The Human Cost of Trafficking

Abstract

Every year, millions of people worldwide are bought or sold for purposes of forced labor or sexual exploitation. While the causes of human trafficking may vary widely, there is strong consensus that human trafficking is a crime with huge consequences to individuals, groups, nations, and the world at large. The human cost is not only substantial, but prolonged, and overwhelmingly skewed towards women and children. This article reviews the broad literature on human trafficking regarding its various associated human costs. It will analyze the domains and levels of the cost, as well as the factors accounting for the costs. In addition to the economic cost of human trafficking, which is the explanation most often offered by scholars, other types of costs, for example, psychological, emotional, and physical will be investigated. Overall, the message is clear, the mitigation of the human cost of human trafficking is hard to achieve because of the complexity of the phenomenon and the tenacity of those benefiting from it. An analysis of the human cost may help to drive greater global policy mobilization towards ensuring that the practice is at least curtailed, even if it cannot be totally eradicated