Thierry Bouhours

Human Trafficking and Moral Panic in Cambodia

This article examines the backgrounds of traffickers in Cambodia: why they became involved in trafficking, how they operate, their earnings, and the criminal justice system’s response to their activities. Our research draws from interviews with justice officials, NGOs, and detained alleged traffickers; and from a review of police and prison records. The results challenge alarmist claims about the high prevalence, profitability, or role of organized crime in human trafficking. In Cambodia, 80 percent of incarcerated traffickers are poor uneducated women who lack legitimate opportunities and whose unsophisticated illicit activities earn very little. We argue that the Cambodian government, in return for foreign aid, adopted a repressive law that defines human trafficking ineptly; in the hands of a dysfunctional justice system, the law has turned into an instrument of corruption and injustice against powerless individuals.

Business and the Risk of Crime in China

The results of a large victimisation survey conducted in 2006 of 5,117 businesses in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Xi’an are reported. Over one-quarter (26.2 per cent) of businesses reported at least one incident of crime over the past year, but higher risks of commercial crimes (i.e., fraud, bribery, extortion and intellectual property offences) than common crime (i.e., robbery assault, and theft) were found. Across the cities, the rate of commercial crime (22.6 per cent) was 3.4 times that of common crime (6.7 per cent) and businesses in Shenzhen were at higher risk of commercial crime (27.9 per cent) than those in Xi’an (25.3 per cent) and Hong Kong and Shanghai (19.5 per cent). Just over 6 per cent of respondents mentioned incidents of bribery. Larger businesses were most at risk especially of fraud and differences between the cities were small. The survey shows that the level of crime reported by businesses located in China was lower than other emerging economies as well as Western and Eastern Europe. Explanations about the level of crime against business in China are discussed at the macro level using Durkheimian ideas about modernisation and crime and at the meso/micro levels by drawing from opportunity and routine activity theories.