In Chapter 2 I tracked the evolution of terminology and definitions of trafficking and modern slavery, highlighting the challenges this has presented to academics, legislators and policy makers throughout the world. At the end of the chapter, I proposed putting those definitions aside and introduced work that has recently been undertaken by Professor Simon Green, Dr Alicia Heys and myself to develop a definition of ‘exploitation’ (Green, Heys, and Barlow, forthcoming). We applied this definition of exploitation to explain the importance of the environment in which exploitation is most likely to occur and be maintained over time, developing a concept that we have called the conducive environment. This conceptual space describes and explains an ecology in which specific conditions combine that make exploitation of people more (or less) possible by facilitating (or inhibiting) the behaviours, interactions and social systems that lead to the emergence and fluctuation of patterns of exploitation.

Conceptualising exploitation

In developing this concept, we focused on exploitation not only in terms of trafficking and modern slavery but also more generally to capture a range of practices (such as wage suppression, excessive working hours and dangerous working conditions) that exploited certain groups in different contexts. For that reason, we have defined exploitation as: ‘using a position of power or privilege to unfairly benefit at the expense of a disadvantaged person or group’. This is not limited to financial benefit or gain and can include gain in terms of power, well-being or any other benefit. Neither is this limited to interpersonal exploitation and can just as easily be applied to institutional and commercial contexts.

The trafficking of people for the purposes of exploitation relies on a fundamental power imbalance between the traffickers and those who are the victims of exploitation. Those who may be suitable targets for exploitation are also likely to be those with the least power or at least fewest resources to protect themselves within their wider social environment. This is especially important to recognise as it enables us to address systemic and structural conditions in the framing of exploitative scenarios, where exploitation is not necessarily only perpetrated by an individual or group of individuals.