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Posts tagged human trafficking
This Job Post Will Get You Kidnapped: A Deadly Cycle of Crime, Cyberscams, and Civil War in Myanmar

By Emily Ferrguson and Emma Schroeder

Following decades of cyclical insecurity in Myanmar, conflict reached a new level following a coup d’etat in 2021 during which Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, deposed the democratically elected National League for Democracy government. Meanwhile, criminal syndicates, entrenched primarily in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) like Shwe Kokko within Myanmar’s Karen state, have expanded and evolved their criminal operations throughout this evolving conflict. The Tatmadaw forces have intertwined themselves in complicated and carefully balanced alliances to support the ongoing conflict, including with the Karen State Border Guard Force (BGF) . As the Tatmadaw and BGF look to sustain themselves and outlast each other, they have found allies of convenience and alternative funding sources in the criminal groups operating in Karen state. In the last two years, organized criminal groups in Myanmar have expanded their activities to include forms of profitable cybercrime and increased their partnership with the BGF , which enables their operations in return for a cut of the illicit profits. Since roughly 2020, criminal syndicates across Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand have largely lured individuals with fake offers of employment at resorts or casinos operating as criminal fronts where they are detained, beaten, and forced to scam, steal from, and defraud people over the  internet The tactics—kidnap-to-scam operations—evolved in response to the pandemic and to the Myanmar civil war, allowing criminal groups to build on existing networks and capabilities. These operations do not require significant upfront investment or technical expertise, but what they do need is time—time that can be stolen from victims trapped in the region’s already developed human trafficking network. The profits that these syndicates reap from victims around the globe add fuel to the ongoing civil war in Myanmar and threaten the stability of Southeast Asia. These groups entrench themselves and their illicit activities into the local environment by bribing, partnering with, or otherwise paying off a key local faction within the Myanmar civil war, creating an interconnectedness between regional instability and profit-generating cybercrime. What is unfolding in Myanmar challenges conventional interpretations of cybercrime and the tacit separation of criminal activities in cyberspace from armed conflict. The criminal syndicates, and their BGF partners, adapted to the instability in Myanmar so effectively that each is financially and even existentially motivated to perpetuate this instability. This paper explores the connectivity between cybercriminal activities and violence, instability, and armed conflict in a vulnerable region, exploring how cybercrime has become an effective vehicle through which nonstate actors can fund and perpetuate conflict. The following section examines the key precipitating conditions of this case, traces the use of cyber scams to create significant financial losses for victims across the world, sow instability across Southeast Asia, exacerbate the violence in Myanmar, and, finally, considers the risks that this model could be adopted and evolved elsewhere. This paper concludes with implications for the policy and research communities, highlighting the ways in which conflict can move, unbounded, between the cyber and physical domains as combatants and opportunists alike follow clear incentives to marry strategic and financial gain.

Washington, DC: Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) at the Atlantic Council, 2023. 16p.

Casinos, cyber fraud, and trafficking in persons for forced criminality in Southeast Asia

By Deanna Davy

The transnational organized crime (TOC) landscape in Southeast Asia has evolved dramatically in recent years. Trafficking in persons for the purpose of forced criminality to commit online scams and financial fraud, particularly occurring in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and other areas of Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR), and Myanmar, as well as other destination countries (including Malaysia, and the Philippines), has emerged as a new and growing trend. Trafficking in persons for forced criminality has been driven by organized crime groups in the region, which operate in a remarkably open way. Their illicit activities are linked to various legal and illegal entertainment establishments, such as casinos, hotels, and registered companies (businesses), which operate from compound-like buildings where victims are harbored and forced to commit, or be complicit in, cyber-enabled crimes. This phenomenon of trafficking for forced criminality has recently become prominent in Southeast Asia, though it had already been identified in many parts of the world. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) 2022 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons1 has indicated a considerable increase in the identification of trafficking in persons for the purpose of committing criminal offences, currently reaching 10.2% of all reported trafficking cases globally. Trafficking for forced criminality (or for exploitation in criminal activities) can be understood as trafficking in persons for the purpose of exploitation of victims through forcing or otherwise compelling them to commit criminal acts for economic or other gains of traffickers or exploiters. While not included in the definition of the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons (Trafficking in Persons Protocol) explicitly, exploitation in criminal activities has been incorporated into the trafficking definition of many countries around the world. In the Southeast Asia region, currently only Malaysia has incorporated this form of exploitation into domestic legislation. Nevertheless, the intent of traffickers, the methods.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 2023. 50p.

