Trafficking of Human Beings: A Case to Case Study

• In Event: International Courts and Sentencing Processes

Abstract

This work, result of a study developed within a research project that has just ended, analyses, statistically, Spanish jurisprudence on trafficking from an exclusively procedural perspective. The work contains an analysis of the sentences issued, mainly by the Spanish Supreme Court, based on the two phases into which the criminal process is divided. Thus, with respect to the investigation phase, it establishes which investigative acts are most commonly used in Spanish police and judicial practice to support the accusation of a trafficking crime. Focusing on the prosecution or oral trial phase, the study focuses on the determination of the means of evidence most frequently used by the courts to decide the conviction for the corresponding crime, after the evidentiary assessment of the courts. The usefulness of this study is justified by the Spanish legislator's intention to pass a comprehensive law on trafficking, which obviously cannot ignore the actual practice of the courts in sentencing for trafficking offenses.

Author

• Andrea Planchadell-Gargallo, University Jaume I, Castellón, Spain