Measuring the Threat of Global Crime: Insights From Research by the League of Nations Into the Traffic in Women*

Abstract

Despite increasing concern about the threat of global crime, it remains difficult to measure. During the 1920s and 1930s, the League of Nations conducted the first social‐scientific study of global crime in two studies of the worldwide traffic in women. The first study included 112 cities and 28 countries; researchers carried out 6,500 interviews in 14 languages, including 5,000 with figures in the international underworld. By drawing on archival materials in Geneva and New York, this article examines the role of ethnography in developing a social‐science measure of global crime threats. The discussion covers the Rockefeller grand jury and formation of the Bureau of Social Hygiene; the League's research in Europe, the Americas, and the Mediterranean; controversy concerning the use of undercover researchers; the League's research in Asia; and the end of the Bureau. The League's experience demonstrates the promise of multisite ethnography in research about global crime as well as the difficulty of mapping crime on a global scale.

Human trafficking for sex, labour and domestic servitude: how do key trafficking types compare and what are their predictors?

“…Some researchers attribute the dominant focus on sexual exploitation and associated gendering of the trafficking discourse to its roots in widespread (and since debunked) panic about the 'white slave trade' in the early twentieth Century [24,25,48]. In New York, for example, concerns about the alleged large-scale abduction and sale of (white) women and girls by 'foreigners' for prostitution 2 proved the defining issue of the 1909 elections [48]. Early attempts to investigate the 'white slave trade' came amid a broader campaign for 'social hygiene', entwined with an abolitionist stance on prostitution, a moralising agenda, xenophobia and fears of racial contamination [48].…”

“…In New York, for example, concerns about the alleged large-scale abduction and sale of (white) women and girls by 'foreigners' for prostitution 2 proved the defining issue of the 1909 elections [48]. Early attempts to investigate the 'white slave trade' came amid a broader campaign for 'social hygiene', entwined with an abolitionist stance on prostitution, a moralising agenda, xenophobia and fears of racial contamination [48]. As concerns escalated internationally over the first part of the twentieth Century, various international conventions were adopted that focused on protecting women and children (more accurately, girls) from prostitution 3 [35].…”

The International Traffic in Women: Scandinavia and the League of Nations Inquiry of 1927

“…Local crime bosses or gang leaders in cities became a new threat of international crime, too powerful for local police. Only international organizations, such as the League of Nations working in conjunction with the International Criminal Police Commission, had the ability to challenge them (Knepper 2012;Jä ger 2006).…”

“…When Abbott secured a grant from the Bureau of Social Hygiene, she won final approval. The Bureau of Social Hygiene, a corporation established in New York by John D. Rockefeller Jr to promote research into public health and social problems, agreed to provide $75,000 (Knepper 2012). 3 The logic of the study followed from the North American social survey movement during the Progressive Era (Hunt 1999).…”

“…The League pioneered research into human trafficking as a global crime problem. In the 1920s, researchers commissioned by the League carried out the first intercontinental study of the 'white slave trade' (Chaumont 2009;Knepper 2012) and established traffic in women as an 'international crime' (Deflem 2002;Jä ger 2006;Knepper 2011). 1 The research encompassed 112 cities in 28 countries across Europe, the Americas, and the Mediterranean (League of Nations 1927a, 1927b.…”