Understanding the Role of Transportation in Human Trafficking in California

69A3551747127Human trafficking, a form of modern slavery, is the recruitment, transport, and/or transfer of persons using force, fraud, or coercion to exploit them for acts of labor or sex. According to the International Labor Organization, human trafficking is the fastest growing organized crime with approximately $150 billion in annual profits and 40.3 million individuals trapped in slavelike conditions. While it is not compulsory to involve transportation for human trafficking, the transportation industry plays a critical role in combating human trafficking as traffickers often rely on the transportation system to recruit, move, or transfer victims. This multi-method study investigates the role of transportation in combatting human trafficking in California by conducting a survey followed up with semi-structured in-depth interviews with key stakeholders. The expert input is supplemented with labor violations and transit accessibility analysis. Experts emphasize the importance of education, training, and awareness efforts combined with partnership, data, and analysis. Screening transportation industry personnel for human trafficking is another step that the industry can take to combat this issue. Particularly, sharing perpetrator information and transportation related trends among transportation modalities and local groups could help all anti-trafficking practitioners. In addition, the transportation industry can support the victims and survivors in their exit attempts and post/exit life. Examples of this support include serving as a safe haven, and providing transportation to essential services. Transportation should ensure that all of these efforts are survivor-centric, inclusive for all types of trafficking, and tailored to the needs of the modality, population, and location

Petroleum Resource Management for Sustainable Development in Ghana: Will the Petroleum Revenue Management Legal Regime Avoid the Resource Curse?

This thesis is based on an investigation of the legal aspects of the management of petroleum revenue in Ghana in order to promote sustainability and thereby avoid the replication of the resource curse syndrome. The Parliament passed the laws for the regulation and management of petroleum revenue, the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) 2011 and Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act 2016. The thesis argues that the current state of the law, and regulatory environment have far-reaching impacts on the promotion of transparency, accountability and sustainability in the socially beneficial management of petroleum revenue. Some inherent challenges that may inhibit the management of petroleum revenue include possible non-prosecution of mismanagement of oil revenue because of the powers of the Attorney General to exercise nolle prosequi. There have also been considerable infractions such as not fulfilling auditing and reporting requirements, non-remission of revenues into the appropriate funds or accounts, and failure of sufficient engagement in impactful investments in priority areas stipulated in the PRMA. The research further analyses how the best practices as contained in the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative standards and Generally Accepted Principles and Practices for Sovereign Wealth Funds can be adapted in implementing the PRMA. It recommends the establishment of the Ghana Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative as a corporate body with powers to promote transparency in petroleum revenue. It further proposes the establishment of the Sovereign Wealth Fund as a specialised corporate entity to manage the funds. It recommends the earmarking of certain percentage of petroleum revenue for the promotion of developmental projects in host communities. It concludes that there is a need to strengthen the legal regime for the management of petroleum revenue through enabling environment for sustainability, transparency and accountability and checking against infractions in the legal regime in order to avoid the resource curse

10492 Executive Summary -- Information-Centric Networking

This document provides the executive summary of Dagstuhl seminar 10492 on Information-Centric Networking, which took place from December 5th to 8th 2010

Reviews and Perspectives on Smart and Sustainable Metropolitan and Regional Cities

The notion of smart and sustainable cities offers an integrated and holistic approach to urbanism by aiming to achieve the long-term goals of urban sustainability and resilience. In essence, a smart and sustainable city is an urban locality that functions as a robust system of systems with sustainable practices to generate desired outcomes and futures for all humans and non-humans. This book contributes to improving research and practice in smart and sustainable metropolitan as well as regional cities and urbanism by bringing together literature reviews and scholarly perspective pieces, forming an open access knowledge warehouse. It contains contributions that offer insights into research and practice in smart and sustainable metropolitan and regional cities by producing in-depth conceptual debates and perspectives, insights from the literature and best practice, and thoroughly identified research themes and development trends. This book serves as a repository of relevant information, material, and knowledge to support research, policymaking, practice, and the transferability of experiences to address challenges in establishing smart and sustainable metropolitan as well as regional cities and urbanism in the era of climate change, biodiversity collapse, natural disasters, pandemics, and socioeconomic inequalities

State's response to transnational human trafficking : the cases of Russia and Turkey

