Multidisciplinary Response To Human Trafficking Summary
A Case for a Multidisciplinary Response to Human Trafficking
Literature Review
Steven M. Dyer
NOVA Southeastern University
Criminal Justice Institute
Introduction
This literature review will explore the victimology of human trafficking. Specifically it will address human trafficking victims from the United States and those who originated from outside the United States. The literature will attempt to show that low socioeconomic status and prior illegal drug use by the victims contribute to the victimology of human trafficking. As a result of the findings, this literature review will endeavor to offer a holistic, community-based response to the victims of human trafficking by creating a multidisciplinary, biopsychosocial …show more content…
community response in the United States.
Research Questions
RQ #1: Does low socioeconomic status (SES) contribute to the victimology of human trafficking?
RQ #2: Does the prior use of illegal drugs contribute to the victimology of human trafficking?
Conceptual Model
Hypotheses
HR #1: Low SES contributes to the victimology of human trafficking
HR #2: Prior illegal drug use contributes to the victimology of human trafficking
Variables
IV #1: Low SES
IV #2: Prior Illegal Drug Use
DV: Human Trafficking Victimology
Statement of the Problem
The issue of human trafficking has existed for centuries. However the response to human trafficking by the criminal justice system in the United States has been slow and disparate across the various agencies at the federal, state, and local levels. This paper will provide a framework for a local response which is replicable in communities all over the country to combat the ills of human trafficking by understanding the victims of the crime. When one considers the victims of human trafficking it becomes readily apparent that the victims must be divided into citizens of the United States and non-citizens of the United States. It is essential to make this distinction from a criminological perspective because the typology of the two different types of victims are significantly different.
The victims of human trafficking from foreign countries must first be illegally transported into the United States. These victims have no legal right to be in the United States and usually the traffickers take any identification from the victims so then when they reach the United States, they are less likely to leave the pack. This allows the traffickers to maintain control over the victims here in the United States. Once those victims have reached the United States soil, they are “owned” by a trafficker who use them primarily for forced labor or sex trafficking.
The victims of human trafficking who are United States citizens are not as readily available to traffickers as are those from foreign countries in that they are free here in the United States with identities which allow them to be here. Therefore traffickers must identify certain characteristics for potential victims and then set up opportunities to control them. This control can include kidnapping. However it is more likely for traffickers to seek out victims who can be readily controlled voluntarily.
Both foreign and domestic victims of human trafficking can be identified in similar fashions by using the multidisciplinary model proposed in this paper.
The hypotheses addressed in this paper include:
HR #1: Low socioeconomic status (SES) contributes to the victimology of human trafficking
HR #2: Prior illegal drug use contributes to the victimology of human trafficking
Based on the stated hypotheses, the independent variables and dependent variable are:
IV #1: Low SES
IV #2: Prior Illegal Drug Use
DV: Human Trafficking Victimology
By identifying the characteristics of the victims of human trafficking, the criminal justice system can bring together the assets required to best combat the crimes associated with human trafficking.
Dependent Variable Literature Review The roots of human trafficking in the United States date back to a dark time in our history culminating with Civil War. However, as was discussed by (Daigle, 2013), the legal end of imprisonment of Africans held as slaves in the United States was not the end of slavery in this country. The modern day slavery which exists today is not unlike that which existed during the nineteenth century with a mixture of captives being held for labor slavery (including indentured servitude) and sex trafficking. The picture of the human trafficking victim world-wide depends on the type of trafficking being discussed.
But the predominant sex of victims are female and they are being moved from throughout the world to various locations where they will be sold or used by their traffickers. But the majority of sex trafficking victims are being imported from former Soviet Union countries (Daigle, 2013).
The first federal legislation in the United States aimed at combatting the crime of human trafficking occurred in (United States Congress, 2000) where the Congress said that human trafficking is a transnational crime affecting victims from all over the world in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA). The Congress identified the “unalienable rights” guaranteed in the Declaration of Independence which includes the right to be free from slavery and involuntary servitude.
A common definition of human trafficking was codified under this law which defines human trafficking as, “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for one of three …show more content…
purposes:
Labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.
A commercial sex act through the use of force, fraud, or coercion.
