Bending Towards Justice: Perceptions of Justice among Human Trafficking Survivors

• In Event: Victimology from a System Perspective: What Victims Want and How the System Operates

Abstract

Research indicates that 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.
This presentation focuses on findings from a National Institute of Justice-funded research study with the following goals: 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. Findings from in-depth interviews with approximately 100 survivors of labor and sex trafficking as well as criminal justice and victim service provider stakeholders in 8 sites across the United States are discussed.

Authors

• Hanna Marie Love, The Urban Institute

• Lilly Yu, Urban Institute

• Jeanette Hussemann, Urban Institute

• Colleen Owens, Urban Institute