Human Trafficking in the Vienna Tatort Episodes "Angezählt" and "Falsch verpackt"

The Vienna episodes of the German-Austrian-Swiss TV crime series Tatort stand out not only for including dialect and local color but also for addressing international aspects of complex crimes. This article first describes initiatives against human trafficking in Europe and particularly in Austria, with a focus on how they are publicized in news and websites. It then investigates the depiction of human trafficking for forced prostitution and labor in the Tatort episodes Falsch verpackt (2012) and Angezählt (2013). It argues that they accurately reflect major issues around the crime and its prosecution. Although the crimes get solved, in boThepisodes the police investigations fail, in a way. In Angezählt, the police do not succeed in protecting a victim of trafficking as well as a child. For its part, Falsch verpackt shows the complexity of prosecution of international crime and reflects the actual low number of arrests in contrast to a high number of international organizers who remain anonymous and beyond the reach of the law even when individual suspects are caught. BoThepisodes offer the viewer an emotional avenue to take the side of the victims, thus contributing to empathy with the victims and awareness of this eminent human rights issue. However, they also participate in "othering" the victims. It is likely that this technique makes the emotional bridge successful because the sympathy with the victims does not threaten the identity of the majority of viewers.