Prostitute or human trafficking victim? Police discernment of human trafficking

Abstract

PurposeIn 2018, the National Human Trafficking hotline received 275 cases of human trafficking in Pennsylvania, a higher than average portion of the 10,949 human trafficking cases received for the USA. Whether human trafficking victims receive services or enter the criminal justice system as prostitution offenders depends on how police identify them, as police officers are usually the first to interact with human trafficking victims. Thus, understanding how police identify human trafficking is important. The purpose of the study is to explore Pennsylvania police perceptions of human trafficking.Design/methodology/approachScenarios were presented in a survey to 489 Pennsylvania police officers.FindingsPolice training improved officer identification of human trafficking (vs prostitution) involving older victims. Officers with more tenure were less likely to identify older victims of human trafficking than officers with less tenure. However, older officers were better able to successfully identify older (i.e. age 25 years) victims of human trafficking, but officer age had no effect on identifying younger (i.e. age 15 years) victims of human trafficking. The implications are discussed in the study.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the literature by testing (1) whether training affects police ability to identify human trafficking victims in a scenario, controlling for other factors and (2) whether victim age affects officer identification of human trafficking victims. More officers correctly identified younger victims of human trafficking when force was explicitly stated, but more officers misidentified younger victims when force was not explicitly stated and older victims when force was explicitly stated.

Small and rural police chief perspectives on human trafficking in Pennsylvania

“…In line with prior research (Chaffin et al ., 2020; Mapp et al. , 2016; Reis et al ., 2022), the quantitative findings suggest that experience as a police chief, as well as department factors including budget and department size, affect perception that human trafficking is a problem in the local area. Indeed, decreasing resources (coupled with more responsibility) is common concern of police chiefs (Donnermeyer, 2015; Kaylen and Pridemore, 2015).…”

“…Specifically, each additional year of experience increased the odds of identifying human trafficking as a problem in the local area by 5%. Qualitative analyses suggest that chiefs conflate human trafficking with prostitution, consistent with prior studies (Farrell et al ., 2015; Reis et al ., 2022). It could be that chiefs with experience are accustomed to responding to sex work and have difficulty recognizing commercialized sex transactions involving force or fraud.…”

“…Given the definitional ambiguity expressed by small and rural Pennsylvania police chiefs in this study, any communication about what constitutes human trafficking may be beneficial, although without proper training, police may become confident in misinformation about human trafficking (Farrell et al ., 2015; Wilson et al ., 2006). Resolving the definitional ambiguity may help police in small and rural areas correctly identify victims of human trafficking to help them access resources and avoid processing them as offenders (Farrell et al ., 2015; Reis et al ., 2022).…”

“…As such, researchers found that larger agencies with larger budgets and more training opportunities were more likely to identify instances of human trafficking than smaller agencies. Similarly, Reis et al. (2022) found that training significantly improved officers' ability to correctly identify sex trafficking victims, including older victims who could be viewed as more culpable and juvenile victims in situations where force was not explicitly indicated.…”

“…For example, Farrell et al. (2015) reported that more half of their sample of police officers viewed human trafficking as prostitution (see also Reis et al ., 2022). This perception could impact the identification of human trafficking victims, as law enforcement often believes prostitution is a victimless crime (Farrell et al ., 2015).…”