Failing victims? Challenges of the police response to human trafficking

• Published date: 01 August 2019
• Date: 01 August 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12456

DOI: 10.1111/1745-9133.12456

RESEARCH ARTICLE

POLICE RESPONSE TO HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Failing victims? Challenges of the police response

to human trafficking

Amy Farrell1Meredith Dank2Ieke de Vries1Matthew Kafafian1

Andrea Hughes2Sarah Lockwood1

1Northeastern University

2John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Correspondence

AmyFarrell, School of Criminology and Cr imi-

nalJustice, Nort heastern University,400D CH,

360Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115.

Email:Am.farrell@neu.edu

Thisproject was awarded by the National Insti-

tuteof Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S.

Department of Justice (supported by 2015-VF-

GX-0105).The opinions, findings, conclusions,

andrecommendations expressed in this docu-

mentare t hose of the authors and do not neces-

sarilyreflect those of t he U.S.Depar tment of

Justiceor of the Urban Institute, its tr ustees,or

itsfunders.

Research Summary: The police have a duty to provide

assistance to crime victims. Despite the importance of this

role, scholars examining police effectiveness have histor-

ically been less attentive to the needs of victims. As the

police are increasingly called on to combat sex and labor

trafficking crimes, it is timely to explore how this new pop-

ulation of victims is served by the police. Information from

a review of human trafficking investigations and in-depth

interviews with police and service providers in three U.S.

communities indicates that human trafficking victims often

do not trust the police and rarely seek their assistance. When

the police do respond, human trafficking victims seek affir-

mation of their experiences and safety from future harm.

Policy Implications: Recommendations are offered to

improve police responses to human trafficking victims

including efforts to build trust, promote victim safety, and

meet the needs of victims outside of the justice system.

KEYWORDS

human trafficking, legal reform, policing, victimization

Police are often the first officials to interact with crime victims. Therefore, the police have both a

responsibility to and dependence on crime victims in effectively responding to criminal events. Cen-

tral to their public safety mission, the police have a duty to help victims feel safe, assess their imme-

diate needs, and connect victims with service providers and health-care professionals who are in the

best position to provide assistance, provide information about the justice process, and afford victims

opportunities to tell their story without revictimization or additional trauma (President’s Task Force on

Victims of Crime, 1982). Victims’ ability to cope with traumatic eventsand their long-ter m healing and

Criminology & Public Policy. 2019;18:649–673. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/capp © 2019 American Society of Criminology 649

650 FARRELL ET AL.

recovery are improved through positive interactions with the police (Elliott, Thomas, & Ogloff, 2013;

see also Kunst, Popelier, & Varekamp, 2015 for a review of this literature). Reporting victimization

to the police is also associated with lower chances of future victimizations (Shabbar, Berg, & Casteel,

2006).

The effectiveness of the police response to crime victims also has consequences for crime detec-

tion and prevention. The police commonly depend on victims to provide critical information about

the criminal event or enterprise, the crime perpetrators, and the facts surrounding their victimiza-

tion. This information is necessary to develop intelligence, establish probable cause, and ultimately

to solve crimes and protect others from future victimization (International Association of Chiefs of

Police [IACP], 2018). When victims believe they have been treated respectfully by law enforcement,

they are more likely to report crimes, cooperate with police, and participate in the criminal justice pro-

cess (see Koster, Kuijpers, Kunst, & Van der Leun, 2015, for a systematic review of this literature), all

of which promote clearance of cases by arrest and the ability to charge suspected offenders.

Despite the important role of the police in engaging with crime victims, research findings indicate

that the police commonly fall short in responding to the needs of crime victims, particularly victims of

interpersonal violence (Barner & Carney, 2011; Dichter, 2013; Özçakar, Yeşiltepe, Karaman, & Ergö-

nen, 2016). In recognizing these challenges, groups that promote more effective policing such as the

Office of Victims of Crime (OVC) and the IACP have invested in training agencies in victim-centered

response and in advancing law enforcement capacity to serve victims through technicalassist ance. For

example, the OVC-fundedproject Improving Police-Based Victim Services in which between 1999 and

2005, the IACP provided training and technical assistance to more than 1,000 lawenforcement agencies

nationwide to improveresponses to cr ime victims and the IACP-ledinitiative Enhancing Law Enforce-

ment Responses to Victims: Designing a 21st Century Strategy, which began in 2004 and includes an

implementation guide, toolkit, and training modules.

Although the field of law enforcement has had increased exposure to training and information about

the importance of improved victim responses, efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of the police often

have overlooked questions about how well the police respond to and meet the needs of crime victims.

The case of human trafficking crimes provides a unique opportunity to examine police responses to

crime victims. Human trafficking is a newer term for a series of problems that have long existedunder

a variety of other labels such as “forced labor,” “slavery,” “prostitution,” and “exploitation.” During

the past two decades, political elites and policy makers across the globe have brought these disparate

abuses together under a single label and have defined human trafficking as a crime problem (Farrell &

Fahy,2009; Jahic & Finckenauer, 2005). Although human trafficking offenses cover a range of types of

victims, scholars examining the media framing of trafficking victimization have identified iconic vic-

tims that dominate media coverage of the problem as “female,” “minors,” and “U.S. citizens” (Gulati,

2011; Johnston, Friedman, & Sobel, 2015). In 2000, the U.S. Congress passed the Trafficking Victims

Protection Act (TVPA), which defined human trafficking as a crime that involves the recruitment and

exploitation of individuals by means of force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of commercial sex,

labor, or services (TVPA, 2000, § 103, 8a and b). Since the passage of the TVPA, all U.S. states have

enacted legislation to criminalize human trafficking and now provide significant resources through the

criminal justice system to identify and prosecute traffickers. Even though external pressure to solve

crime problems can instigate police agencies to increase capacity and readiness to address new issues

(Allen, 2002; Wood & Gannon, 2013), police identification of human traffickingvictims remains low.1

To understand better why human trafficking victims may be reluctant to seek police assistance,

we examine in this article the context of police responses to human trafficking cases in three U.S.

communities. Data from criminal offense records and qualitative interviews with the police and ser-

vice providers who have experience responding to human trafficking crimes in these communities