Criminalized Survivors: A Participatory Study on Human Trafficking Victims and Criminal Record Relief

Many survivors of human trafficking carry criminal records for offenses their traffickers forced, coerced, or pressured them to commit. Those records follow survivors long after exploitation ends, shaping access to housing, employment, education, professional licensing, and family stability.

The Center for Global Justice at Regent University School of Law, working with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, asked survivors directly. Survivors across the United States shared how contact with police and courts affected them, what helped or failed them in the criminal legal system, and which legal changes would most support their recovery and flourishing.

This research is supported by the Sociological Initiatives Foundation, the Virginia Law Foundation, and Regent University.

1. Findings on survivors’ experiences with arrest, prosecution, and conviction, in survivors’ own terms.
2. Barriers survivors report in clearing their records, and what has worked when they pursue relief.
3. The collateral consequences of a criminal record, from employment and housing to family life.
4. Survivor-identified priorities for legal and policy change.
5. Results of a general public survey on human trafficking awareness and openness to record relief for survivors.
6. A 50-state chart of trafficking survivor record relief laws, comparing each state’s framework and the new federal Trafficking Survivors Relief Act, with 2025–26 legislative updates.
7. A policy one-sheet template for advocates and policymakers to adapt in their own states, with completed examples for key states.

Attorneys, advocates, service providers, policymakers, courts, and survivor leaders working toward record relief that reflects the realities of trafficking.

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