Girl power! Kind of? Women and sex trafficking

So, you know how there’s this whole market for trafficking women for sex?  Well, apparently, in a reversal of roles, women are now targeting men for sex and acting as their pimps.

The first international report into the scope of human trafficking, published yesterday, found a disproportionate number of female perpetrators, more than in any other crime, selling other women into slavery in countries including Australia.

My first question is obviously how the study was designed, statistics, outliers, r squared values, etc, etc. My second, which this article doesn’t really address at all, is, how is this happening?  How are women trafficking men?

Fortunately, the UN report that prompted this article has some answers.

“This Report increases our understanding of modern slave markets, yet it also exposes our ignorance”, said Mr. Costa. “We have a big picture, but it is impressionistic and lacks depth. We fear the problem is getting worse, but we can not prove it for lack of data, and many governments are obstructing”, he admitted. The head of UNODC therefore called on governments and social scientists to improve information-gathering and -sharing on human trafficking.  “If we do not overcome this knowledge crisis we will be fighting the problem blindfolded”, he warned.

Oh, fabulous!  Glad to see that your results are statistically valid and significant.  Obviously, the UN has no teeth when it comes to conducting these kinds of studies, but it makes me wonder whether policy makers will rely on it as a serious source of information.