Any commercial sex act, if the person is under 18 years of age, regardless of whether any form of coercion is involved.” (United States Congress, 2000)
The United States federal government has also issued reauthorizations of the original TVPA 2000 legislation including:
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2013 (Polaris Project, 2014)
According to (The Institute on Race and Justice at Northeastern University, 2011) identifies the United Nations definition of human trafficking as:
“The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation or the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.”
Another area of misunderstanding when discussing the concept of human trafficking is the word “trafficking.” A common misconception with human trafficking is that the traffickers must physically relocate the victims to be guilty of trafficking. However the definition presented previously presents no need for a trafficker to actually cause the victim to be moved. Although it is common for those perpetrating the crime of human trafficking to remove their victims from their “home” location, it is certainly not an element of the crime of human trafficking (Kendall & Funk, 2012)
Banks & Kyckelhahn (2011) quantify the problem of human trafficking by looking at the reported incidents of human trafficking in the United States investigated through the federally funded human trafficking task forces using the Human Trafficking Reporting System (HTRS), between January 2008 and June 2010. During that 30 month span the HTRS opened 2,515 suspected cases of human trafficking from around the country. They divide the cases into three distinct categories: sex trafficking, labor trafficking, and unknown types of trafficking. Of the reports of human trafficking, 82% of them were sex trafficking allegations. Labor trafficking accounted for 14% of the reports. Three percent of the reports were considered “other suspected trafficking”. Finally, 7% of the reported incidents were “unknown” types of trafficking (the reason the percentages add up to more than 100% is because some of the reported cases were identified under multiple categories based on the allegations of the report.) Of the suspected cases of human trafficking identified as sex trafficking, 59% of the victims were identified as adults while 49% were classified as minors. The remaining cases were either classified as “sexualized labor” or “other”. The suspected labor trafficking cases identified by (Banks & Kyckelhahn, 2011) showed that of the 14% of reported cases classified as labor trafficking, 38% of the cases involved regulated commercial industries while 66% involved unregulated businesses. An additional 7% of cases were classified as other (the reason the percentages add up to more than 100% is because some of the reported cases were identified under multiple categories based on the allegations of the report.)
According to (Banks & Kyckelhahn, 2011), of the 2,515 suspected cases of human trafficking, only 389 of the incidents were confirmed to be human trafficking cases as a result of the investigation. Within the 389 confirmed human trafficking cases, there were 527 victims and 489 suspects. Of the 527 confirmed victims, 460 were attributed to sex trafficking, 63 were related to labor trafficking, and 4 victims were categorized as unknown. The 527 victims consisted of 66% United States citizens or U.S. nationals while only 19% were undocumented aliens. The racial makeup of the confirmed victims was broken down as 106 white (of which 102 were sex trafficking victims); 167 black/African American (161 sex trafficking victims); 129 Hispanic/Latino (74% sex trafficking/26% labor trafficking); 26 Asian victims (65% sex trafficking/35% labor trafficking); the remaining 98 victims were divided between “other” and “unknown” categories (87% sex trafficking/13% labor trafficking) (Banks & Kyckelhahn, 2011). This research was very revealing. Prior to conducting this literature review, I would not have anticipated that 66% of the known victims of human trafficking in the United States would be citizens of the United States and less than 20% of victims of human trafficking the United States would be undocumented aliens. If nothing else, this research should dispel one of the popular myths surrounding this problem that trafficking victims are usually from other countries and that this doesn’t affect children in the United States.
The figures presented by (Banks & Kyckelhahn, 2011) are a microcosm of the entirety of the problem of human trafficking. One can find estimates of the enormity of human trafficking in the United States and worldwide. In 2006 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report saying that even the data produced by the United States government were suspect and a better system needed to be found to quantify the problem here and around the world (GAO, 2006).
The obvious lack of consistency in the data and the various ideologies and constituencies involved in the research of human trafficking will provide challenges for this work and future studies into human trafficking.
