KINGSTON, Jamaica — A disturbing shift in the criminal landscape of human trafficking is emerging, with women increasingly occupying dominant roles within trafficking syndicates. This revelation comes from Diahann Gordon Harrison, Jamaica’s Children’s Advocate and National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, who delivered her findings during the 22nd Annual George Liele Lecture at Kingston’s Mamby Park Baptist Church.
While men remain the primary perpetrators identified in trafficking cases, Gordon Harrison highlighted a significant trend: women are now actively participating as traffickers and key operatives within criminal organizations. These female offenders are leveraging their perceived nurturing qualities to facilitate recruitment, orientation of new victims, and operational management—effectively weaponizing empathy for criminal profit.
Globally, statistics from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) substantiate this pattern, showing approximately 40% of convicted human traffickers are women—a substantially higher female participation rate than in other organized crime categories. Their involvement spans ownership structures, victim recruitment, housing supervision, monetary collection, and document forgery operations.
This criminal evolution occurs despite women and girls remaining the majority of victims, particularly in sexual exploitation schemes. Traffickers strategically deploy women as recruiters capitalizing on their perceived trustworthiness to lure vulnerable targets.
Gordon Harrison emphasized that human trafficking represents both a severe criminal enterprise—generating an estimated $150 billion annually as the world’s fastest-growing organized crime—and a profound human rights violation. The practice systematically dehumanizes victims, stripping them of individuality, dignity, and personal autonomy.
Jamaica has implemented robust countermeasures including strengthened legal frameworks punishing perpetrators, victim protection protocols, and public education initiatives targeting schools and vulnerable communities. These efforts have yielded 17 convictions to date, with growing public vigilance leading to increased reporting of suspected cases to authorities.
The Children’s Advocate concluded that while cultural change requires sustained effort, each prevented trafficking case represents a critical victory: “If you save even one potential victim, that is one less.”