Technology, Trickery and Trafficking: An Examination of Internet Recruitment Techniques to the UK Sex Industry

• In Event: Human Trafficking Tactics and Networks

Abstract

This paper explores the use of classified websites for recruiting people for the purposes of human trafficking. Recent years have seen increased publications in this area with consensus suggesting that trafficking in the 21st century does have a technical element to it. Yet despite these claims, there has only been modest empirical research undertaken that has attempted to critically examine the role of technology in the trafficking process, with this work generally focusing on the exploitation phase of trafficking, the final stage of the process. However, this research focuses on the trafficking technology nexus at the recruitment stage, the first point of the process. The Internet was the primary site for data collection with a webscraping tool developed to scrape data from online classified and recruitment websites to identify signs of criminality and possible human trafficking from Romania to the United Kingdom. By analysing the semantics and metadata of the adverts, this paper reveals that those relating to the sex industy were detected as suspicious with a particular modus operandi identified, which could provide valuable intelligence for law enforcement agencies investigating this form of organized crime.

Author

• Ruth McAlister, Ulster University