Bending Towards Justice: Perceptions of Justice among Human Trafficking Survivors

• In Event: Detecting and Measuring Human Trafficking Violations

Abstract

Recent research indicates challenges exist in the identification, investigation and prosecution of labor and sex trafficking cases across the United States. Prosecutors traditionally define success as having secured a conviction against traffickers. Yet, research on victims’ needs suggests that not all victims may best served by, nor desire, traditional criminal prosecutions. We lack recent, in-depth insight into survivors’ perspectives on the legal system and how they feel justice can serve them.
The goals of the research study are to understand: 1) human trafficking survivors’ experiences with the justice system and their perceptions of whether and how justice was achieved in their cases, and 2) understand whether transitional justice and procedural justice models might be applied to human trafficking cases by examining whether additional remedies together with or separate from criminal prosecutions would be desired by trafficking survivors.

Author

• Colleen Owens, Urban Institute