Human trafficking in BC from 2000 to 2016: Government personnel and front-line service providers' observations

Public discourse on human trafficking in British Columbia has shifted from a primarily international narrative in the early 2000s, towards a more complex narrative that considers both international and domestic crimes in 2016. Based on fourteen semi-structured qualitative interviews, this research compares government personnel and front-line service providers’ observations about the narrative shift, as well as their overall understandings of what human trafficking crimes look like in the province. The findings indicate that an individual’s understanding of who is most commonly victimized, as well as their perceptions about overall rates of victimization are largely influenced by their professional interactions with victims. Education was perceived by both data groups to be a key component in developing more effective anti-trafficking strategies; however, participants divergent understandings of who is most at-risk continue to confuse the human trafficking debate and many of the structural causes of the crime remain unaddressed.