In the Dock

difficulties for the police in both quality and delays thus affecting investigations. 191 Many of thepreviously tested interpreters did not register with the agency because they would receive lowerwages. Therefore interpreters with whom police had developed prior trusting relationships could notbe used, or if they were working under the scheme there was no guarantee that they would beallocated to the investigation.Misperceptions of exploitation which hamper investigationsUnderstanding of how a trafficked person presents as a victim is integral to investigations. However,evidence gathered suggests that misperceptions of victim presentation overshadow the developmentof trafficking investigations. The same misperceptions discussed in Chapter 4 can also affectinvestigator capacity to examine this crime, including the manner in which investigating officersinteract with trafficked persons on the basis of such misperceptions. One law enforcement officerstated:“We had a surveillance team following, Chinese girls that we thought had been trafficked around ... theteam reported back saying ‘well, this is a waste of time because I’ve just seen the girl travelling on her ownwith a little suitcase and she was smiling. So, this can’t be trafficking!’”A retired law enforcement officer 192 , encountered similar episodes of seemingly happy women whowere exploited whose reactions caused confusion for investigating police where they requested toremain with their trafficker and refused offers of assistance. To understand these reactions, the officerhad to research the psychological aspects of trafficking to comprehend their position. 193Mistaken beliefs of how a trafficked person should act coupled with incorrect interpretations ofdefinitions, are sometimes used to judge whether a trafficked person is a credible victim of trafficking.It was stated that there was a difference in approach even in teams of the most experienced police.These views may be formulated on the basis of what is “rational” and “irrational” victim behaviour: the“irrational” victim does not “act” in a way that they perceive corresponds to a “normal” or “perfect”victim. 194 Indeed, the question posed which is the litmus test for many law enforcement officers andoften for the CPS, defence counsel and the jury is “why did you choose not to escape?” In reality alltrafficked persons react differently.Some victim narratives may be construed as so terrible and out of the officer’s cultural experience thatthey may appear inconceivable, leading to the view that they are fabricated. Furthermore, it wasreported that during the course of interviewing trafficked persons, victim presentation such as laughingnervously, fixating on a particular part of their experience or wearing clothes that may seeminappropriate were also viewed with suspicion; however, this may be interpreted as a result of trauma.The psychological consequences of trafficking and people suffering from PTSD may also lead tonumbness and dissociation, which make it less likely for a trafficked person to display overt signs ofdistress which other ‘normal’ crime victims may demonstrate. 195 These judgments were oftenerroneously used to frame the victim’s unreliability and attest to a general inaptitude to understandand consequently to investigate trafficking.In some cases, trafficked persons may only disclose partially, late or change their account. There canbe multiple drivers for this including difficulty in recalling events due to the nature of trauma and191House of Commons Justice Committee, Interpreting and translation services and the Applied Language Solutions contract: SixthReport of Session 2012–13, House of Commons (22 January 2013) [online]. Available at:www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmjust/645/645.pdf [last accessed March 2013].192He was seconded to the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Special Trafficking Operations Project in 2002.193O’Reilly J., Sex Slavery: The way back (2012).194Herlihy et al., ‘What Assumptions about Human Behaviour Underlie Asylum Judgments?’ International Journal of Refugee Law(2010) Vol. 22:3, pp.351-366.195Lucy Maddox, Deborah lee and Chris Barker ‘Police Empathy and Victim PTSD as Potential Factors in Rape Case Attrition’ Journalof Police and Criminal Psychology (2011) Vol. 26:2, pp. 112-117.56