Independent Variable #1 Literature Review The first independent variable in this research is low socioeconomic status (low SES). This research attempts to show the causal link between low SES and the increased chance of becoming a victim of human trafficking. The literature hints around the topic of SES in relation to the victims, but little actual supporting data is provided to confirm the hypothesis. This results from a lack of primary research into the lives of survivors of human trafficking here in the United States. In an earlier literature review similar to this one, (Schauer & Wheaton, 2006) indicated that all the literature refers to victims coming from low SES. However they go on to say that the literature which is available is lacking in its scientific research. According to (Kendall & Funk, 2012) victims of human trafficking traditionally come from dysfunctional homes in high crime areas. They also point out that the typical victim has little formal education and has probably been the victim of physical or sexual abuse in the past. This victimology presents a picture of those who may be in a low SES, but never quantifies it. Additionally this work was not primarily focused on victims of human trafficking within the United States. Therefore there is some useful information provided as ancillary material, but not primary research necessary for the development of an informed response to the perceived problem. One set of researchers provided data showing that women living in extreme poverty with little opportunity for change in foreign countries were at an elevated risk for becoming victims of human trafficking (Schauer & Wheaton, 2006). This work was not exhaustive and didn’t include research on victims within the United States. This was a literature review which provided a plethora of work which has been conducted around the topic of human trafficking within the United States. However a closer review of each of those sources yielded little useful information toward the review of primary research into the lives of human trafficking victims within the United States.
The original legislation dealing with human trafficking in the United States was the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000. In that federal law the Congress said that traffickers “target women and girls, who are disproportionately affected by poverty, the lack of access to education, chronic unemployment, discrimination, and the lack of economic opportunities” (United States Congress, 2000). The Congress went on to cite this typology of human trafficking victims as the reason why it is so easy for traffickers to control their victims by removing them from their home areas and relocating them to places where they will not have any connections or support systems in place, leaving them defenseless against the power of the traffickers. This law was used as background information to lay the groundwork for additional research based on the law. It was not intended as a review of primary research.
In spite of the information provided by the United States Congress in TVPA 2000, (Polaris Project, 2014) says that poverty can be a factor in creating vulnerability in potential victims, but “poverty alone is not a single causal factor”. The Polaris Project is a major factor in the world of human trafficking prevention, detection, and response. However there is very little scholarly information readily available for researcher looking to further study the issues surrounding this problem.
Very little useful information was found researching available primary scholarly work in relation to the independent variable, low SES. This will require significant primary research before any cogent response can be offered based on this particular variable.
Finally on the issue of low SES being an indicator of human trafficking victimization, (Petriliggieri, 2012) agrees that research indicates that low SES should be a factor in human trafficking victimization. But they admit that no significant empirical research exists to quantify this claim.
Independent Variable #2 Literature Review The second independent variable used in this research is that of prior drug use.
This research attempts to show the causal link between prior drug use and the increased chance of becoming a victim of human trafficking. When writing the original legislation referred to earlier as TVPA 2000, the United States Congress discussed a number of issues which a victim of human trafficking may present, one of which was drug dependency. However there is no indication from their statement that the victim ever engaged in drug use prior to becoming the victim of human traffickers. As stated earlier, the use of TVPA 2000 was done for background information only. It was not intended as research, but to provide a foundation for the problem as a whole. A review of the Comprehensive Human Trafficking Victim Questionnaire provided by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center reveals no questions related to the prior drug use of the victims being interviewed (Polaris Project, 2014). This questionnaire is intended to be used by those working with victims shortly after their extrication from the hands of the captors. Therefore it is probably not appropriate for the addition of such background questions which would assist researchers in determining a method of addressing the community needs to prevent those who are vulnerable to human traffickers from becoming victims. Therefore a follow-up questionnaire must be developed by researchers in an effort to establish the necessary information to
present a better prevention tool moving forward. Attempting to establish that a causal link exists between the first independent variable, low SES was difficult at best. But at least the literature anecdotally referenced factors related to low SES. In the case of prior drug use, the overt references to prior drug use were non-existent while only loosely interpreted statements about sociological factors characteristic of vulnerability for human trafficking victimization were found. It is essential moving forward for researchers to find opportunities to determine risk factors for potential victims in an effort to reduce the potential for victimization. If traffickers prey on the most vulnerable in our society, we must strive to protect them.
