By Meera Manoj, Contributing Writer
In our judicial system, the end goal is to send cases to court and secure conviction. But what truly happens when a trafficking case goes to court?
As per a 2015 report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement referred the most human-trafficking suspects to U.S. attorneys that year, accounting for 52% and 19% of cases respectively. Out of the 1,923 suspects referred to U.S. attorneys with human trafficking being the lead charge, 39% focused on peonage, slavery, forced labor or sex trafficking; 32% focused on production of child pornography; and 29% focused on transportation for illegal sex activity. Of these suspects, nearly 6 in 10 were prosecuted in U.S. district courts. More than 9 in 10 human-trafficking defendants were convicted in 2015.
According to the Human Trafficking Institute’s 2018 Federal Human Trafficking Report, 771 anti-trafficking cases were in progress in federal courts nationwide in 2018. The majority of these cases (88.2%) were criminal prosecutions, while the rest were civil suits. New cases initiated in federal courts were overwhelmingly sex trafficking violations with a small remainder being labor trafficking cases. More than half of the cases overall were also about the sex trafficking of children. The report also identified that hot spots for trafficking cases include New York, Maryland, Florida, Texas, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Oregon and South Carolina.
As for the results of the cases themselves, 77% resulted in guilty dispositions, 3% in dismissals, 8% are still pending, and less than 1% in acquittals. 96.4% of defendants were convicted, with 57% of these convictions coming from non-jury trials and 63% from plea-bargained guilty pleas. Sentences for convictions range from probation to 600 months or 50 years of incarceration. The federal prosecutors who were interviewed state that these convictions resulted from: (1) the trust of the victim and their testimony; (2) excellent agents that can develop an immediate rapport with the victims; (3) patience with victims; (4) trained investigators; (5) collaborative relationships among victims, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and FBI/ICE; and (6) bridge with the NGO community. Interviewed prosecutors also indicate that once they have decided to move forward with a case, it is rarely dropped, with 80% reporting that none of their TVPA cases have resulted in dropped charges.
Interviewed prosecutors also relayed how TVPA cases often require a greater concern for victims and their needs than other cases, a critical component to be aware of since these cases are victim-dependent (i.e., the outcome of the case depends heavily on the victim’s cooperation). Prosecutors note that some challenges that occur when working with victims include determining who the victim was from the onset, language and cultural barriers, the ability to obtain “truthful” testimony from the victims given their fear of the trafficker, lack of trust of authority figures and the presence of extended family abroad and concerns this raised for the victims. Prosecutors also voiced concerns for tactics used by defense attorneys, including trying to use obtainment of a visa or receiving social services to discredit the victim. Prosecutors have identified this tactic as highly unsuccessful though since they were unable to identify a case in which this tactic was successful.
When asked on what was needed for prosecutors to address the challenges in TVPA cases, interviewed prosecutors called for greater buy-in and dedicated law enforcement to investigate these crimes. Prosecutors also noted an unwillingness at times of law enforcement in dealing with these cases and viewing the victim as a human trafficking victim. They identified a need for better relationships with agents on the case; greater resources to address trafficking cases (from investigation through to prosecution of cases); availability of more and better services for victims, in particular emergency and safe housing; access to more interpreters for the prosecution; and more training for law enforcement and prosecutors across the board to better prosecute TVPA cases and secure convictions.
References and Further Reading
2015 Report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics
2018 Federal Human Trafficking Report by the Human Trafficking Institute