Exploitation has no place at home, at work, or in our communities.

The Spectrum of Exploitation is a tool and a framework that can increase your understanding of the societal and personal conditions that interact to expose people to exploitation in their relational and work situations, from precarious work to trafficking. Introduce the Spectrum of Exploitation to your workplace.

Integrate The Tool Into Your Practice

Introduction To The Spectrum Of Exploitation

Watch a 10 minute video of the Co-Developers describing the development of The Spectrum of Exploitation.

The Spectrum of Exploitation is a tool and framework.

As a Tool for Advocacy

The Spectrum of Exploitation is designed to challenge policies, practices and attitudes that put people more at risk of exploitation by perpetuating social and economic barriers, harmful laws, social norms, institutional practices and stereotypes. It can help to grow collective awareness of the injustices and impacts that follow inequality at all levels of society. Through using this tool, we can learn how exploitation is occurring all along the continuum, in any precarious or unsafe environment – trafficking being at the extreme end of the spectrum. The Spectrum of Exploitation can support the growing community that is committed to human rights, social justice and decent work.

As a Reflective Tool

The Spectrum of Exploitation provides a deeper understanding of systemic and individual intersectional factors that contribute to exploitation. These range in degree from experiences of bias and racism, poor working conditions, labour violations, human rights abuses, and human trafficking.

As a Framework

The Spectrum of Exploitation places emphasis broadly on exploitation to be more inclusive and to look for ‘push factors’ that create the conditions for exploitation to occur. By understanding the conditions that underlie exploitation, primary and secondary prevention interventions and strategies will become more visible. This will allow for advancing inclusive policies and practices more directly informed by lived experience.

Preview of the most up-to-date version of The Spectrum of Exploitation, that can be downloaded upon completion of training materials and videos.

How the Spectrum of Exploitation can support your workplace

The Spectrum of Exploitation supports staff in applying equity-oriented principles to help shift practice to a more holistic response.
The Spectrum of Exploitation supports your organization in advocating for human rights and social justice issues with increased understanding of the link between individuals and systemic inequities.

Ready To Start Training?

2018

The Spectrum Of Exploitation was developed by Dr. Sue Wilson and Dr. AnnaLise Trudell, as co-chairs of an anti-trafficking coalition in London Ontario in response to the need to develop common non-stigmatizing language to talk about and define human trafficking and to build capacity to collect consistent, coherent data.

2020

Funding was awarded by Women and Gender Equality (WAGE) for a three-year project to test, refine and evaluate the tool. The project was led by Anova, future without violence and the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children, Western University, both in London Ontario.

2024

Onboarding sessions and a community of practice provided important insights into what people need to develop confidence in using the Spectrum of Exploitation. The Spectrum of Exploitation website was launched.