The nature of the relationship between sex traffickers and their victims : a scoping review

Abstract

Academic research currently available on human trafficking has been criticised for employing poorly designed methodologies and a lack of research based on primary data. Only a limited number of resources have supplied primary research in the field. Although victim and trafficker characteristics and the complexity involved during the trafficking process have been investigated, there is a further need for moving away from simplified victim-oriented research, giving way to more focus on understanding the nature of the complex relationship between sex traffickers and their victims, which can include both physical and psychological relationship dynamics. It can be argued that understanding these complex relationship dynamics and interactions during the trafficking process between offenders and victims play a large role in traffickers’ acquisition and retention of victims, and thus, is essential information to obtain. Therefore, the need for a scoping review is important to understanding the nature of this relationship, which can influence the efficacy of counter human trafficking strategies. The purpose of this study was to explore the range, extent, and nature of primary research on the relationship between sex traffickers and their victims of trafficking, published between and including the years 2007 and 2017. This research used a methodological framework for conducting a scoping study developed by Arksey and O’Malley (2005), thereafter revised by Levac, Colquhoun and O’Brian (2010). Data analysis was conducted through a directed content analysis to extract qualitative data from the findings, and reported and summarised the findings according to categories developed by the Duluth Power and Control Wheel for Sex and Labour Trafficking. This scoping review found that an additional category regarding the sex trafficker and victim relationship, not listed in the Power and Control Wheel, was consistently reported in selected articles. This researcher introduces the Augmented Sex Trafficking Power and Control Wheel and recommends that the existing wheel be updated to include Affective Kinship and its characteristics as one of the most common elements found in the nature of the relationship between sex traffickers and their victims. Thirty one articles were included and analysed in this scoping review.