Friends of the Forensic Science Club, this week we present the paper “‘Little Rascals’ or Not-So-
Ideal Victims: Dealing with minors trafficked for exploitation in criminal activities in the Netherlands”, by Breuil, B. O. (2021), in which the author revises the problem of minor trafficked in criminal activities in the Netherlands’ context.
We know that one of the great scourges in our society that still exists today is human trafficking. The best known is trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, which drags millions and millions of people to cruel destinations, from which it is very difficult to get out.
However, there is also trafficking for criminal purposes, where the majority of victims are, once
again, the most vulnerable people: children and teenagers.
In the Netherlands, the context of this study, the defended idea is that the interests of minors should
be guaranteed in these types of cases, and that victims of trafficking should not be held responsible
or punished for the crimes they were forced to commit. However, society often regards these
punishments as deserved and fair.
So are front-line actors (police and authority figures) prepared to identify and deal with these cases?
This topic is discussed in the research carried out by the author in 2015 and 2016, about children
and young people exploited in criminal activities in the Netherlands.
At the time it was carried out, only five cases had been successfully tried in court. And although the
visibility of the phenomenon has increased in recent years, it is unfortunately a form of trafficking
that remains under-researched, in the Netherlands but also in the rest of the world.
The objective of the article is, therefore, to contribute to filling this gap, providing ideas that may be
relevant to public institutions for child protection.
The research revolves around two questions: first, what knowledge exists about the phenomenon, its
definition, characteristics, the profiles of the perpetrators and victims, and so on. On the other hand,
some cases were investigated in order to explore the different manifestations of the phenomenon.
One of the problems posed by this criminal typology is the reduced amount of literature on it. Based
on the limited data that exist, the most common crimes in this context would be: pickpocketing,
forced begging, robbery, shoplifting, illegal street vending or drug trafficking. Regarding the first four activities, there is a strong emphasis on research on Roma children, from Central and Eastern Europe, as the main victims of this exploitation.
However, the author mentions that we need to be skeptical about the “ethnitization” of the
phenomenon. The most important thing in the victimization of minors for these crimes are the
socioeconomic disadvantages of their families, living in segregated, impoverished and crime-prone
neighborhoods, with sick, unemployed parents, that sometimes can be alcohol or drug users. There
is no reason for children of other ethnic groups living in similar circumstances to not be victimized:
it is not about race, but about disadvantaged living conditions. This also has negative consequences on parents and the Roma culture, who are perceived as perpetrators.
A very interesting aspect that should be considered is that the assumptions about how the victims
should be, dissuade the authorities from granting the status of victim to minors who do not fit this
ideal, since there is a belief that these minors arrived with their families to the host country to enjoy
its social benefits, being this an assumption that can impair their ability to see them as victims.
In other words, although they may be identified as victims of trafficking for criminal purposes, this
does not guarantee that they are actually recognized as such, due to the stigmatization they suffer.
There is also a cognitive bias that makes it easier to consider women victims than men. Some of the
authority figures interviewed for the author’s study observed that the possibility of girls being
trafficked is more obvious.
On the other hand, it is difficult for cases of exploitation of minors for criminal activities to reach
the courts. According to the investigation, it is because at some point in the investigation of the
crime, the idea is lost, it is no longer considered trafficking.
Sometimes it happens because professionals prefer not to label the case as human trafficking in an
official way, in order to be as objective as possible and interpret the facts from a neutral role.
At other times, it is considered that labeling a case as human trafficking might not be in the best
interest and well-being of the child. This follows the argument that, in some cases, legally qualifying facts as a consequence of trafficking avoids addressing the structural causes (political, economic and social), to the benefit of punitive criminal justice reactions.
In other words, prosecuting and imprisoning parents for trafficking their children can have serious
consequences for children and worsen their living conditions. An intervention aimed at protecting
them, supporting parents in raising children, improving their living conditions, would produce
better results.
These combined efforts could pave the way for better identification of the trafficking of minors for
exploitation in criminal activities, and ensure that children’s rights are respected, including the right
to not be punished for crimes they were forced to commit. It would also be necessary to address
economic, social, cultural and gender inequalities, while keeping the best interests of children in the
spotlight.
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