Stephanie Richard & Suzanne S. La Pierre
Human trafficking survivors not only suffer physical and psychological harm during the commission of the crimes against them, but also are often further harmed through forced involvement in the criminal justice system. With the current focus on apprehending and punishing perpetrators as the primary tool promoted in the United States to prevent trafficking, survivors forced to be witnesses against their perpetrators lose their self-determination in ways replicating the abusive patterns of their traffickers. To aid investigation and prosecution of traffickers, they are required to provide testimony reliving their experiences. Forced testimony is also often the only option available for avoiding prosecution for crimes they were coerced to commit by their traffickers. Tragically, evidence-based research and interviews with survivors and those involved in combatting trafficking conclusively demonstrate that this carceral approach has failed. Moreover, this misguided emphasis monopolizes the limited resources available to combat trafficking, diverting them from addressing survivors’ most pressing needs on their road to recovery and from adopting truly effective measures to prevent or reduce trafficking. It has the further negative effect of impeding efforts to address the mass incarceration epidemic plaguing the criminal justice system. This Article highlights the need for collaboration among all participants in the anti-human trafficking movement, i.e., survivor leaders/lived experts, law enforcement, prosecutors, government agencies, and service providers, to actively support a survivor-focused and survivor-informed pilot program for trafficking survivors modeled on the restorative justice approaches currently available as an alternative for survivors of other violent crimes. Having witnessed firsthand the harm that trafficking survivors face, and fully aware of the ineffectiveness of the current approach, the anti-trafficking community must come together to instigate this essential reform.