Human Trafficking: From Police Arrest of Suspect to Prosecutor's Indictment to Court Verdict:
Scientific Correlation from Quantitative to Qualitative (Case Study – Serbia)
Abstract
The expansion of human trafficking in the territory of Serbia occurred at the end of the last decade of the twentieth century. At that time, during the communist era, Serbia faced a structural crisis in the political, economic, normative legal, ethical and social spheres, as well as in the entire security sphere of citizens’ public life. In addition, the national security system was not organizationally or functionally ready to counter the new form of criminal activities such as human trafficking with criminal operations, and its territory covered - as the research results show, all forms: destinations, transit routes and countries of origin of the victims of that serious crime. The research was conducted using quantitative and qualitative methods and follows the correlation between the number of suspects arrested by the police and filed criminal charges with the prosecutor; number of indictments filed by the prosecutor on the basis of the criminal charges filed by the police against the suspects; and the number of convictions by the court on the basis of indictments for the commission of the criminal offense of human trafficking. Excerpts from research findings indicate that a negative correlation has been confirmed in the direction from police arrest and police criminal report to indictment and court verdict. The negative correlation reaches the level of one third of the total number of arrested who are suspected of having committed the criminal offense of human trafficking, and were never convicted.
Financing: The work was created as a result of research engagement according to the Plan and work program of the Institute for Criminological and Sociological Research for the year 2024, number 451-03-66/2024-03/200039, which was approved by the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation of the Republic of Serbia.
Downloads
References
Villacampa C. & Torres N. Human trafficking for criminal exploitation: The failure to identify victims. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research. 2017;23(3):393-408. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10610-017- 9343-4
Dean L. Pedagogical approaches to human trafficking through applied research laboratories. Anti-trafficking review. 2021;(17):56-72. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.201221174
Igrački Ja. Strict penalty policy: Challenges of international criminal law in crime prevention. Bezbednost. 2022;64(1):179-190. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5937/bezbednost2201179i.
Igrački Ja. Effects of prison in the execution of criminal sanctions. Institute for Criminological and Sociological Research, Belgrade, 2020. (In Serb.).
Igracki Ja. Implementation of criminal sanctions and measures in Serbia. Responsibility and sanctions in criminal law: with special reference to international criminal law. Association for International Criminal Law, Belgrade, Tara, 2019:395-396.
Igracki Ja. Penal policy and recidivism, Law and the command of reason. Pravni život, magazine for legal theory and practice. 2018;1(9):641-653.
Lee M. Introduction: Understanding human trafficking. In Human trafficking. Willan, 2013:1-25.
Musto J. Thakor and B Gerasimov, Between Hope and Hype: Critical evaluations of technology’s role in anti-trafficking. Anti-trafficking review. 2020;(4):1-14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.201220141
Mijalković S. Nationall Security, Academy of Criminalistic and Police Studies, Belgrade, 2018.
Milašinović R. Renesansa imperijalizma ― savremena imperijalistička strategija, Jugoart, Zagre, 1987.
Nasilje nad decom ― Studija Generalnog sekretara Ujedinjenih nacija, United Nations Office, Belgrade, 2007.
Fosson G. The Serbian Government's Response to Human Trafficking. European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice. 2011;19(3):183―198.
Hoefinger H. Neoliberal sexual humanitarianism and story-telling: The case of Somaly Mam. Anti-Trafficking Review. 2016;(7):56-78. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.20121774
Copyright (c) 2024 Jasmina Igrački, Dragan Manojlović, Saša Mijalković
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The author agrees that the submission of the manuscript to the editorial office of the scientific and practical journal "VICTIMOLOGY" is a conclusive action aimed at the transfer of the editorial office of the exclusive rights to the work: the right to reproduce and the right to distribute, as well as to place the article in the electronic version of the journal in open access on the Internet and in electronic databases of scientific citation.