Summary & Conclusions There is no lack of desire to research the topic of human trafficking here in the United States and around the world. However the studies which have been conducted thus far provide little significant, useful information for those on the forefront of research moving forward. According to (Di Nicola, 2011) although there seems to be a large number of research being conducted on the issue of human trafficking, a very small percentage of that work involves empirical study and has relied on study which is based on an explanatory and descriptive nature of the problem, focusing on the “social phenomena” rather than hard data. The state of quality academic research in the area of human trafficking was best summed up by (Gozdziak, Ph.D. & Bump, 2008) when they said, “There is a need for both quantitative and qualitative research that would provide both macro and micro-level understanding of the trafficking phenomenon.” They went on to say that in-depth interviews of the victims of human trafficking are the only way we are going to be able to establish a sociological perspective on the victimology of human trafficking. In 2015 Routledge will begin publishing a new academic journal entitled, Human Trafficking. This focused journal will hopefully provide researchers with the impetus to conduct solid, primary research on this topic to provide better solutions to the problem. Such studies will have to include a multidisciplinary approach to address the victims and those committing the trafficking. But studies will also have to be focused on the prevention of human trafficking based on those who are at most risk for becoming victims.
References
Banks, D., & Kyckelhahn, T. (2011). Characteristics of suspected human trafficking indents, 2008-2010. Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Burke, M. C. (Ed.). (2013). Human Trafficking Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Abingdon, Oxon, UK: Taylor & Francis.
Daigle, L. E. (2013). Victimology: the essentials. Washington, D.C.: Sage Publications, Inc.
Di Nicola, A. (2011). Researching into human trafficking: Issues and problems. In M. Lee (Ed.), Human Trafficking (pp. 49-72). New York, NY: Routledge.
GAO. (2006). Human trafficking: Better data, strategy, and reporting needed to enhance U.S. antitrafficking efforts abroad. Washington, DC: Government Accountability Office.
Gozdziak, Ph.D., E. M., & Bump, M. N. (2008). Data and research on human trafficking: Bibliography of research-based literature. Georgetown University, Institute for the Study of International Migration, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Washington DC: National Institutte of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice.
Kendall, V. M., & Funk, T. M. (2012). Child Exploitation and Trafficking: Examining the Global Challenges and U.S. Responses. Plymouth, United Kingdom: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
National Institute for Human Trafficking Research and Training. (2014). Research: Elimination begins with education. Retrieved September 25, 2014, from National Institute for Human Trafficking Research and Training: http://humantraffickingtraining.org/research.html
Petriliggieri, F. (2012). Poverty is the root cause of human trafficking. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Retrieved from http://ic.galegroup.com.ezproxylocal.library.nova.edu/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=OVIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&display-query=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Viewpoints&limiter=&u=novaseu_main&cu
Polaris Project. (2014). Current federal laws. Retrieved September 26, 2014, from Polaris Project: http://www.polarisproject.org/
Schauer, E., & Wheaton, E. (2006). Sex trafficking in the United States: A literature review. Criminal Justice Review, 31, 146-169.
Territo, L., & Glover, N. (2014). Criminal Investigation of Sex Trafficking in America. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis Group.
The Institute on Race and Justice at Northeastern University. (2011). Human trafficking: Data collection & reporting project. Retrieved September 26, 2014, from The National Human Trafficking Resource Center: http://www.northeastern.edu/humantrafficking/background-on-human-trafficking/
United States Congress. (2000, October 28). Victims of trafficking and violence protection act of 2000. Retrieved September 25, 2014, from U.S. Department of State: http://www.state.gov/j/tip/laws/61124.htm
Literature Review
Steven M. Dyer
NOVA Southeastern University
Criminal Justice Institute
Introduction
This literature review will explore the victimology of human trafficking. Specifically it will address human trafficking victims from the United States and those who originated from outside the United States. The literature will attempt to show that low socioeconomic status and prior illegal drug use by the victims contribute to the victimology of human trafficking. As a result of the findings, this literature review will endeavor to offer a holistic, community-based response to the victims of human trafficking by creating a multidisciplinary, biopsychosocial …show more content…
community response in the United States.
Research Questions
RQ #1: Does low socioeconomic status (SES) contribute to the victimology of human trafficking?
