The UK's statutory defence for victims of modern slavery and its narrow understanding of victimhood

Heys, Alicia

Abstract

The Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings stipulates a ‘non-punishment principle’ which provides for the possibility of not imposing penalties on victims for crimes they were compelled to commit. This paper investigates the UK’s iteration of this principle: the statutory defence provided by section 45 of the Modern Slavery Act.
Drawing on extant literature and relevant case law, this paper
investigates current understandings of the statutory defence and the
insights these provide into broader understandings of criminal
exploitation. It demonstrates that while practitioners understand the
processes of the legislation surrounding the defence, they are less
knowledgeable about the nuances of modern slavery which therefore
impacts the use and effectiveness of the defence. This paper challenges
the basis upon which criminal law is applied, and its analysis makes an
original contribution to recognising how misunderstandings of criminal
exploitation can affect fairness in the criminal justice system.

Citation

Heys, A. (online). The UK's statutory defence for victims of modern slavery and its narrow understanding of victimhood. Journal of Criminal Law, https://doi.org/10.1177/00220183231179181

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 3, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Jun 12, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jun 5, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 13, 2023
• Journal: Journal of Criminal Law
• Print ISSN: 0022-0183
• Electronic ISSN: 1740-5580
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00220183231179181
• Keywords: Modern slavery; Human trafficking; Criminal exploitation; Liability; Non punishment
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4276774