Ankara : The Department of International Relations, İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University, 2011.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 2011.Includes bibliographical references leaves 169-184.In the aftermath of globalization, it has become increasingly easier for non-state actors to develop in transnational networks, thus jeopardizing domestic security and political stability of states. Studying the influence of transnationalism on non-state actors could help these states develop new strategies of dealing with criminal networks. The present thesis is trying to answer the following research question: “What is the states’ response to transnationalism in terms of their dealing with human trafficking networks?” It examines the way the state is adapting itself to transnational security challenges posed by violent non-state actors (VNSAs). To this end, comparative case studies method is used by means of comparing Russia and Turkey’s responses to human trafficking. The basic conclusion of the author is that Russia and Turkey’s responses to human trafficking have been very different due to the impact of two main factors. First, it is the degree of the international pressure that determined the state’s willingness to take human trafficking challenge seriously. Second, the degree of the state’s success in its anti-trafficking policy is also influenced by the political regime of this state. Thus, international pressure and political regime both have an impact on the state’s response to the transnational security threat of human traffickingZhidkova, TatianaM.S

Proceedings of the SUPTM 2022 conference

This book includes the proceedings of the 1st international Conference on Future Challenges in Sustainable Urban Planning & Territorial Management celebrated on January 17-19, 2022. Urban planning is an essential tool in our global society's journey towards sustainability. This tool is as important as the territorial management to execute the plans. Both, planning and management, must be efficient to achieve the goal of sustainability inside the general framework of Sustainable Development Goals of United Nations. It does not exist any B planet so, identify urban & territorial challenges in our territories such reaching sustainable mobility, diagnose natural hazards and control land resource consumption is mandatory for our XXI century generation. Planning land uses compatibles with the ecosystem services of territory and manage them by public-private cooperation systems is a greatly challenge for our global society. Human activities do not have very frequently among their objectives to maintain ecosystem services of territory. Therefore, this field of research must help to guarantee the maintenance of natural resources, also called Natural Capital, necessary for social and economic activities of our global society. This conference aims to be a space to share research works, ideas, experiences, projects, etc. in this field of knowledge. We want to put in value that planning and management are subjects that include technological and social matters and their own methodologies. Laws, rules and cultures of different countries around the world are or can be very diverse. But the planet is only one. Technologies are shared, methodologies to analyze territories are also communal to share experiences about the global goal of sustainability, so these events are a necessary way to build our joint future. We trust that the success of this first edition of the SUPTM conference (which has been attended by more than 200 researchers from the five continents) will be an opening step towards international collaboration and the dissemination of knowledge that is so important in this field of urban planning and territorial management

Interpreting the Obama Administration's Rebalance Strategy: Sustaining U.S. hegemony in the Asia-Pacific

In 2009, with the continuation of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a global financial crisis, fears of American decline were compounded by the 'rise of China' and the potential for a transformation in the Asia-Pacific geopolitical environment that would destabilise the region's post-war order and challenge U.S. regional hegemony. In the same year, the Obama administration initiated a recalibration of U.S. foreign policy towards the Asia-Pacific that became known as the strategic rebalance. This thesis examines the way in which the Obama administration has responded to the Asia-Pacific's regional geopolitics through its signature rebalance strategy in order to maintain its hegemonic position. This research contributes to IR by using a constructivist approach and discourse analysis to interpret hegemony as both an intrinsic part of U.S. identity, and a social, asymmetrical relationship, derived from multiple and overlapping sources of power. Hegemony is an asymmetric relationship that requires consent from the Asia-Pacific nations for its ongoing legitimacy. The rebalance strategy is an effort to make the U.S. ontologically secure - to secure its hegemonic identity in the Asia-Pacific. In examining how the U.S. reproduces its regional hegemony from these angles, this thesis develops the constructivist focus on ideas, identity and narrative as being intrinsic to foreign policy output. This approach allows for consideration of the co-constituted relationships between the belief system of American exceptionalism, the 'rise of China' narrative, U.S. hegemonic identity formation and U.S. foreign policy practice. The empirical analysis of U.S. hegemony applies Barnett and Duvall's taxonomy of power to examine the interplay between the different components of American hegemony in the Asia-Pacific. This holistic approach to U.S. hegemony and the exertion of power determines that the U.S. does not solely rely on coercive military power to achieve foreign policy outcomes. Instead, this thesis interprets the rebalance strategy as part of complex processes of social bargains, identity, narratives and forms of power working collectively in the production of U.S. foreign policy

