As discussed in the first article, human trafficking is about exploitation. It is a heinous crime that sees victims undertake work (including sex trade) against their will. Sometimes the work is undertaken under threats of violence against them or their family, sometimes the work is undertaken to pay off a debt that only ever grows larger. The crime rips away their freedom, forces then to work in what are frequently appalling conditions with no hope of escape.

Despite the altruistic view that this crime is by itself an assault on our community’s values, there are other considerations that for political and police leaders about the impact of this crime.

Cost to the public

A 2012 study undertaken through the University of Minnesota looked at the community costs related to teenage girls trafficked in the sex trade across the State (http://www.castla.org/templates/files/miwrc-benefit-cost-study-summary.pdf). The study factored in a series of harms, and their related costs, including:

·        Post traumatic stress disorder;

·        HIV/AIDS;

·        Chlamydia early-treatment;

·        Chlamydia late-treatment;

·        unintended pregnancy with abortion;

·        unintended pregnancy with birth;

·        arrest as juvenile;

·        arrest as adult;

·        Court hearing;

·        adults Incarceration;

·        adult probation;

·        foster care for children in state custody and

·        chemical dependency treatment.

The study concluded that each $1 spent on prevention, intervention and recovery yielded at $34 cost avoidance. Clearly community efforts to identify, intervene and stop human trafficking has a positive economic impact on the community.

Loss of tax revenue

Since human trafficking revenue is illegitimate criminal income it is not captured as business revenue or income tax, and tax revenue as a result is lost. In the case of sex trafficking, annual revenues of $250K per victim have been calculated as typical, and which the trafficking victim may well require more community and health support, the off-setting tax revenues do not exist.

In the case of labour trafficking, the trafficking victim is tasked with providing labour that generates income, but since they do so against their will and for no wages, there is also a loss of tax revenues.

The size of this loss is very difficult to measure since the size of the human trafficking problem is difficult to define, in large part because of the lack of resources assigned to the problem.

Economic imbalance

Any economic model that utilizes slave labour creates an imbalance to all other participants in that sector of the economy. Labour always has a cost for the production of goods or the delivery of services in every economic model. Therefore labour and production costs impact upon the final cost for goods or services. Any company or endeavor that can illegally remove their labour costs puts themselves at an advantage in the market place, allowing them to undercut legitimate and lawful businesses and enterprises.

Consideration

Therefore, while the heinous nature of this crime may well be a “call to action” for police leaders and communities, the adverse economic impact of human trafficking should place combatting this initiative as priority for all impacted communities.

By developing and understanding the ‘what’ human trafficking is, and how it impacts our communities, police leaders have some unique issue to tackle within their organization in order to respond to the problem effectively.

Next: Creating awareness across the organization.

JAMES BROWN

JAMES BROWN

INSP. (RET'D) MSC, FRSA, CMM III (POLICE EXECUTIVE)

Jim retired with having served over 33 years with the Toronto Police, which included working internationally with the OSCE, ODIHR and DCAF in Europe, along with many agencies across the U.S. Jim is a doctoral candidate in Policing and Community Safety and is an Adjunct Professor of Criminology at the Ontario Tech University.