as allows the researcher to expand their study range by passing individual experiences. Moreover, thematic analysis is seen to allow proper categorisation of emerging data. This is evident as the bulk of data collected by the researcher in the study was able to be analysed under three key themes that are roles performed by women in female trafficking, previous victimisation leading to female trafficking and involvement of female and male traffickers in intimate relationship leading to female trafficking. As argued by Chapman et al. (2015), thematic analysis involves issues of having difficulty to concentrate on specific concepts of the data in deriving results. This is evident as the researcher in the study could not identify which concept previous victimisation or intimate relationship or role of women in female trafficking is mainly responsible towards increase of the crime.

The thematic analysis was analysed under the framework of grounded theory as mentioned in the study. As mentioned by Charmaz and Henwood (2017), grounded theory helps to develop understanding regarding any phenomenon which cannot be explained with the help of exiting paradigm and theories. This methodology also helps in executing rigours processing of data analysis and collection allowing the researcher to study the facts developed in great depth. Thus, the use of grounded theory for thematic analysis helped the researcher to identify in-depth concepts that are responsible for rise in female trafficking. It is evident as later the researcher informed that intimate partner relationship is the most prominent reason behind the rise of female trafficking where men lure female partners into relationship to be later trafficked to other area for involving into various illegal trades.

In the study, no information about ethical consideration was mentioned (Broad, 2015). As commented by Hedgecoe (2016), ethical considerations in the study is important to ensure the researcher have execute it by abiding with the policies and legislation related to the research. Thus, the lack of any information about considering ethics may lead the researcher to face negative legal consequences. In order to ensure ethics in the study, the researcher while conducting interview of the police officers and prosecutors require obtain informed consent from them. This means that the interviewers are to be informed regarding the way their responses are to be used in executing the study (Jorgensen, 2015). Further, the confidentiality of the participants in the study is to be maintained for ensuring ethics in the research. In order to execute it, the Data Protection Act 1998 is to be abided by in ensuring ethical considerations in the study while it is been conducted in the UK. According to Data Protection Act 1998, the researcher requires to ensure anonymity and confidentiality of the participants by not using any data without informing them previously (www.legislation.gov.uk, 1998). Since the researcher has focused in executing study in the human trafficking of female in the UK thus this law is to be used for ensuring ethics in the study.

The results present are seen to appropriately support the given conclusion in the paper. This is evident as the researcher in the findings have informed that women to get out of forced trade as result of female trafficking often act as perpetrators which is also been mentioned in the study. Further, in the findings it is mentioned that irrespective of consideration it is ultimately the women who are more in number to get convicted even though the male are the key responsible people in executing female trafficking is also mentioned in the conclusion. The researcher has seen to failed to focus on various other reasons such as poor economic condition, political circumstances, social and cultural practices and others that are also raising the incidence of female trafficking. Moreover, the study did not collect data from the actual female victims who have suffered trafficking leading the researcher to miss many concepts that can be built to identify real reason behind the increased crime (Broad, 2015). The research paper has also failed to inform strategies that can be developed for resolving the increased female trafficking and better implementation of legislation for justice to the female in this crime. The study also did not inform about the way in future it can be expanded for its betterment thus it is difficult to identify the future scope of the paper. In executing the study, no conflicts are reported.

References

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