Judgments of Sex Trafficked Women: The Role of Emotions

This study examined how incidental emotions influence decisions to arrest or release sex trafficking survivors. Community members (N = 984) completed an autobiographical memory task invoking disgust, sympathy, or no emotion and read case facts from United States v. Bell (2014) varying whether the survivor had a prior history of sex work and whether she came from a vulnerable or nonvulnerable background. Participants in the vulnerable condition believed that the survivor was less able to resist the trafficker's proposal. Furthermore, women but not men made to feel disgust believed that she should have resisted. Regarding arresting the survivor for prostitution versus releasing her for services, invoking either incidental disgust or sympathy, but especially disgust, triggered feelings of disgust, which in turn predicted an arrest decision. Finally, our data supported a moderated mediation model in which the belief that the survivor should have been able to resist the trafficker predicted a greater probability of an arrest judgment. Furthermore, participants in the vulnerable condition believed that the survivor had less ability to resist, and they disfavored her arrest. However, this was only true when we invoked no emotion. When we invoked disgust, vulnerability ceased to have this moderation effect. Public Significance Statement<br /> All participants who read about a nonvulnerable trafficking survivor, as well as women who felt disgust, believed the survivor should have been able to resist the trafficker, which in turn predicted judgments that favored arresting the survivor for prostitution. Survivor vulnerability, as well as incidental emotions that the evaluators experienced prior to making a judgment, moderated and mediated these findings. Efforts to educate the public about victim-centered approaches could lead to increased service provision for trafficking survivors, but such interventions need to take into consideration the incidental emotions of the evaluators.