Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

This paper reviews the theoretical explanations on the specific characteristics of human trafficking in Indonesia as mainly a source country of victims of the crime. The objective of this paper is to find the best way to approach knowledge production on human trafficking in a country/ies where regional or transnational cooperation and coordination to combat human trafficking are less than effective. This paper argues for the applicability of the three-dimensional model (institutional, socio-cultural, and crime process dimensions) in analyzing human trafficking. In the absence of an authoritative supra-national body to regulate and enforce the law on the transnational organized crime, a comprehensive and multidimensional analysis is required as the basis for more effective and immediate action against human trafficking. Three sets of arguments are presented in this paper. The first is that none of the single preexisting approaches to the transnational organized crime is individually sufficient in explaining the problem in combating human trafficking. Second, there is a challenge of filling the gap in understanding the so-called ‘transnational organized crime’, e.g. deconstructing whether it is organic or postured as one. Third, there are three areas of knowledge related to understanding human trafficking in the source countries, i.e. (1) push factors (social, economic, cultural, and political); (2) channels that mediate the victims to pull factors (possibly the transnational organized crime); and (3) intervention to protect the victims (anti-trafficking policies and institutional efforts). It is from these areas, the three-dimensions were developed to better understand the social phenomenon.