Legal Questioning of Commercially Sexually Exploited Boys in Court: A Case Study

Author: Dianiska, Rachel; Winks, Kaitlin; Brown, Diane & Quas, Jodi

Abstract: When criminal cases involving charges of sex trafficking or sexual abuse go to trial, victim testimony can be crucial to proving the prosecution’s case. However, virtually nothing is known about how boy victims are questioned in court and how they respond. Boy victims may be treated differently than girl victims due to both their potentially unique victimization experiences and societal expectations about gender, sexual activity, and disclosure. To begin to understand how legal actors question sexually exploited boys, we conducted a comprehensive case study of a sex trafficking criminal trial in which 17 boys (ages 12–19 years) testified. We explored how each attorney questioned and encouraged the boys to describe their experiences. We coded 8,720 question-answer turns for the use of rapport, types of questions asked, and victims’ responses. Though rapport building was infrequent, the prosecutor was more likely to build rapport than the defense attorney. The defense attorney asked more leading questions, especially of younger boys. Results provide novel insight into the questioning of sexually abused and exploited boys in legal settings, highlighting avenues for future research. Findings, in combination, provide new insight into how legal actors can facilitate accurate, comfortable testimony from youth victims, including sexually exploited males.

Keywords: adolescent victims, boy victims, commercial sexual exploitation, courtroom questioning