Prostitute or human trafficking victim? Police discernment of human trafficking

Purpose: In 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/approach: Scenarios were presented in a survey to 489 Pennsylvania police officers.

Findings: Police 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/value: The 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.

The version of record is available at https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-07-2021-0094. The full citation is as follows: [Prostitute or human trafficking victim? Police discernment of human trafficking. Policing: An International Journal 45, 2 p334-345 (2022)]. 'This author accepted manuscript is deposited under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC) licence. This means that anyone may distribute, adapt, and build upon the work for non-commercial purposes, subject to full attribution. If you wish to use this manuscript for commercial purposes, please contact permissions@emerald.com'

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Work Title Prostitute or human trafficking victim? Police discernment of human trafficking
Access
Open Access
Creators
  1. Tara A. Reis
  2. Jennifer Gibbs
  3. Daniel Howard
  4. Emily R. Strohacker
Keyword
  1. Human trafficking
  2. Police
  3. Law enforcement
  4. Prostitution
  5. Pennsylvania
License CC BY-NC 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. Policing: An International Journal
Publication Date January 28, 2022
Publisher Identifier (DOI)
  1. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-07-2021-0094
Deposited March 18, 2024

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Version 1
published

  • Created
  • Added Manuscript_CLEAN_2021_12-22_jcg_PIJ.docx
  • Added Creator Tara A Reis
  • Added Creator Jennifer Gibbs
  • Added Creator Daniel Howard
  • Added Creator Emily R. Strohacker
  • Published
  • Updated Keyword, Publisher, Description, and 1 more Show Changes
    Keyword
    • Human trafficking, Police, Law enforcement, Prostitution, Pennsylvania
    Publisher
    • Policing
    • Policing: An International Journal
    Description
    • <p>Purpose: In 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/approach: Scenarios were presented in a survey to 489 Pennsylvania police officers. Findings: Police 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/value: The 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.</p>
    • <p>Purpose: In 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/approach: Scenarios were presented in a survey to 489 Pennsylvania police officers.
    • Findings: Police 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/value: The 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.</p>
    Publication Date
    • 2022-01-01
    • 2022-01-28
  • Renamed Creator Tara A. Reis Show Changes
    • Tara A Reis
    • Tara A. Reis
  • Updated