Transcrime at the 2025 ASC Conference

Trafficking in Human Beings (THB) remains an enduring and multifaceted problem with severe societal implications. While extensive research has explored victims’ experiences and vulnerabilities, significant gaps persist—particularly regarding protective factors that could help individuals avoid or exit trafficking.  This study examines the vulnerabilities and protective factors affecting both victims and perpetrators of THB, focusing on three major forms—sex trafficking, labour trafficking, and forced criminality—within the European context. It combines a comprehensive literature review with insights from semi-structured interviews with THB experts, including law enforcement officials, border guards, researchers, NGO representatives, and other stakeholders. Preliminary findings challenge stereotypical portrayals of victims and perpetrators and highlight overlooked vulnerabilities in lesser-studied forms of trafficking. This study is conducted within the framework of the European-funded VANGUARD project (Grant Number 101121282).

This study investigates how social embeddedness shapes criminal collaboration within the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the largest drug-trafficking organisations globally. Drawing on trial transcripts from Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera’s U.S. federal case, we coded multiplex social relationships—including familial ties, friendships, compadre relations, meetings, and collaborative transactions—into network data.
Using social network analysis and statistical models, we assess the extent to which these ties are associated with criminal collaboration. Findings reveal that friendship and meeting ties are the strongest predictors of collaboration, while familial ties lose their effect once shared organisational membership is controlled for. These results underscore the role of trust-based relationships in sustaining organised crime and demonstrate the methodological potential of judicial data for analysing criminal networks.

False invoicing—the issuance of invoices for services that do not exist or whose value does not correspond to the actual transaction—is one of the most neglected crimes in criminological research, yet it plays a crucial role in modern organised and financial crime schemes. This paper provides an empirical analysis of several dozen cases of false invoicing detected in Italy, offering a sociological and criminological interpretation of why this offence is employed, by whom, and who provides these criminal services. Findings reveal the existence of specialised providers, including foreign individuals and organisations, offering money laundering-as-a-service through false invoicing. The study demonstrates how this practice has transformed both the structure of laundering markets and the dynamics of predicate crimes, including mafia-type operations. The analysis is conducted within the framework of the FALCON project.