Vermont Crime Analysis Using National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) Data on Human Trafficking, 2015-2019

By Megan Novak

Vermont’s victim service providers, law enforcement, and legislature have been interested in understanding state trends related to sex and labor trafficking. In this regard, Crime Research Group reviewed Vermont human trafficking data recorded in the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS). NIBRS was created to capture details on specific crime incidents including information about victims, known offenders, victim-offender relationships, arrestees, and property involved. Since the 1990s, Vermont law enforcement have been NIBRS compliant meaning that information concerning certain crimes known to Vermont law enforcement are logged in NIBRS. This report reviews available NIBRS data reported between 2015-2019. A preliminary review indicated that there were no labor or sex trafficking cases recorded in 2015. Furthermore, between 2016-2019, there were no recorded incidents involving labor trafficking offenses. Therefore, this report focuses on sex trafficking offenses that occurred between 2016-2019 in Vermont. Annual review of NIBRS sex trafficking data will help identify trends and monitor data quality. Trends to be monitored include, but are not limited to, total number of incidents and offenses, offense circumstances (e.g., substances involved, weapons used), as well as victim and offender demographics.

Montpelier, VT: Crime Research Group, 2021. 7p.

Human-Centered Approach to Technology to Combat Human Trafficking

By Julia Deeb-Swihart

Human trafficking is a serious crime that continues to plague the United States. With the rise of computing technologies, the internet has become one of the main mediums through which this crime is facilitated. Fortunately, these online activities leave traces which are invaluable to law enforcement agencies trying to stop human trafficking. However, identifying and intervening with these cases is still a challenging task. The sheer volume of online activity makes it difficult for law enforcement to efficiently identify any potential leads. To compound this issue, traffickers are constantly changing their techniques online to evade detection. Thus, there is a need for tools to efficiently sift through all this online data and narrow down the number of potential leads that a law enforcement agency can deal with. While some tools and prior research do exist for this purpose, none of these tools adequately address law enforcement user needs for information visualizations and spatiotemporal analysis. Thus to address these gaps, this thesis contributes an empirical study of technology and human trafficking. Through in-depth qualitative interviews, systemic literature analysis, and a user-centered design study, this research outlines the challenges and design considerations for developing sociotechnical tools for anti-trafficking efforts. This work further contributes to the greater understanding of the prosecution efforts within the anti-trafficking domain and concludes with the development of a visual analytics prototype that incorporates these design considerations.

Dissertation. Atlanta: Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022.

What is the Role of Financial Sanctions in Tackling Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking?

By Erica Moret

No country in the world is immune to the devastating impacts of modern slavery and human trafficking. Representing one of the world’s most profitable criminal enterprises, it generates some USD 150 billion per year. Addressing the financial angle of these gross human rights abuses is recognized as an essential approach in tackling the problem. The engagement of the financial sector, alongside the use of several financial-related policy instruments, plays a vital role. This includes measures to counter money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

This report, commissioned by the Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAST) initiative at United Nations University Centre for Policy Research (UNU-CPR), is based on 18 anonymized semi-structured interviews with officials from the UN, US, EU, UK, and Canada, financial institution representatives and experts on sanctions, modern slavery and human trafficking, transnational organized crime, supply chains, and corporate governance.

This report outlines a number of key findings and recommendations on the use of sanctions to target modern slavery and human trafficking.

New York: United Nations University, 2022. 64p.

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Following the Money: Compendium of Resources and Step-by-step Guide to Financial Investigations Into Trafficking in Human Beings

By Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Office of the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings

The paper aims to leverage off of the strengths and successes of established but disparate anti-THB financial investigatory practices, developed across the OSCE participating States, to raise awareness of the strategic value of financial investigations and the resources available, and to help create a more harmonised approach that can contribute to mainstreaming of financial investigations across the OSCE region.

Vienna: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Office of the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, 2019. 68p.

FEMICIDE Volume X: Contemporary Forms of Enslavement of Women & Girls

By Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS)

Since 2013 the ACUNS Vienna Liaison Office has worked hard to provide a platform for those who dedicate their resources to fighting gender-related violence against women and girls, including the killing of women (femicide), its most severe manifestation. Hence, over the years FEMICIDE has become an important resource book for international institutions, scholars and practitioners. Connecting the right people has always been at the top of our agenda. We are convinced that it is only by working together that we can end gender-related violence worldwide. FEMICIDE X reflects this important principle. International organisations, NGOs and independent researchers have come together to help produce this awareness-raising publication on contemporary forms of slavery, which touches upon many important and, sadly, overlooked issues. In the first part of this Volume important statements give an overview of past actions to eliminate violence against women and what needs to be done in the future. There then follows a collection of reports and articles on modern-day enslavement of women and girls, a practice that is still commonplace in too many parts of this world. Further, we provide a review of the ACUNS Vienna Liaison Office symposium on "Ending Impunity for Gender-related Killing of Women and Girls - State Responsibility and Accountability", which took place in May 2018. There is then a short preview of our next volume on cyber bullying as a form of violence against women. The last section of FEMICIDE X is dedicated to the efforts and achievements of the civil society to combat femicide. FEMICIDE X is meant to be a wake-up call and provides a glimmer of hope at the same time. Countless women and girls suffer slavery and other horrible situations every day. However, the hard work being undertaken on so many sides to combat violence against women has not been in vain. Much has changed as a result of this work; many have been saved, and many more will be saved in the future.

Vienna: Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS), 2018. 100p.