The trafficking industry is very complex. Within the industry there are many trafficker roles involved.
All, but the girls who are trafficked, make any money on the abuse of the trafficked girl. In each step of the trafficking process the debt bondage, in which each of the girls enters into, increases.
The real money makers from sex trafficking industry, who ends up with a lot of money in their pockets are the persons with a trafficker role in the trafficking process.
The trafficking industry* itself consists of different elements and functions.
Acquisition of sex slaves primarily occurs in one of five ways: Deceit, sale by family, abduction, seduction or romance, or recruitment by former slaves. Each of these means are utilized in almost every country; however, local factors promoted certain means over others.
The movement is achieved by almost any conveyance imaginable e.g. in the trunk of a car, by bus, train, plane, speedboat, ferry and even by walk through the mountains on foot or on a horse back depending on the region of the world.
A Russian organized crime group might acquire slaves from rural
The Russian crime group could then select the slaves most likely to service the slave owner's needs most effectively, - whether for commercial sex, manufacturing industry, forced begging - and transport them accordingly.
Exploitation of sex slaves primarily indicates the violent coercion of unpaid sex services, through in essence, exploitation, begins the moment the slave is acquired.
Slaves are raped, tortured, starved, humiliated and drugged during transportation, both for the pleasure of traffickers and also to break the slaves to make them more submissive upon sale.
The interrelationship among these elements reveals the anatomy of sex trafficking, as the figure below shows.
Within the trafficking industry, the trafficker roles are:
The recruiter.
Finds and brings women into the industry, usually by deception, but sometimes by force.
Recruiters sell their recruits to brokers or directly to employers, such as a brothel or bar owners or managers.
The broker (agent).
A go-between or a middleman. Brokers typically buy women from a recruiter and then sell them to an employer. There may be more than one go-between (e.g. a broker may buy from a recruiter and then sell to another broker, who then sells to the employer.
The contractor:
Organizes and oversees an entire trafficking transaction, or more typically, a set of transactions. This role is usually played by a relatively professional criminal organization or group.
“Contractor” is the term for this role, which is comparable to that of a “general contractor” in a legitimate business – a project overseer who contracts out some of the labour for the project.
The employment/travel agent.
Arranges for the trip and its alleged purpose (e.g. job, job training, tourism). An employment agent arranges for a “legitimate” job and job description; a travel agent arranges for a “legitimate” trip.
Employment and travel agents may serve as “fronts” for the criminal trafficking activity. Sometimes employment or travel agents arrange for the traveller's visas, passports and other identification papers.
The document thief/forger.
Arranges for and obtains “legitimate” documentation for travel to another country. Document specialists may steal or otherwise illegally obtain legitimate documentation, or they may create false documentation.
The transporters (escort, “jockey”).
Accompanies women on the trip – by airplane, train, bus and car or on foot – to their destination. Transporters may take the woman through one or more transit cities or countries.
They usually deliver the women to a broker at a border or inside a destination country, but sometimes the delivery is directly to an amployer.
The employer (procurer).
Purchases and then sells the “commodity” to the customer, and provides a place of business for sex. Employers provide the women with a place to live and work; set up and tell them about the conditions of their work, living arrangements, and lifestyle; and inform them that they must work in the sex trade, while they pay off their debt.
Employers are most commonly bar, club, or brothel owners or managers; a small number of employers are street pimps and have no business establishment, and thus the sex transaction may occur in a public place.
The enforcer (guard, “roof”).
Provides protection for the place of business, and to a lesser extent, the trafficked women.
Enforcers protect the business from other criminal gangs, from extortionists, and from police or immigrant raids; they see that the women follow the house rules, and in particular, that they do not escape.
The enforcer may also make sure that the customer pays what he owes and otherwise abides by the house rules.
Enforcers – particularly if they are members of organized crime groups – may also be extorters; that is, on behalf of their crime group, they extort or demand money from brothels or bars, and if the owners don't pay, the crime group retaliates (e.g., burns down the business, murders the manager, arrange for a police raid on the business).
Extortion may be either a specialized enforcer role or one of several tasks of an enforcer; the line between extortion and payment for enforcement is thin.
* Text and figure above is a mix of - and re-written from two exceptional and very good books; "Sex trafficking; Inside the business of modern slavery", Siddharth Kara, 2009 and the book "Sex trafficking", Kathryn Farr, 2005.