Broad perspective on offending: backgrounds of domestic sex traffickers
In 2024 the National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings and Sexual Violence against Children published two reports (in Dutch) that are based on a study on the backgrounds of domestic sex traffickers. The accompanying summary and infographic are available in English, and are based on both Dutch publications.
This study is the first to map out the offending trajectories of domestic sex traffickers, as well as their backgrounds and personal situations. It shows that domestic sex traffickers are not specialists, but generalists. The offence of human trafficking fits a broader criminal career. Still, a typical domestic sex trafficker does not exist: there are four groups of offenders with different criminal careers: low-rate offenders, early-peak offenders, late-peak offenders and high-rate-persistent offenders.
Many domestic sex traffickers come from a vulnerable background, such as an unstable family situation growing up, poor school performance and criminal individuals in their direct social environment. These are risk factors for committing offences. For offenders of domestic sex trafficking, these factors appear to be significantly more prevalent. Not only compared to non-offenders, but also when compared to general offenders.
This means that early intervention among youths with a high risk profile and maximum efforts to aid offenders results in opportunities to prevent (repeat) offences.