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THE BELIEF in a JUST FINLAND AS a FORM of CULTURAL VIOLENCE the Effects of Victim Blaming on the Identification and Assistance of Victims of Human Trafficking

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THE BELIEF in a JUST FINLAND AS a FORM of CULTURAL VIOLENCE the Effects of Victim Blaming on the Identification and Assistance of Victims of Human Trafficking View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Trepo - Institutional Repository of Tampere University 1 Mari Ek THE BELIEF IN A JUST FINLAND AS A FORM OF CULTURAL VIOLENCE The Effects of Victim Blaming on the Identification and Assistance of Victims of Human Trafficking Faculty of Social Sciences Master’s Thesis December 2019 ABSTRACT Mari Ek: The Belief in a Just Finland as a Form of Cultural Violence: The Effects of Victim Blaming on the Identification and Assistance of Victims of Human Trafficking Master’s thesis Tampere University Master’s Degree Programme in Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research December 2019 The identification of human trafficking is often referred to as the greatest challenge in anti-trafficking action. Both the offenders and the victims may seek to avoid the attention of public authorities, which is why human trafficking is described as an invisible crime. However, the invisibility may be sustained not only by the actors involved, but also by our own tendency to deny, belittle, or justify an injustice by blaming the victim. The research aim of this study is to explore how blaming human trafficking victims functions as a form of cultural violence in Finland: what kinds of victim-blaming attitudes there are, and how they affect the identification and assistance of trafficking victims. Victim blaming is approached with the theoretical framework of the just-world hypothesis, according to which people may react to victims with denial, derogation, and blame in order to restore their fundamental belief in a just and orderly world. The qualitative content analysis is based on two types of data fulfilling each other: a face-to-face qualitative survey among 61 participants and expert interviews of four employees of the Finnish National Assistance System for Victims of Human Trafficking. The qualitative survey represents the lay people’s beliefs related to human trafficking, while the expert interviews elaborate the effects of Belief in a Just World (BJW)-related beliefs on the identification and assistance of trafficking victims. The findings indicate that there are a variety of victim-blaming attitudes related to the just-world hypothesis, which may affect the identification and assistance of victims depending on their background and form of exploitation. The attitudes were often connected to the general lack of awareness and misleading depictions of human trafficking, but connections to personality, life experience, empathic concern, and working circumstances were also indicated. By using Lerner’s just-world metaphor of “Our just world” and the “world of victims”, I interpreted the various beliefs to be parts of the same entity of the “Belief in a Just Finland”. In this belief system, there is no human trafficking in Finland and it does not concern Finnish nationals, men are not vulnerable, women can stay safe by being careful, yet strong and independent, and individuals are rational and in control of their fate by demonstrating adequate character or behaviour. The “world of victims” portrays the realities and people that are excluded from the perceived “Our just world”: human trafficking as an extreme form of violence and slavery, the feelings of inability, guilt, and helplessness, “innocent victims” and derogated sex workers, foreigners and drug users. These beliefs contribute to the invisibility of victims from various backgrounds, they increase the likelihood of victims to be encountered with disbelief, derogation, and blame, and the subsequent threshold to seek help, they may contribute to reluctance of both laymen and public authorities to intervene on behalf of the victims, and they may affect the processes of criminal procedures and residence permit policies. However, alternative approaches to these beliefs were detected from the data: awareness, empathy, and positive examples were found as avenues towards cultural peace. Keywords: human trafficking, victim blaming, Belief in a Just World (BJW), cultural violence, identification, assistance The originality of this thesis has been checked using the Turnitin OriginalityCheck service. Acknowledgements I would suggest that it takes a village to raise a Master’s thesis. Subsequently, I owe my gratitude to the community of people who contributed to this research process. First, I want to express my gratitude to the survey participants and the experts of the National Assistance System for Victims of Human Trafficking, whose time and effort enabled me to conduct this research. Special thanks to Itohan Okundaye and FinnWID (Finnish Women in Development) for their time and an insightful learning opportunity. I am grateful for the continuous support and guidance of my thesis supervisor, Dr. Anitta Kynsilehto, throughout my research process. I also want to thank my friends and peers in the Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research Master’s degree programme for their helpful feedback and advice. Finally, I want to thank my family and friends for encouraging and supporting me along the way. I offer special thanks to Noora Hoistacher and Siiri Lindblad for their valuable assistance in the data collection and to Milja Tomi, Marko Ek and Lauren Stevens for proofreading, feedback, and advice. List of Tables and Annexes Tables Table 1. Use of interviews in the analysis of descriptions of phenomena and cultural parse…………37 Table 2. Phases and steps of the analysis……………………………………………………………45 Table 3. Summary of the findings…………………………………………………………………...91 Annexes Annex 1. Survey questionnaire form……………………………………………………………….109 Annex 2. Sample questionnaire form………………………………………………………………113 Annex 3. Info document……………………………………………………………………………117 Annex 4. Original info document in Finnish……………………………………………………….118 Annex 5. Research design of questions for the expert interviews…………………………………..119 List of Abbreviations and Acronyms The Assistance System The Finnish National Assistance System for Victims of Human Trafficking AWOL Running Away and Absent Without Official Leave BJW Belief in a Just World EU European Union FinnWID Finnish Women in Development FRA European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights HEUNI The European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control ILO International Labour Organisation LGBTQ+ Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning Migri Finnish Immigration Service NGO Non-governmental organisation TENK The National Advisory Board on Research Ethics TIP Trafficking in Persons UN United Nations UNODC United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 1 2. Previous Research: Beliefs and Blame in Human Trafficking ............................................................ 6 2.1. ’Modern Slavery Discourse’ and its Critique .................................................................................... 6 2.2. Human Trafficking in Finland ......................................................................................................... 10 2.4. Previous Research on Blaming Victims of Human Trafficking ...................................................... 15 2.5. Victim Blaming Explained by the Belief in a Just World Theory ................................................... 19 3. Methodology ........................................................................................................................................... 29 3.1. Qualitative Survey: Research Design and Data Collection .................................................................. 29 3.2. Expert Interviews: Research Design and Data Collection .................................................................... 33 3.4. Combining Two Types of Data ....................................................................................................... 35 3.5. Research Ethics ............................................................................................................................... 37 3.6. Limitations, Reliability and Validity ............................................................................................... 39 3.7. My Positionality .............................................................................................................................. 41 3.8. Qualitative Content Analysis ........................................................................................................... 42 4. Components of “The Belief in a Just Finland” ................................................................................... 46 4.1. Overview of the Data ....................................................................................................................... 46 4.2. “Our” Just World .......................................................................................................................... 53 4.2.1. “There Is No Human Trafficking in Finland” ............................................................................... 53 4.2.2. ‘The Safe World of Men’ .............................................................................................................. 57 4.2.3. ‘The Controllable World of Women’ ............................................................................................ 59 4.2.4. Agency, Individualistic Ideals and Blame ..................................................................................... 63 4.3. The World of “Victims” ...............................................................................................................
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