The offenders

• Offenders do not consider victims as human beings seeing them instead as property. Victims may be bought and sold in exchange for other items.
• It is possible that offenders may not consider that what they are doing is wrong. They may argue they are supporting their victims.
• Offenders establish controlling relationships with victims who may come to rely on their captors. Offenders may seek multiple ways to extract maximum value from victims through sexual abuse, benefit and identity fraud, labour exploitation and/or or servitude.
• Offenders rarely act alone often working with associates or other members of a crime group. Separate groups may collaborate to exploit similar forms of offending.
• Individuals may have specific or defined roles within crime groups. It is possible that these individuals may not be aware of the total picture of exploitative offending.

Adapted from an article in the Modern Slavery Police Transformation newsletter summer 2018