Public Opinion in Russia on the Politics of Human Trafficking

The growing literature on human trafficking lacks survey data on citizens' attitudes towards it in states of origin. This article discusses the results of a nationwide public opinion poll conducted in June 2007 in Russia and explores the views of two focus groups. It examines Russians' thoughts about the causes and scale of human trafficking and beliefs about what should be done to tackle it, by whom and how. Both sets of data reveal pessimism about state capacity to address human trafficking effectively.