Legal Assessments of Child Victims of Human Trafficking for Sexual Purposes

Abstract

The present study investigated how Swedish district court judges assessed child victims' credibility and the reliability of their testimony in cases of alleged human trafficking for sexual purposes. Court files from 12 different cases, involving 16 alleged child victims (aged 13-17 years old), all of them girls, were qualitatively analyzed with particular attention paid to how the judges described credibility and reliability. Results indicated that, although the judges' assessments to a large extent were based on the Swedish Supreme Court's criteria for credibility and reliability, they were applied somewhat arbitrarily and subjectively. They were also applied as if obvious and grounded on shared experiences, although their meaning was never explored. The way that credibility was assessed may also reinforce gender and victim stereotypes. Moreover, there seems to exist a confusion surrounding the credibility and reliability concepts, as they were sometimes used interchangeably despite the intention that they are two different assessments. Overall, an apparent need exists to increase judges' awareness that their subjective impressions should decrease when legitimizing judicial decisions. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The construction of allegedly abused children’s narratives in Scottish criminal courts

“…Consistent with our expectations and prior reports (Westcott & Page, 2002), older children and children alleging abuse against non-relatives were more likely to be accused of consenting or bearing some responsibility for their abuse, whereas younger children abused by relatives were more likely to be accused of lying about their abuse. This finding supports the work of previous literature that states that younger children are less likely to experience cross-examination that would place them as responsible for their abuse as they are unlikely to have traits or experiences that compromise their position as 'ideal victim' victim' (Lindholm & Cederborg, 2016) such as sexual awareness or adult behaviors such as intoxication (Bottoms et al, 2007). However, older children are often perceived by jurors as more adult-like (Cossins, 2008), so allowing narratives that portray victims and defendants as having equal responsibility in the initiation and continuation of sexual encounters to become salient (Rodger et al, 2016).…”

“…Media reports focus on the most extreme cases of CSA (Weatherred, 2015), so any deviations from those unrepresentative portrayals (e.g., lack of medical evidence, lack of corroborating witnesses) could be used to advantage by defense lawyers suggesting to jurors that the deviations make the allegations being tried implausible. Social representations may further create stereotypes of 'ideal' victims and 'ideal' defendants (Lindholm & Cederborg, 2016). Any deviations from these ideals may be highlighted by lawyers seeking to suggest that the abuse may not have occurred (Peace, Shudra, Forrester, Kasper, Harder, & Porter, 2015).…”

“…The theme of 'Implicit Sexual Behaviors' reinforced the idea that sexual intercourse was inevitable and thus that the child was not a faultless victim (Lindholm & Cederborg, 2016). Other defense lawyers adopted more explicit approaches to narrative construction by openly accusing children of consenting to sexual encounters.…”

“…Questioning children about grooming may help jurors understand where and how the abuse originated. The innocence of the child's concern for her mother portrays the child as a caring individual, making her the 'ideal victim' (Lindholm & Cederborg, 2016).…”

Confusing Terms

“…Within studies that discussed both labor and sex trafficking of youth, findings included discussion of potential overlap of both; youth who are sex trafficked may also be labor trafficked simultaneously, such as forced stripping or dancing, or domestic servitude (Fraley & Aronowitz, 2021; Lindholm & Cederborg, 2016; Mostajabian et al, 2019; Normandin, 2017; Ottisova et al, 2018; Reid, 2018). Similar to trafficking adults, youth victims of trafficking are compelled by an exploiter, or trafficker, to provide labor services or commercial sex acts.…”