Policing Human Trafficking

Abstract

Since 2000, the federal government and all fifty states have passed laws that criminalize the trafficking of persons for labor and commercial sex. To date, relatively few human trafficking cases have been identified, investigated, and prosecuted by local criminal justice authorities. Using data from case records and qualitative interviews with police, prosecutors, and victim service providers in twelve counties, we discuss the challenges local police face in identifying cases of human trafficking. We find that the culture of local police agencies and the perceptions of police officials about human trafficking do not support the identification of a broad range of human trafficking cases. Since local definitions of human trafficking are still evolving, police focus on sex trafficking of minors, which they perceive to be the most serious problem facing their communities. Reluctance to differentiate between vice and sex trafficking minimizes the problem of human trafficking and makes labor trafficking seem largely nonexistent.

Framing Human Trafficking: A Content Analysis of Recent U.S. Newspaper Articles

“…One likely reason that sex trafficking has remained news media's primary focus is that it continues to be the primary focus of policy makers in the United States and internationally (Farrell & Pfeffer, 2014;UNODC, 2014, Weitzer, 2007. The focus on sexual exploitation is illustrated in part by the passage of Safe Harbor laws in eight states between 2007 and 2011.…”

“…According to Lee (2011), such portrayals fit neatly with the idea that in order to be recognized as a "legitimate" victim of trafficking, the trafficking event must contain elements highlighting the victim's innocence, vulnerability, and harsh treatment by an offender (Lee, 2011). Thus, rather than offering a balanced or nuanced portrayal, news media appear to be perpetuating a fairly stereotypical image of victims, with potentially harmful repercussions insofar as adult and male victims are receiving less attention from enforcement agencies and service providers (Farrell & Pfeffer, 2014).…”

“…Since the passage of the TVPA in 2000, the United States has seen a proliferation of policies aimed at preventing trafficking, prosecuting traffickers, and assisting victims (Farrell & Pfeffer, 2014). At the federal level, each reauthorization of the TVPA has broadened the original statute, either by expanding enforcement measures, adding more services for victims, or increasing prevention programs (Chuang, 2014).…”

Child Sex Trafficking: Strategies for Identification, Counseling, and Advocacy

“…Within the community setting, professional counselors can engage in advocacy by helping survivors acquire basic reintegration services such as obtaining safe and stable shelter and affordable legal representation. Counselors may also promote awareness to sex trafficking by providing educational workshops that outline specific strategies to support sex trafficking survivors (Kotrla, 2010;Farrell & Pfeffer, 2014;Litam, 2017;Litam, 2019) in counselor education programs (see Litam & Lam, 2020). Professional counselors may start or join public campaigns to increase societal awareness about actions individuals can take if they suspect or observe these crimes in their communities.…”

On the Sensory Policing of Vices

“…In the practice of the raid, two co-dependent and co-constitutive worlds are continually 'at work,' the vice squad on the one hand and its 'shadowy but constitutive Other'-the world of vices, the 'milieu'on the other (Valverde 2003, 16). The raid as a 'traditional' practice employed in vice squad policing (Farrell & Pfeffer 2014), as I will demonstrate, is not a mere technical or rational procedure of law enforcement, but also a performance on disorder and order, on what is normal and what is not, and thus a deeply political set of practices and processes that reveals how order-and boundary-making operates on the grounds of basic sensations and feelings-as, in Ahmed's words, '"aboveness" and "belowness" become properties of particular bodies, objects and spaces' (Ahmed 2004, 89).…”