diff --git a/sandboxapi/falcon.py b/sandboxapi/falcon.py
index 1696c18..822c9fd 100644
--- a/sandboxapi/falcon.py
+++ b/sandboxapi/falcon.py
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ def full_report (self, item_id, report_format="json"):
         # if response is JSON, return it as an object
         if report_format == "json":
             try:
-                return json.loads(response.content)
+                return json.loads(response.content.decode('utf-8'))
             except ValueError:
                 pass