RQ #2: Does the prior use of illegal drugs contribute to the victimology of human trafficking?
Conceptual Model
Hypotheses
HR #1: Low SES contributes to the victimology of human trafficking
HR #2: Prior illegal drug use contributes to the victimology of human trafficking
Variables
IV #1: Low SES
IV #2: Prior Illegal Drug Use
DV: Human Trafficking Victimology
Statement of the Problem
The issue of human trafficking has existed for centuries. However the response to human trafficking by the criminal justice system in the United States has been slow and disparate across the various agencies at the federal, state, and local levels. This paper will provide a framework for a local response which is replicable in communities all over the country to combat the ills of human trafficking by understanding the victims of the crime. When one considers the victims of human trafficking it becomes readily apparent that the victims must be divided into citizens of the United States and non-citizens of the United States. It is essential to make this distinction from a criminological perspective because the typology of the two different types of victims are significantly different.
The victims of human trafficking from foreign countries must first be illegally transported into the United States. These victims have no legal right to be in the United States and usually the traffickers take any identification from the victims so then when they reach the United States, they are less likely to leave the pack. This allows the traffickers to maintain control over the victims here in the United States. Once those victims have reached the United States soil, they are “owned” by a trafficker who use them primarily for forced labor or sex trafficking.
The victims of human trafficking who are United States citizens are not as readily available to traffickers as are those from foreign countries in that they are free here in the United States with identities which allow them to be here. Therefore traffickers must identify certain characteristics for potential victims and then set up opportunities to control them. This control can include kidnapping. However it is more likely for traffickers to seek out victims who can be readily controlled voluntarily.
Both foreign and domestic victims of human trafficking can be identified in similar fashions by using the multidisciplinary model proposed in this paper.
The hypotheses addressed in this paper include:
HR #1: Low socioeconomic status (SES) contributes to the victimology of human trafficking
HR #2: Prior illegal drug use contributes to the victimology of human trafficking
Based on the stated hypotheses, the independent variables and dependent variable are:
IV #1: Low SES
IV #2: Prior Illegal Drug Use
DV: Human Trafficking Victimology
By identifying the characteristics of the victims of human trafficking, the criminal justice system can bring together the assets required to best combat the crimes associated with human trafficking.
Dependent Variable Literature Review The roots of human trafficking in the United States date back to a dark time in our history culminating with Civil War. However, as was discussed by (Daigle, 2013), the legal end of imprisonment of Africans held as slaves in the United States was not the end of slavery in this country. The modern day slavery which exists today is not unlike that which existed during the nineteenth century with a mixture of captives being held for labor slavery (including indentured servitude) and sex trafficking. The picture of the human trafficking victim world-wide depends on the type of trafficking being discussed.
But the predominant sex of victims are female and they are being moved from throughout the world to various locations where they will be sold or used by their traffickers. But the majority of sex trafficking victims are being imported from former Soviet Union countries (Daigle, 2013).
The first federal legislation in the United States aimed at combatting the crime of human trafficking occurred in (United States Congress, 2000) where the Congress said that human trafficking is a transnational crime affecting victims from all over the world in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA). The Congress identified the “unalienable rights” guaranteed in the Declaration of Independence which includes the right to be free from slavery and involuntary servitude.
A common definition of human trafficking was codified under this law which defines human trafficking as, “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for one of three …show more content…
purposes:
Labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.
A commercial sex act through the use of force, fraud, or coercion.
Any commercial sex act, if the person is under 18 years of age, regardless of whether any form of coercion is involved.” (United States Congress, 2000)
The United States federal government has also issued reauthorizations of the original TVPA 2000 legislation including:
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2013 (Polaris Project, 2014)
According to (The Institute on Race and Justice at Northeastern University, 2011) identifies the United Nations definition of human trafficking as:
“The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation or the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.”
