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Characteristics of the ideal human trafficking victim: A media analysis
Christie (1986) suggests that victims/survivors conforming to the standards of the ideal victim are more likely to be recognized as victims – provided they have the social capital to claim that victim status. In this study, we examine a total of 101 newspaper articles from eight national Dutch newspapers’ reporting on various types of human trafficking, including labor, sexual, and criminal exploitation, through qualitative content analysis, using Atlas.ti. We conclude that ideal victim characteristics as described by Christie (1986) are present in the reporting, but do not dominate the overall representation of victims/survivors. The results show that framing of victims/survivors differs per type of exploitation.