Six research categories on the Victim-Centered Approach.

The Victim-Centered Approach (VCA) is the doctrine that makes a witness's subjective experience of psychological pressure the operative legal fact in a trafficking prosecution — regardless of consent at the time, demonstrated benefit, or lack of physical force.

Under VCA, an organization's stated consent policies are not a defense. Witnesses who did not feel coerced are excluded as irrelevant. Contradictions in testimony are treated as evidence coercion worked.

This doctrine was not passed by Congress. It entered federal law through executive policy documents, training grant conditions, and judicial education programs.