Human trafficking media texts

Gregoriou, Christiana (2017). Human trafficking media texts. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-852925

Despite the fact that human trafficking is condemned as a modern-day form of slavery, criminalized under international law, and categorized as a human rights violation, this exploitative practice now represents a multibillion-dollar industry for transnational organized crime. The failure to address the problem holistically means that it has now become an urgent priority. European Union directives (2011/2014) indicate that an integrated and human-rights oriented approach is needed to combat this "complex crime", including the provision of protection and support for its victims, as well as wider education and awareness-raising campaigns. Meanwhile, police and governments face investigative and crime-fighting challenges, due to the flexibility and relative speed with which organized crime can adapt its transnational operations, often by activating overlapping circles and layers of networks, interaction and expertise.
The primary purpose of this research is to investigate the portrayal of transnational human trafficking in contemporary crime fiction, the genre of true crime, and news media. This research will investigate how aligned such representations of trafficking are, whilst assuming that fictional and supposed factual representations as well as wider media coverage (which blurs fact and fiction - see e.g. Surette (1998) can shape public knowledge and perception of such crime, and indeed inform offender/victim and law enforcement policy (Mathers, 2004).
Specifically, our research into human trafficking will consider the interrelated representations of victims, the investigation/policing/prevention of trafficking and the wider framing of public perceptions concerning transnational governance and global justice. Key areas of inquiry include:
1. Identifying victims of trafficking is complex, and investigations are slow, painstaking, time-consuming, and increasingly difficult. Yet, this element of complexity may not lend itself to the perceived desires of readerships for news reporting or crime fiction narratives in the global marketplace. We intend to examine to what extent trafficking is over-simplified and/or sensationalised, as well as assess to what extent investigative reporting and literature can contribute to expanded world knowledge, insight and public discourse, concerning the identification, protection and support of victims.
2. We will engage with the thematic and textual methods that narratives employ to investigate transnational trafficking. This involves a consideration of how texts incorporate existing and new knowledge, and lend visibility to the experience of exploited subjects by drawing attention to the politics of representation. With the assistance of Gravett's Special Policing Consultancy, we also consider the ways these texts address the challenges for global governance and policing at various scales.
3. Greater public awareness and knowledge is important to combat human trafficking. We will explore the varied ideologies and politics of human trafficking, in connection with wider discourses about global in/justice. For instance, we scope the diegetic narratives of trafficking within a range of fictional and non-fictional 'true crime' media, to explore how stories of the 'moral panic' around trafficking are constructed and used within such sources, as mechanisms for raising public awareness, but also as potential areas of political expediency by key actors involved.

The emergent research findings will be disseminated through an essay collection, a policy brief, a public blog and twitter feed, as well as a symposium/outreach activities, thus contributing to wider academic knowledge and public dialogue surrounding the investigation, policing and prevention of human trafficking as well as support for its victims.

Data description (abstract)

The project partners collected and analysed media material produced after 2000. Gregoriou and Ras examined a 61.5 million word corpus of UK news texts published during 2000-2016. Muždeka compared a sub-corpus from Gregoriou and Ras’ UK study to a similarly compiled corpus of Serbian human trafficking newstexts. Beyer analysed British and Scandinavian crime fiction novels, and Dearey the Al Jazeera English documentary series 'A 21st century evil' (see Related Resources).
Our research questions were: How are trafficking, traffickers and HT victims identified and represented, and to what extent are victims criminalised and victimised, sex trafficking overrepresented, and smuggling and trafficking conflated by the media?

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