In each case Bales presents the personal stories of a few individuals, analyses the economic and political causes of their slavery, and sketches its broader social and historical contexts. Bales avoids sensationalism and takes care with his analysis. Common to all forms of slavery is the use of violence, overt or implicit. So slavery requires either a failure of the state to maintain law and order or its complicity. In each of his case studies Bales looks at the role of the legal system and law enforcement.
Bales covers both microeconomic detail and connections with broader national and global economies.
This economic connection is one of the ways in which Bales urges ordinary citizens in the developed world to act, by putting pressure on their pension and mutual funds. Another is political action, directed towards economic sanctions or to pressuring governments to enforce anti-slavery legislation.