Another area of misunderstanding when discussing the concept of human trafficking is the word “trafficking.” A common misconception with human trafficking is that the traffickers must physically relocate the victims to be guilty of trafficking. However the definition presented previously presents no need for a trafficker to actually cause the victim to be moved. Although it is common for those perpetrating the crime of human trafficking to remove their victims from their “home” location, it is certainly not an element of the crime of human trafficking (Kendall & Funk, 2012)
Banks & Kyckelhahn (2011) quantify the problem of human trafficking by looking at the reported incidents of human trafficking in the United States investigated through the federally funded human trafficking task forces using the Human Trafficking Reporting System (HTRS), between January 2008 and June 2010. During that 30 month span the HTRS opened 2,515 suspected cases of human trafficking from around the country. They divide the cases into three distinct categories: sex trafficking, labor trafficking, and unknown types of trafficking. Of the reports of human trafficking, 82% of them were sex trafficking allegations. Labor trafficking accounted for 14% of the reports. Three percent of the reports were considered “other suspected trafficking”. Finally, 7% of the reported incidents were “unknown” types of trafficking (the reason the percentages add up to more than 100% is because some of the reported cases were identified under multiple categories based on the allegations of the report.) Of the suspected cases of human trafficking identified as sex trafficking, 59% of the victims were identified as adults while 49% were classified as minors. The remaining cases were either classified as “sexualized labor” or “other”. The suspected labor trafficking cases identified by (Banks & Kyckelhahn, 2011) showed that of the 14% of reported cases classified as labor trafficking, 38% of the cases involved regulated commercial industries while 66% involved unregulated businesses. An additional 7% of cases were classified as other (the reason the percentages add up to more than 100% is because some of the reported cases were identified under multiple categories based on the allegations of the report.)
According to (Banks & Kyckelhahn, 2011), of the 2,515 suspected cases of human trafficking, only 389 of the incidents were confirmed to be human trafficking cases as a result of the investigation. Within the 389 confirmed human trafficking cases, there were 527 victims and 489 suspects. Of the 527 confirmed victims, 460 were attributed to sex trafficking, 63 were related to labor trafficking, and 4 victims were categorized as unknown. The 527 victims consisted of 66% United States citizens or U.S. nationals while only 19% were undocumented aliens. The racial makeup of the confirmed victims was broken down as 106 white (of which 102 were sex trafficking victims); 167 black/African American (161 sex trafficking victims); 129 Hispanic/Latino (74% sex trafficking/26% labor trafficking); 26 Asian victims (65% sex trafficking/35% labor trafficking); the remaining 98 victims were divided between “other” and “unknown” categories (87% sex trafficking/13% labor trafficking) (Banks & Kyckelhahn, 2011). This research was very revealing. Prior to conducting this literature review, I would not have anticipated that 66% of the known victims of human trafficking in the United States would be citizens of the United States and less than 20% of victims of human trafficking the United States would be undocumented aliens. If nothing else, this research should dispel one of the popular myths surrounding this problem that trafficking victims are usually from other countries and that this doesn’t affect children in the United States.
The figures presented by (Banks & Kyckelhahn, 2011) are a microcosm of the entirety of the problem of human trafficking. One can find estimates of the enormity of human trafficking in the United States and worldwide. In 2006 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report saying that even the data produced by the United States government were suspect and a better system needed to be found to quantify the problem here and around the world (GAO, 2006).
The obvious lack of consistency in the data and the various ideologies and constituencies involved in the research of human trafficking will provide challenges for this work and future studies into human trafficking.
Independent Variable #1 Literature Review The first independent variable in this research is low socioeconomic status (low SES). This research attempts to show the causal link between low SES and the increased chance of becoming a victim of human trafficking. The literature hints around the topic of SES in relation to the victims, but little actual supporting data is provided to confirm the hypothesis. This results from a lack of primary research into the lives of survivors of human trafficking here in the United States. In an earlier literature review similar to this one, (Schauer & Wheaton, 2006) indicated that all the literature refers to victims coming from low SES. However they go on to say that the literature which is available is lacking in its scientific research. According to (Kendall & Funk, 2012) victims of human trafficking traditionally come from dysfunctional homes in high crime areas. They also point out that the typical victim has little formal education and has probably been the victim of physical or sexual abuse in the past. This victimology presents a picture of those who may be in a low SES, but never quantifies it. Additionally this work was not primarily focused on victims of human trafficking within the United States. Therefore there is some useful information provided as ancillary material, but not primary research necessary for the development of an informed response to the perceived problem. One set of researchers provided data showing that women living in extreme poverty with little opportunity for change in foreign countries were at an elevated risk for becoming victims of human trafficking (Schauer & Wheaton, 2006). This work was not exhaustive and didn’t include research on victims within the United States. This was a literature review which provided a plethora of work which has been conducted around the topic of human trafficking within the United States. However a closer review of each of those sources yielded little useful information toward the review of primary research into the lives of human trafficking victims within the United States.
