Awareness of Human Trafficking

¶ … data collection instrument to assess the degree to which people were aware of the problem of human trafficking and understood the concept. I began with the hypothesis that people would lack extensive awareness about the issue. I selected an interview-based methodology so I could ask specific, targeted questions regarding the nature of human trafficking. The interview questions I submitted to my interview subjects asked them to define human trafficking, identify when and where it takes place, and to suggest possible solutions.

One person I interviewed did not even know what human trafficking was: they thought it was similar to crowding or the condition of too many people being in the same place at once. The other two respondents did know that trafficking was the forcible movement of persons for illegal purposes. They said that they believed that both genders could be and were trafficked. One respondent likened it to kidnapping, for example.

There was a noteworthy amount of vivid language in the responses of the subjects, largely drawn from what they had seen on television. For example, one respondent stated: …my thoughts from watching movies [have primarily shaped my views of human trafficking]…I imagine that these individuals are kidnap[ped], or these individuals are homeless. Another participant specifically referenced the crime show SVU as a source of information on human trafficking.

However, there were clear misconceptions about the flow of human trafficking, perhaps because of the lurid emphasis in sensationalist literature and television shows. For example, the respondent continued: They are transported out of the area (United States) to other countries. The countries vary. I am thinking they are usually unconscious. They are clean[ed up] and presented to potential buyers. I am also thinking they are drugged most of the time.

This very vivid and lurid picture, although not explicitly referencing the sex industry, clearly paints a picture of someone primarily trafficked for sexual reasons, not other purposes. This indicated to me the perception that there is a lack of awareness about human trafficking and human slavery in the labor industry (which tends to have more males trafficked than females) (Hepburn & Simon 2010).

The respondent indicated that gender did not matter and there was an expression of a desire to educate him or herself as a way of stopping human trafficking, such as reporting a child and a parent that seemed as if they did not 'fit' in her words. Of course, this response would not help adults who are trafficked. Both participants gave particular stress to people who were naive and young as the most likely victims of human trafficking (once again, youth rather than gender were their primary, defining concern).

However, they also agreed that trafficking could happen anywhere, with anyone, and was not exclusive to a particular country. On one hand, this belief in the commonness of trafficking was heartening because it indicated that trafficking was not perceived as something that occurs 'over there' and was not relevant to their concerns.

On the other hand, it is not entirely the case that all nationalities and all persons are equally vulnerable: trafficked persons tend to come from impoverished, developing world areas (such as Latin America, Asia, or Eastern Europe and this naturally has had an impact upon how the crime is investigated and monitored. Both participants stressed the need to report suspicious activities to authorities.

The one surprise was the participant who had clearly never heard the phrase 'human trafficking' at all and viewed it literally as a phenomenon caused by too many people congregating in the same place, either in physical space like a traffic jam or in virtual space like a crowded website server. According to this participant: "In that view, people were complaining that they wait long time to complete their registration for health care because the system was very slow.

To my view, it was a good example of 'human trafficking.'" Discussion The responses of this participant made me wonder if I should have modified my instrument to clarify if people did not know the phrase 'human trafficking.' However, upon reflection I decided that an awareness of the phrase was a relevant part of the data-screening process. In retrospect, I wish I had refined the data-collection instrument to allow for a discussion of different types of trafficking.

There seemed to be an awareness that people could be trafficked for sexual purposes but less so labor-related trafficking such as occurs in the agricultural or garment industries, or domestic servitude. This was consistent with findings that these aspects of trafficking are traditionally underreported and tend to be composed more of males.

There was no gender bias in terms of the perceptions of trafficking -- both participants who were aware of the correct definition of the phrase viewed trafficking as something that could happen anywhere to anyone regardless of gender and age (although there was particular concern about young people being trafficked). This indicated a lack of awareness of the class-based dimension of trafficking, given that it usually takes place from a developing world country to the developed world.

One surprising development was the extent to which fiction rather than news shaped the perceptions of human trafficking. This indicates a possible future area of research if programs such as SVU might actually be the.