Author ORCID Identifier

Margaret Boittin: 0000-0002-5196-7102

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-2019

Publisher

Vanderbilt University

Abstract

This study focuses on the attitudes and behavior of police officers around child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking (CFT). Since police officers are responsible for maintaining law and order in the community, they play a particularly important role in preventing and responding to CFT. It is thus critical to invest resources to increase law enforcement efficacy in recognizing and responding to CFT issues.

The study is based on a randomized controlled trial that surveyed over 1,000 law enforcement officers in Nepal. The survey was conducted in the Central Development region of Nepal, and participants were selected to be a representative sample of police officers in that region. Data collection occurred from July to October 2017. Respondents were interviewed to assess their baseline knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices pertaining to child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking. In addition, a randomized controlled trial was implemented to assess the effects of an anti-CFT training on these baseline measures. The study builds off of a similar study focused on the general population in Nepal.

Baseline knowledge levels pertaining to CFT show that it is necessary to increase knowledge about CFT in general, as well as the laws that govern it. Similarly, there is room to increase levels of concern and sympathy for victims. In addition, law enforcement officers in Nepal tend to underestimate the prevalence of human trafficking in their own locality, as opposed to in the country as a whole. These findings all point to the need for more law enforcement officer training programs to increase their knowledge, concern, and sympathy around human trafficking, and also to specifically highlight the importance and significance of CFT locally.

Our study examined the effects of three types of campaigns focused on raising greater awareness among law enforcement officers: (1) poster campaigns; (2) danger narratives; and (3) empowerment narratives. Study participants were randomly assigned either to a control group, which received no campaign, or a poster campaign, or a story that emphasized the dangers of CFT, or a story that instead focused on individuals who make empowered choices around CFT. Results of the randomized controlled trial show that while it is difficult to meaningfully increase CFT knowledge, concern, and sympathy through awareness campaigns, when designed appropriately, awareness campaigns can make a positive impact on police officer knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices. Details of our primary findings are outlined below:

• Empowerment narratives are more effective than danger narratives. For example, the empowerment narrative increased knowledge that an individual found guilty of trafficking can be fined NRS 200,000 by 10.58 percentage points in relation to the control group, a statistically significant difference. The danger narrative only increased this knowledge by 4.81 percentage points, a difference that is not statistically significant.

• It is simple to increase knowledge on penalties of human trafficking, but not procedural knowledge (e.g., how to handle suspects and how to recognize human trafficking). For example, none of the awareness campaigns had a statistically significant impact on knowledge that human trafficking does not require movement across borders.

• Slight backlash stemming from campaign materials occurred. The need to prioritize human trafficking decreased when law enforcement officers were exposed to the poster (by 3.81 percentage points) and the danger narrative (by 4.82 percentage points).

• No change occurred in perceptions of the scope of the human trafficking problem, either locally and nationally due to any of the studied campaigns.

• Exposure to narratives translated into greater concern that members of the police officer’s jurisdiction are at risk of being trafficked. In relation to the control group, risk perceptions increased by 4.25 percentage points for respondents treated with the danger narrative, and 3.76 percentage points for those treated with the empowerment narrative.

• The narrative campaigns that emphasized male victimhood resulted in greater concern among officers that men and boys are at risk of being trafficked. For example, the danger narrative increased concern by 10.62 percentage points for men, and the empowerment narrative increased concern by 10.50 percentage points for men. Not surprisingly, since these narratives did not emphasize female victimhood, no change was observed in concerns for women and girls being at risk for trafficking.

• Narratives can have unintended consequences. Among law enforcement officers, narratives about human trafficking victims that chart how individuals become trafficked could result in an increase in victim blaming. The danger narrative increased victim blaming by 5.41 percentage points, and the empowerment narrative increased victim blaming by 3.82 percentage points.

• Narratives can nevertheless be powerful. Law enforcement officers were more likely to blame manpower agencies than an individual’s reckless behavior for trafficking after receiving a story that showed a manpower agency connecting an individual with an abusive employer. For example, the danger and empowerment narratives increased perceptions of the responsibility of manpower agents by 10.17 and 13.94 percentage points, respectively.

The results of this study show the challenges of improving law enforcement officers’ CFT-related knowledge, concern, and sympathy, and the need for additional law enforcement training programs in Nepal to make appropriate KABP shifts. Law enforcement officers play a large role in the community, and increased awareness and empathy for members of the community on an issue that so many Nepalis expressed as important would be beneficial for all parties.

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