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Despite increased awareness of sex trafficking of minors in the U.S., prosecution of traffickers remains difficult, in part because of victim uncooperativeness. There are questions about how that uncooperativeness is expressed, whether it is evident in successfully prosecuted cases, and whether it is unique to trafficked minors or it emerges in similar age victims of sexual abuse. To provide insight relevant to these questions, we compared appellate opinions in two types of successfully prosecuted criminal cases: sex trafficking and sexual abuse of adolescent victims. In the trafficking opinions, victims were rarely described as disclosing on their own or as knowing their trafficker before the victimization. The opinions also often alluded to the trafficking victims’ uncooperativeness and delinquency history, and frequently mentioned electronic evidence and prosecution experts. The sexual abuse opinions, in contrast, tended to suggest that victims’ own disclosures initiated the case, perpetrators were known and trusted adults, and caregiver support during the case was common. Finally, the sexual abuse opinions never explicitly mentioned victim uncooperativeness or electronic evidence and rarely mentioned expert testimony or delinquency. The different characterizations of the two case types highlight the need for improved education concerning effective prosecution of sex crimes against minors.
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Expanding Our Understanding of Traffickers and Their Operations: A Review of the Literature and Path Forward
Human trafficking is a serious crime and violation of human rights that results in numerous harms. Although the phenomenon is not new, scholarship on the issue has grown substantially since the first legal framework was passed in 2000. However, the existing literature has been criticized for its skewed focus on victims, among other things. The dearth of information on traffickers and their operations limits our ability to reduce or prevent perpetration. The current study presents a comprehensive and critical review of the existing literature focused on traffickers to synthesize what is already known and highlight the key gaps. Twenty-nine articles met the inclusion criteria of (1) focusing on traffickers and their operations and (2) relying on data either directly from traffickers or sources that contained detailed information about criminal cases against traffickers. We used an iterative process to identify relevant studies, which included collecting articles of which we were already familiar or were identified in existing reviews, searching their reference lists, and conducting cited-by searches until saturation was reached. Topics found in the extant literature included: characteristics of traffickers, relationships between traffickers and victims, organizational characteristics and networks, operations, connections with other crimes, motivations, perceptions of behavior, and risks associated with trafficking. It concludes with recommendations for future research and a discussion of how bridging gaps in the literature could support more rigorous mathematical modeling that is needed to identify and assess promising perpetration prevention and intervention strategies.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2039584
- PAR ID:
- 10475490
- Publisher / Repository:
- SAGE Publications
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Trauma, Violence, & Abuse
- Volume:
- 25
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 1524-8380
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 2348-2362
- Size(s):
- p. 2348-2362
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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