Who’s to Blame in the Sex Trafficking of Women: Situational and Individual Factors that Define a “Deserving Victim”

Public opinion frequently assigns some degree of responsibility to victims of human trafficking for their “voluntary” engagement in the phenomenon, thus denying the existence of “innocent victims” and attributing blame to them for not preventing their victimization. Through the use of distinct, predefined “victimization scenarios”, this research explores attributions of blame toward female victims and male clients of sex trafficking and the situational and demographic factors that influence perceptions of an “ideal” or “deserving” victim in a sample of 624 participants. Results show that the manner in which a victim is victimized tends to impact opinions of a “deserving” victim, with blame increasing when victims are perceived to have been involved in their victimization. Male participants with experience as clients of the sex industry are less likely to blame a client for his involvement in the sex trafficking chain, while female participants are more likely to blame a client than male participants. These results are further analyzed and discussed in light of the current context of prolonged and exacerbated forced migration that creates a vast pool of potential victims for traffickers around the world.