This edited collection offers a ground‑breaking shift in anti‑trafficking literature by focusing on what goes wrong in order to determine how to fix it. Adopting a highly accessible, multidisciplinary approach, this international collection brings together leading scholars and legal practitioners to expose the critical gaps in current global response systems.

Thematically, this book is structured around three core pillars. First, it challenges outdated definitions of exploitation, particularly regarding child criminal exploitation, sex work, and labour trafficking. Second, it evaluates operational failures in victim identification and protection, using highly topical real case studies from different continents such as cross‑border drug smuggling in Chile, cyber‑scam factories in Southeast Asia, and the high‑profile Dominic Ongwen case at the International Criminal Court. Finally, this book focuses on structural failures, addressing cutting‑edge realities, such as the role of artificial intelligence in the fight against human trafficking, and the importance of integrating survivors’ testimonies and lived experiences into research, law‑making, and public policy.

By courageously analysing why past frameworks have failed, this essential volume delivers actionable, evidence‑based, and survivor‑centred solutions to reshape future law, policy, and practice worldwide.

Silvia Rodríguez-López is a Senior Research Fellow in Criminal Law at the University of A Coruña, where she presented her thesis on human trafficking-related corruption. She has also carried out studies on criminal exploitation and the non-punishment clause, labour exploitation, and women convicted for trafficking.

Amy Weatherburn is FWO Senior Postdoctoral Fellow at the KU Leuven Institute for European Law with expertise in human trafficking, forced labour, (labour) migration and fundamental rights law. Her current research focuses on tackling labour exploitation beyond criminal law and providing access to remedy to migrant workers.