1,720,973 research outputs found
Evil Slave Masters as Political Folk Devils
No full textModern slavery, as a way of framing extreme forms of exploitation, entered into the currency of public debate in the UK at a very particular historical conjuncture: when there was a preoccupation with taking back control of the UK’s borders, inspired largely by a sustained political focus on the threat of unmanaged migration and the menace posed by foreign national offenders. This chapter situates the development of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 within this context, illustrating how statistical claims about the size of the problem obscured the ways in which immigration controls compound the disadvantages faced by those with limited rights to travel and work in the UK, and redirected attention towards the traffickers and slaveholders as ‘folk devils’ said to be ‘hiding in plain sight’. A review of the existing empirical research on traffickers reveals how misleading such scapegoating is
Organized Criminals?
No full textThis chapter describes how concerns about the dangers posed by ‘Mr Big’ mafia bosses, who have secured the skills and resources to threaten national security, have shaped global responses to trafficking. Through the analysis of four case studies relating to offenders involved with criminal enterprises that spanned international borders, we appraise how useful the concept of organized crime is in relation to modern slavery. The four men depicted in this chapter were all influenced by father figures who they revered as well as by paternalistic and macho attitudes towards women and family life that obscured how limited the options were confronting some of the women who became indebted through illegal migration journeys, or who made such journeys because they had debts to pay
Child Sexual Exploitation
No full textSince the emergence of the modern slavery agenda, ‘Asian grooming gangs’ have been depicted as the primary perpetrators of child sexual exploitation. This chapter considers whether this terminology accurately reflects the evidence collated by independent investigations into child sexual exploitation cases in England between 2015 and 2020. We argue that the focus on ethnicity is misleading and has redirected attention away from the failings of the police and social services to protect those for whom the state has a duty of care. While conscious of the need to interpret offenders’ accounts critically and carefully, we argue that they do reveal complexities that are important to consider if the exploitation of children and vulnerable young adults is to be prevented. We conclude by highlighting the need to understand how some men normalize child sexual exploitation in the context of ‘parties’ in which sex is exchanged for drugs, alcohol, food and accommodation without regard for the stark differentials in power between some of the adults and young people who attend them
Domestic Servitude
No full textThis chapter looks at domestic servitude, a type of modern slavery that is often said to be the most difficult to detect because victims have so little contact with people outside of the homes where they live and work. The case study focuses on a Nigerian couple who has been convicted for domestic servitude. Their story is situated in the contexts of gendered inequality, poverty and globalization that inform the history of fosterage and post-colonial migration from Nigeria. The case illustrates how the Overseas Domestic Worker Visa scheme creates lawful frameworks within which victims have very few rights once they have left their permitted employment in the UK. The chapter asks if the modern slavery agenda is capable of fixing the problem of domestic servitude, not because culturally pervasive practices inspire it, but because the UK’s immigration system channels some of the world’s most destitute workers into very poorly paid work undertaken in the most under-regulated and most privatized employment sector
Sham Marriage
No full textFollowers of the British press in the mid-2010s could be forgiven for thinking that an epidemic of modern slavery had overtaken the UK, the epitome of which was evident in the cruelty visited on those sold into sham marriages. In this chapter, we discuss how marriages of convenience have become regulated through immigration controls, and why they are not always reducible to the exploitation and entrapment associated with modern slavery. Without denying the harms produced by forced marriages, the two case studies presented in this chapter raise deeper questions about why some people need to pay for or arrange marriages, and how their motives are shaped by the fear of immigration controls, deportation and indebtedness, sometimes derivative of inequalities caused by the legacies of European colonialism
Adult Sex Trafficking
No full textIn this chapter we consider three case studies of people convicted of offences that entailed the sexual exploitation of adults in the UK. Sex markets are structured such that sex workers, particularly migrant sex workers, are often dependent on third parties to facilitate their work, through services including security, online advertising and providing reception or transport. These relationships can become exploitative as power imbalances become more apparent and conflicts arise. We show how such collaborations are normalized by the logic of illicit markets in the lives of those convicted for sex trafficking offences. We conclude that if the aim of the policy is to reduce exploitation within the sex industry, then it is necessary to provide a legal framework that regulates on what terms third parties can provide services to sex workers and to provide those workers with a right to work and fair remuneration
People Smuggling
No full textIn this chapter we consider the overlaps between smuggling and modern slavery and ask whether it is accurate to explain people smuggling as the outcome of resurgent transnational organized crime. Existing empirical studies of smugglers reveal some to be opportunistic offenders who broker journeys as the need arises for small sums of money. Some have connections to illicit enterprises but still view their services as assistive, while others are merely doing ‘favours’ for little no or little money. The case studies in this chapter present men who considered themselves fixers of other people’s problems. We explain that when those implicated in organizing immigration crimes are cast as simply ‘evil’ or ‘heroic’, the reasons why migrants seek smugglers’ services are obscured, along with the distinction between assisting illegal entry to the UK and trafficking people for the purposes of exploitation
Introduction
No full textWho are the perpetrators of modern slavery that the British government is committed to bringing to justice? Despite the re-emergence of modern slavery on the policy agenda, probing questions about the motives responsible have rarely been asked or answered. Political discourse has instead presumed modern slavery to be orchestrated by international organized criminals and ‘evil’ doers whose behaviour defies social scientific explanation. This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book and argues that we need to engage with offenders’ accounts of perpetrating modern slavery, even though we may disagree with what they may say, if we are to have a chance of reducing the prevalence of extreme exploitation. What our research shows is that it is the pervasiveness of the structural disadvantages faced by victims that enforces their reliance on those who exploit them, few of whom are ‘organized criminals’ and some of whom are similarly socially excluded and traumatized
Labour Exploitation
No full textThis chapter focuses on crimes of exploitation committed in the interests of legitimate business activity and presents three case studies of exploitation in the food processing, garment and catering sectors. While labour exploitation became the type of modern slavery most commonly reported to the National Referral Mechanism in the mid-2010s, few perpetrators were prosecuted. Drawing on Box’s (1983) analysis of how crimes that serve businesses become mystified, we illustrate how some labour exploiters convince themselves that they are merely doing what is necessary to secure jobs in industries where labour rights and regulation are considered impediments to making a profit
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