A Student Primer on Intersectionality: Not Just A Buzzword

This book: ● lays out the objectives of WS 166, Gender, Race, and Class, taught in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department, Pace University, New York City campus; ● provides a structure for any course addressing intersectionality, feminism, and oppression; ● describes the framework of intersectionality, which examines societal issues by analyzing the interlocking systems of oppression that shape people’s lives; ● argues for a transnational application of intersectionality that also centers U.S. Black feminists’ contributions to understanding oppression; ● includes journal articles, TED Talks, and class exercises that are generally accessible for most students or interested readers without previous exposure to these topics. We designed this book to illustrate that intersectionality is a powerful tool for learning about and addressing injustice and inequity. When we analyze the world using an intersectionality framework, we learn about people’s lives and experiences in ways that we may never have considered, or wanted to consider. And the mere act of examining multiple systems of oppression is not enough, either, as the point of understanding oppression is to end it in all forms. As you read, be thankful for the discomfort, anger, and compassion that may arise; learning about oppression is never easy, but it is a worthwhile and meaningful task

The Portrayal of Force, Fraud, and Coercion Within Northern Ohio Federal Sex Trafficking Trials -- 2010-2013

Human trafficking is often considered to be one of the three largest criminal enterprises worldwide, ranking beside the sale of illegal drugs and illicit firearms (Bales, 2004, 2007 Bales & Doodalter, 2009 Hussein, 2011 Schauer & Wheaton, 2006 Skinner, 2008). National estimates suggest that 100,000-300,000 American, school-aged children are at-risk for sex trafficking (Department of Homeland Security, 2014) while there is only a one percent arrest and conviction record for traffickers (Bales, 2007). This dissertation explored the portrayal of force, fraud, and coercion within federal domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) trials of Northern Ohio from 2010-2013 so as to gain a greater understanding of the contributing factors that make individuals vulnerable to the phenomenon. DMST occurs when a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age (U.S. Department of State, 2011). Data were examined via qualitative means by conducting a narrative analysis of existing court documentation of fifteen confirmed DMST cases, guided by critical theory and feminist epistemology. Findings revealed dimensions of individual agency in tension with structural and cultural conditions as well as a complex set of factors contributing to the persistence and legal response to sex trafficking. The examined episodes of DMST were initiated via factors that included fraudulent documents, economic instability, emotional dependency, drug addiction, reliance on an informal/underground economy, and lack of educational attainment. DMST continued through factors including physical force, coercion, indebtedness, feelings of belonging, the leveraging of an intimate relationship, financial arrangements, and the reliance on an informal/underground economy. The episode of DMST was terminated via law enforcement involvement, voluntary departure, familial involvement, ending the use of illegal drugs, and coming into a period of economic stabil

The Portrayal of Force, Fraud, and Coercion Within Northern Ohio Federal Sex Trafficking Trials -- 2010-2013

Human trafficking is often considered to be one of the three largest criminal enterprises worldwide, ranking beside the sale of illegal drugs and illicit firearms (Bales, 2004, 2007 Bales & Doodalter, 2009 Hussein, 2011 Schauer & Wheaton, 2006 Skinner, 2008). National estimates suggest that 100,000-300,000 American, school-aged children are at-risk for sex trafficking (Department of Homeland Security, 2014) while there is only a one percent arrest and conviction record for traffickers (Bales, 2007). This dissertation explored the portrayal of force, fraud, and coercion within federal domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) trials of Northern Ohio from 2010-2013 so as to gain a greater understanding of the contributing factors that make individuals vulnerable to the phenomenon. DMST occurs when a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age (U.S. Department of State, 2011). Data were examined via qualitative means by conducting a narrative analysis of existing court documentation of fifteen confirmed DMST cases, guided by critical theory and feminist epistemology. Findings revealed dimensions of individual agency in tension with structural and cultural conditions as well as a complex set of factors contributing to the persistence and legal response to sex trafficking. The examined episodes of DMST were initiated via factors that included fraudulent documents, economic instability, emotional dependency, drug addiction, reliance on an informal/underground economy, and lack of educational attainment. DMST continued through factors including physical force, coercion, indebtedness, feelings of belonging, the leveraging of an intimate relationship, financial arrangements, and the reliance on an informal/underground economy. The episode of DMST was terminated via law enforcement involvement, voluntary departure, familial involvement, ending the use of illegal drugs, and coming into a period of economic stabil