The Half-Built Road: Exploring the Impediments to Justice for Victims of Labor Trafficking

ABSTRACT

The exploitation of people in forced labor is a significant human rights violation and a threat to community safety. Despite enhanced efforts to identify and prosecute labor trafficking perpetrators in the U.S. relatively few traffickers have been held accountable. Legal advocates and providers increasingly pursue civil litigation, immigration relief, and other roads to meet victims’ needs and achieve justice. Less understood are the specific legal, structural, and cultural barriers that make the road to justice through the criminal legal system difficult for victims of labor trafficking. Utilizing a comparative case study approach, we examine the life course of five labor trafficking cases through crucial decision points in the criminal legal process. Cases were selected to provide a range of legal system pathways. Data for each case includes legal advocate case records, client interview notes, correspondence between stakeholders, court records, and stakeholder interviews. Through comparative analysis techniques, we identify barriers that derail offender accountability and stymie victim support. The findings provide guidance to improve offender accountability and suggest alternative roads to justice centering on the needs of victims. Identifying barriers in implementing anti-trafficking laws promotes more just, peaceful, and inclusive societies in furtherance of UN Sustainability Goal 16.

KEYWORDS:

• Labor trafficking
• prosecution
• barriers to justice
• legal challenges
• victim needs

Acknowledgments

This material is based upon work supported by the 2021 Northeastern University TIER 1: Seed Grant/Proof of Concept Program. We are grateful for the assistance of Alexis Yohros, Jesenia Robles, and Kate Rich, who assisted in gathering data, coding, and visualizing the labor trafficking disruptions.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Media publications were identified by performing multiple searches on Google’s search engine using keywords associated with the case (including case name, as well as the names of businesses, worksites, and individuals identified as victims, defendants, or other prominent actors). This process was repeated at several points throughout the study period to ensure that the most recent reporting on the case was reflected in the collected data.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Northeastern University.