diff --git a/AFNetworking/AFJSONRequestOperation.m b/AFNetworking/AFJSONRequestOperation.m
index 77ac8eb..78f3bb2 100644
--- a/AFNetworking/AFJSONRequestOperation.m
+++ b/AFNetworking/AFJSONRequestOperation.m
@@ -67,7 +67,10 @@ static dispatch_queue_t json_request_operation_processing_queue() {
         if ([self.responseData length] == 0) {
             self.responseJSON = nil;
         } else {
-            self.responseJSON = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:self.responseData options:self.JSONReadingOptions error:&error];
+            // Workaround for a bug in NSJSONSerialization when Unicode character escape codes are used instead of the actual character
+            // See http://stackoverflow.com/a/12843465/157142
+            NSData *JSONData = [self.responseString dataUsingEncoding:self.responseStringEncoding];
+            self.responseJSON = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:JSONData options:self.JSONReadingOptions error:&error];
         }
         
         self.JSONError = error;