Managed as offenders, ignored as survivors: Modern slavery, criminalisation, and the gaps in practice provision
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This paper explores how people encounter the criminal justice system, as well as related support services for those victims of modern slavery who also have a history of offending. Drawing on a focus group with three participants, the study examines how moral complexity, bureaucratic rigidity, and systemic misunderstanding shape processes of rehabilitation and engagement with UK modern slavery support and criminal justice systems. Participants described deep frustration at being simultaneously managed as offenders and overlooked as survivors, highlighting the limitations of current trauma-informed approaches when faced with non-stereotypical victim–offender identities. The paper situates these findings within contemporary debates on trauma-informed care, responsivity, and desistance, and argues for reforms that embed lived experience more deeply in system design, strengthen cross-sector continuity of care, and position probation as a relational and reparative form of rehabilitation.
Source: Probation Journal
Authors: Ben Brewster, Nicola Wright
Institution: University of Nottingham
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7162759804