Transnational crime involves an illegal economic market, which Arlacchi (2001) defines as "a place or principle within which there is an exchange of goods and services, the production, selling and consumption of which are forbidden or strictly regulated by the majority of states and/or by international law." For organized crime in the Balkan countries, it is more appropriate to make a distinction between two kinds of criminal markets, i.e., illegal trading in goods and services that are themselves forbidden (e.g., drugs and people) and illegal trading in otherwise legal goods and services (e.g., cigarettes and liquor). The development of organized crime and trafficking in people as a significant part of it, is also connected to the expansion of the "hidden economy," which the author defines as "the social and productive space where both informal and illegal economies operate." An examination of the global and local factors that have facilitated an illegal market for human trafficking, notably in the Balkans, is the basis for proposing control mechanisms and preventive measures over both the short term and the long term. The categories of measures proposed in this paper are market barriers at the supply, trafficking, and demand stages, and also the development of democratic institutions and the rule of law. 41 references