Sex Trafficking from a Supply Chain Systems Perspective Amy Stapleton*, Nick Chisholm* & Larry Stapleton** * Dept. Food Business and Development, UCC, Ireland **INSYTE Centre, WIT, Ireland Abstract: Human trafficking is the third most profitable international criminal activity. This study demonstrates that human rights violations are organised into sophisticated supply chains. Supply chain systems provide integrated semi-automated logistics capability for the flow of goods and services into a market. Few studies of international stability examine human trafficking, and sex trafficking specifically, from this perspective. Policies rarely address sex trafficking as a supply chain system, and therefore an important part of policy formulation. This preliminary study explored sex trafficking from a supply chain systems perspective. It gathered secondary data which is presented and interpreted. Conclusions were drawn about important factors that facilitate sex trafficking supply chain systems and possible policy interventions which are likely to be effective. The primary contribution of this paper is to demonstrate that sex trafficking, as an example of a systematic human rights violation, can be examined from a control system and process management perspective. Keywords: Management systems, developing countries, international stability, supply chain systems 1. INTRODUCTION The crime of trafficking human beings is the third most profitable form of organised crime in the world today, with only drugs and arms smuggling surpassing it (Kelleher, 2009). Human trafficking is perpetrated by sophisticated criminal networks and is recognised by the international community as a serious global problem (Gramegna, 2003). Control and automation systems science has paid little attention to the systemic qualities of human trafficking generally and sex trafficking in particular. Sex trafficking is a subset of human trafficking where human beings are trafficked for sexual exploitation. It is consequently the subject of considerable academic research. Few of these studies look at sex trafficking as a systems issue i.e. have examined sex trafficking from a control system perspective. Most studies focus only upon the supply side of sex trafficking i.e. the sourcing of individuals for trafficking. Here sex trafficking is explored as an integrated supply chain system. This rebalances the debate about sex trafficking into a supply and demand problem within an over integrated purposive, human activity system. Traditionally, policy instruments have focussed upon the supply side i.e. origin regions where vulnerable people are sourced. We argue that this is not the full picture and arises from a concern with the issue as a problem of ‘criminality’ which it certainly is. In the traditional sex-trafficking discourse it is not recognised that there is a supply chain, only a community of well-organised criminals. A supply chain perspective taking a “criminality” view sees the problem as a ‘push-side’ problem i.e. that we have a set of people waiting trafficking and a demand must be somehow created. However, it is clear that vulnerable people do not seek to be sex-trafficked. This paper reframes the problem as one of an integrated supply chain system which responds to demand i.e. a “pull-side” system. 2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES & QUESTION Research Objective The research objective was to assess if sex trafficking displays features of a supply chain, and then to assess the implications of this for policy. The research questions were: R.Q.1 Does sex trafficking display features of a supply chain? R.Q.2 If answer to RQ.1 is yes, does this have policy implications for supply chain interventions? 3. SEX TRAFFICKING Human trafficking is a fundamental violation of human rights. The US State Department estimate that 800,000 people are trafficked internationally per annum (Kelleher, 2009). There is a growing demand for cheap labour, sexual services and organs which has contributed to significant increases in the number of trafficked people (IOM, 2009).