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Preventing human trafficking and exploitation: evidence review

This evidence review aims to explore current understanding of approaches to preventing human trafficking and exploitation in the UK. It is part of a series of four evidence reviews. This paper provides insight on the potential merits of a public health approach.


Annex A: Search strategy

Table 1 Key search words

Concept 1

Concept 2

Concept 3

Human trafficking

modern slavery

Labour exploitation

commercial exploitation labour exploitation

forced labour

domestic servitude compulsory labour

debt bondage

wage theft

labour abuse

worker exploitation

child labour exploitation child labour

adult labour exploitation

“(Social Media or Freestanding webpages) and labour exploitation”

Criminal exploitation

criminal exploitation

county lines

forced criminality

drug trafficking

child criminal exploitation

adult criminal exploitation

cannabis cultivation

cuckooing

grug gangs

shoplifting gangs

“Social Media or Freestanding webpage) and criminal exploitation”

Sex Exploitation

sexual exploitation

sex trafficking

sex trading

forced prostitution

commercial sexual exploitation

adult commercial sexual exploitation

child sexual exploitation child pornography

online sex trafficking

online sexual exploitation pornography

lap dancing

adult services websites” lover boy technique

cybersex exploitation

coerced livestreaming

“(Social Media or Freestanding Webpage) and sexual exploitation”

Prevent*

intervene*

treat*

program*

effective*

evaluate*

assessment

protect*

evidence review

rapid evidence assessment

rapid evidence review

systematic evidence review

Table 2 Databases searched

Scottish Government’s Knowledge and Evidence library:

Academic Search Ultimate

AGRIS

Archive of European Integration

ASTM Compass

Australian Public Affairs Full Text

Australian Research Data Commons

Biodiversity Heritage Library

BioOne Complete

Bloomsbury Collections

BMJ Clinical Evidence

British Library Document Supply Centre Inside Serials and Conference Proceedings

British Library EThOS

British Standards Online

Business Source Index

CAB Reviews

Canada Commons

Canadiana Online

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

Credo Reference

Credo Reference: Academic Core

Criminal Justice Abstracts with Full Text

Digital Literacy

DigitalNZ

Directory of Open Access Books

Directory of Open Access Journals

eBook Collection

EcoLink

EduSearch

E-LIS

Emerald Insight

ERIC

European Union Open Data Portal

First Research

FT.com

GreenFILE

Informit Families and Society Collection

Informit Health Collection

Informit Humanities and Social Sciences Collection

JSTOR Journals

Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts

MEDLINE

Military and Government Collection

New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online

Open Research Library

Oxfam Policy and Practice

Oxford Bibliographies

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Oxford Medicine Online

Oxford Reference

Oxford's Who's Who and Who Was Who

Political Science Complete

RePEc

SAGE Business Researcher

SAGE Knowledge

SAGE Research Methods

ScienceDirect

Sociology Source Ultimate

Teacher Reference Center

United Nations iLibrary

World Affairs Online

World Bank eLibrary

Government Social Research EBSCO

Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection

EconLit with Full Text

Sociology Source Ultimate

Table 3 Websites searched

World Health Organisation

UN

Council of Europe

UNODC

Google

Google scholar

Table 4 Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria

Peer-reviewed academic articles and grey literature written in English that:

  • Reported on any form of human trafficking and/or modern slavery or criminal, labour and sexual exploitation;
  • Reported findings from studies in the UK, or discussed human trafficking in a global context that is directly relevant to or covers the UK (e.g. WHO, UN, Council of Europe, UNODC, GRETA).
  • Discussed prevention of or responses to human trafficking and/or exploitation
  • Were published since 2017

Exclusion criteria

  • Literature published before 2017;
  • Not written or translated into English;
  • Exclusively reported findings from studies out with the UK.

Contact

Email: justice_analysts@gov.scot

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