A victim-centered approach to fighting sex trafficking can result in apprehension and prosecution of traffickers and offer needed services to survivors. However, law enforcement officers frequently arrest sextrafficking survivors for prostitution in accordance with state law. This study examined the psychology of public reactions and judgments of sex-trafficking survivors demonstrating the importance of situational factors, cognitive stereotypes, and moral emotions. Using Stereotype Content Modeling to measure the stereotypes that 762 community members held about prostitutes, we found shared stereotypes that were low in competence (i.e., capable and skilled) and warmth (i.e., good-natured and friendly). These participants later read modified case facts from United States v. Bell (United States v. Bell, 761 F.3d (8th Cir. 2014)) that varied survivor history of prostitution, vulnerability, and prostitution as a subsequent livelihood. Participants who stereotyped prostitutes as low in warmth and competence were the ones most certain police should arrest the survivor. Moral emotion analyses further showed that a survivor with no prior prostitution history and who came from a nonvulnerable background invoked disgust and contempt, which predicted a higher certainty of the arrest. Moral emotions fully mediated the relationship between the interacting case facts and arrest certainty for the trafficking survivor. Future directions and policy implications are discussed. Public Significance StatementParticipants who stereotyped prostitutes as low in warmth and competence were more certain police should arrest the survivor of sex trafficking for violating prostitution laws as were those who read about a survivor with no prior prostitution history and who came from a nonvulnerable background, in part, as a result of the disgust and contempt which people felt toward the survivor. The results suggest that efforts to educate the public about victim-centered approaches to sex trafficking could lead to healthier outcomes for the survivors as well as more effective prosecution of traffickers.

Despite the importance of stable housing for successful reentry, criminal history reduces the willingness of housing authorities to rent to applicants (Evans & Porter, 2015; Evans, Blount-Hill, & Cubellis, 2019; Furst & Evans, 2017). In seeking to understand the systemic nature of housing discrimination, we documented the stereotypes that 445 community members hold about exoffenders by applying stereotype content model analysis to map beliefs prior to asking participants to make rental judgments. Phase 1 of Experiment 1 measured competence (i.e., capable and skilled) and warmth (i.e., good-natured and friendly) stereotypes and Phase 2 manipulated offense status, race, and gender of the target applicant. Results showed that people perceived released offenders as low in competence and warmth, and that the low competence stereotype diminished willingness to rent to exoffenders. A second experiment with a new sample of 504 community members went on to determine whether providing participants individuating competency information about the specific applicant would ameliorate the stereotype competence effect found in Experiment 1. Experiment 2 manipulated the competency of apartment rental applicants, their offense record and their race. We found that the competence manipulation was successful, (i.e., participants were more likely to rent to the competent than neutral applicant) but the generic stereotype that exoffenders are low in competence was persistent and unaffected by information about the competence of the actual rental applicant. In other words, the individuating information did not disrupt the manifestation of the low competence stereotype against exoffenders. Future directions and policy implications are discussed.

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