ABSTRACT
Culture may impact on trafficking in persons cases in a variety of ways. This is not surprising, as often victims or perpetrators, or both, come from different cultures than that of the majority population. Culture can impact on substantive law in a number of ways. This chapter considers cases of THB and allied crimes like slavery, forced labour, peonage and involuntary servitude. In a number of prosecutions, traffickers have used 'means' or control methods targeted to exploit members of certain cultures. The question of criminal responsibility, in cases where perpetrators belong to a culture which endorses the criminalised practice, is more general than its application to the crime of THB. Expert ethnologist testimony was used in a German case in the High District Court of Mannheim which involved the use of 'juju', in order to explain the complexity of the victims' belief system and the ramifications of 'juju' in Nigerian culture.
