Human Trafficking and Moral Panic in Cambodia

• Author: Thierry Bouhours,Chenda Keo,Brigitte Bouhours,Roderic Broadhurst
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716214521376
• Published date: 01 May 2014
• Date: 01 May 2014

202 ANNALS, AAPSS, 653, May 2014

DOI: 10.1177/0002716214521376

Human

Trafficking and

Moral Panic in

Cambodia

By

CHENDA KEO,

THIERRY BOUHOURS,

RODERIC BROADHURST,

and

BRIGITTE BOUHOURS

521376ANN The Annals of the American AcademyTrafficking and Moral Panic in Cambodia

research-article2014

This article examines the backgrounds of traffickers in

Cambodia: why they became involved in trafficking,

how they operate, their earnings, and the criminal jus-

tice 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 unedu-

cated 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 dysfunc-

tional justice system, the law has turned into an instru-

ment of corruption and injustice against powerless

individuals.

Keywords: human trafficking; trafficker; smuggling;

antitrafficking law; moral panic; corrup-

tion

Cambodia was one of the first countries to

enact a law on human trafficking in 1996.

This law, one of the harshest in the country,

punished trafficking as severely as premedi-

tated murder. Although there had been some

concern about human trafficking within

Cambodia, a global campaign, led by the United

Chenda Keo is a professional and scholar in the field of

human trafficking. He served in many high-profile

positions with NGOs and UN agencies. In 2012, he was

appointed Advisor to the Cambodian Ministry of Social

Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation. He is the

author of Human Trafficking in Cambodia (Routledge

2014).

Thierry Bouhours is a visiting fellow at the Regulatory

Institutions Network, Australian National University.

His research focuses on historical and contemporary

patterns of violence, crime, and policing in Cambodia.

He has a broader interest in comparative analysis of

criminal victimization in Southeast Asia.

TRAFFICKING AND MORAL PANIC IN CAMBODIA 203

States, had been waging a “war on human trafficking” that required action on the

part of the Cambodian government to ensure the continuation of development

aid to the country. Human trafficking, or “modern day slavery,” was described by

the U.S. Department of State (USDS) and the United Nations Office on Drugs

and Crime (UNODC) as a transnational enterprise controlled by organized

crime, which enslaved 12.3 million people, generated $32 billion in profit for

human traffickers, was the third most profitable business for organized crime,

and posed a serious threat to national and global security (UNODC 2008; USDS

2009). Such unverified, high estimates suggested the presence of a “moral panic”

about human trafficking and have subsequently been found to be unreliable or

inflated in terms of the number of individuals involved and the profits earned by

trafficking (UNODC 2012).1

Apart from some NGO reports and a few studies of trafficked persons, virtu-

ally nothing is known about the individuals involved in human trafficking in

Cambodia, and some evidence suggests that the experiences of individuals

involved in Cambodian trafficking stand in contrast to prevalent claims about the

abusive and criminal characteristics of human trafficking. In 2006, one of this

article’s authors interviewed nine boys and eight girls under 18 years of age, all of

whom had been “trafficked” to work in Thailand and subsequently reintegrated

into their family or community in Cambodia (Keo 2006). None saw themselves

as “victims.” They had willingly followed their recruiters to Thailand to earn an

income and support their impoverished family. They considered themselves

“good children” because of their ability to work and share the burden of support-

ing their family. Most had been “trafficked” by family members, relatives, or

neighbors, and a few by strangers. Few had suffered physical abuse and most of

them had been treated well. From their accounts, human trafficking did not

sound like a risky activity, and traffickers did not seem to make big profits.

Since the late 1990s, the authors have been engaged in a longitudinal study of

the trends and patterns of criminal activity in Cambodia, which included victimi-

zation surveys. We have found scant evidence that trafficking is a major problem

or that it involves organized crime, and our results are consistent with those of

another study (Steinfatt 2011). This article presents some of the results of our

research in Cambodia, which as far as we know is the first to draw on in-depth

interviews with alleged offenders.2

Roderic Broadhurst is a professor of criminology at the Regulatory Institutions Network,

Australian National University. He is an associate fellow of the Australian Institute of

Criminology. Apart from work on crime victim surveys, his current research includes crime

and violence in Cambodia, homicide, organized crime in China, and crime in cyberspace.

Brigitte Bouhours is a visiting research associate at the Regulatory Institutions Network,

Australian National University. She has worked on the development and analysis of large-scale

victimization surveys in China and Southeast Asia. Other research interests include violence

against women and comparative analysis of crime and violence, particularly in Southeast Asia.

NOTE: This research was supported by ARC Discovery Grant DP0776057, Building Rule of

Law Capacity in a Transitional State.