NCJ Number: |
251594  |
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Title: |
Comparing Narratives of Justice: How Survivors, Criminal Justice Stakeholders, and Service Providers Perceive Justice in Human Trafficking Cases |
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Document: |
PDF |
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Author(s): |
Hanna Love; Jeanette Hussemann; Lilly Yu; Evelyn McCoy; Colleen Owens |
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Date Published: |
March 2018 |
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Annotation: |
One of four products from the Urban Institute’s study “Bending Towards Justice: Perceptions of Justice Among Human Trafficking Survivors,” this brief presents the study’s findings on human trafficking survivors’ and stakeholders’ perceptions of justice in such cases.
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Abstract: |
Between July 2016 and May 2017, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 80 human trafficking survivors and 100 human trafficking stakeholders in eight diverse metropolitan sites in the United States. Echoing survivors’ critiques of the justice system, most law enforcement officers recognized that criminalizing survivors for actions related to their trafficking experiences reduced their trust in the justice system and undermined their cooperation in trafficking investigations. Prosecutors did not believe the justice system alone could help survivors recover from their victimization. Service providers were critical of the lengthy criminal justice processes, the failure of criminal justice personnel to identify trafficking survivors, and the criminalization of survivors for actions related to their trafficking experiences. Regarding how the justice system should counter trafficking, most survivors favored preventive remedies rather than the traditional retributive justice model that focuses on punishment and incarceration. Criminal justice stakeholders, on the other hand, perceived justice for traffickers as being processing through traditional case dispositions, including successful prosecution and appropriate sentencing. This view applied primarily to sex-trafficking cases, since the majority of criminal justice stakeholders interviewed worked mostly on such cases. Most service providers, on the other hand, mirrored the trafficking survivors’ definitions of justice for traffickers, focusing on survivors’ access to resources and allowing survivors to define and achieve their own understandings of justice. Trafficking survivors, justice-system personnel, and service providers agreed on how to improve policies, including reducing the criminalization of survivors, encouraging criminal justice stakeholders to be more compassionate and trauma-informed in their approach, and increasing training for system actors regarding the management of trafficking cases. 1 table and 17 references
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Main Term(s): |
Victim attitudes |
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Index Term(s): |
Attitudes toward victims; Court personnel attitudes; National Institute of Justice (NIJ); NIJ grant-related documents; Police attitudes; Trafficking in Persons; Victim attitudes; Victim reactions to the Criminal Justice System |
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Grant Number: |
2015-VF-GX-0108 |
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Sponsoring Agency: |
National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Washington, DC 20531 The Urban Institute Washington, DC 20037 |
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Corporate Author: |
The Urban Institute United States of America |
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Sale Source: |
National Institute of Justice (NIJ) US Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs 810 Seventh Street NW Washington, DC 20531 United States of America |
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Page Count: |
17 |
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Format: |
Document; Document (Online) |
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Type: |
Program/Project Description; Report (Grant Sponsored); Report (Study/Research); Research (Applied/Empirical) |
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Language: |
English |
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Country: |
United States of America |
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To cite this abstract, use the following link: http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=273787 |
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