The original legislation dealing with human trafficking in the United States was the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000. In that federal law the Congress said that traffickers “target women and girls, who are disproportionately affected by poverty, the lack of access to education, chronic unemployment, discrimination, and the lack of economic opportunities” (United States Congress, 2000). The Congress went on to cite this typology of human trafficking victims as the reason why it is so easy for traffickers to control their victims by removing them from their home areas and relocating them to places where they will not have any connections or support systems in place, leaving them defenseless against the power of the traffickers. This law was used as background information to lay the groundwork for additional research based on the law. It was not intended as a review of primary research.
In spite of the information provided by the United States Congress in TVPA 2000, (Polaris Project, 2014) says that poverty can be a factor in creating vulnerability in potential victims, but “poverty alone is not a single causal factor”. The Polaris Project is a major factor in the world of human trafficking prevention, detection, and response. However there is very little scholarly information readily available for researcher looking to further study the issues surrounding this problem.
Very little useful information was found researching available primary scholarly work in relation to the independent variable, low SES. This will require significant primary research before any cogent response can be offered based on this particular variable.
Finally on the issue of low SES being an indicator of human trafficking victimization, (Petriliggieri, 2012) agrees that research indicates that low SES should be a factor in human trafficking victimization. But they admit that no significant empirical research exists to quantify this claim.
Independent Variable #2 Literature Review The second independent variable used in this research is that of prior drug use.
This research attempts to show the causal link between prior drug use and the increased chance of becoming a victim of human trafficking. When writing the original legislation referred to earlier as TVPA 2000, the United States Congress discussed a number of issues which a victim of human trafficking may present, one of which was drug dependency. However there is no indication from their statement that the victim ever engaged in drug use prior to becoming the victim of human traffickers. As stated earlier, the use of TVPA 2000 was done for background information only. It was not intended as research, but to provide a foundation for the problem as a whole. A review of the Comprehensive Human Trafficking Victim Questionnaire provided by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center reveals no questions related to the prior drug use of the victims being interviewed (Polaris Project, 2014). This questionnaire is intended to be used by those working with victims shortly after their extrication from the hands of the captors. Therefore it is probably not appropriate for the addition of such background questions which would assist researchers in determining a method of addressing the community needs to prevent those who are vulnerable to human traffickers from becoming victims. Therefore a follow-up questionnaire must be developed by researchers in an effort to establish the necessary information to
present a better prevention tool moving forward. Attempting to establish that a causal link exists between the first independent variable, low SES was difficult at best. But at least the literature anecdotally referenced factors related to low SES. In the case of prior drug use, the overt references to prior drug use were non-existent while only loosely interpreted statements about sociological factors characteristic of vulnerability for human trafficking victimization were found. It is essential moving forward for researchers to find opportunities to determine risk factors for potential victims in an effort to reduce the potential for victimization. If traffickers prey on the most vulnerable in our society, we must strive to protect them.
Summary & Conclusions There is no lack of desire to research the topic of human trafficking here in the United States and around the world. However the studies which have been conducted thus far provide little significant, useful information for those on the forefront of research moving forward. According to (Di Nicola, 2011) although there seems to be a large number of research being conducted on the issue of human trafficking, a very small percentage of that work involves empirical study and has relied on study which is based on an explanatory and descriptive nature of the problem, focusing on the “social phenomena” rather than hard data. The state of quality academic research in the area of human trafficking was best summed up by (Gozdziak, Ph.D. & Bump, 2008) when they said, “There is a need for both quantitative and qualitative research that would provide both macro and micro-level understanding of the trafficking phenomenon.” They went on to say that in-depth interviews of the victims of human trafficking are the only way we are going to be able to establish a sociological perspective on the victimology of human trafficking. In 2015 Routledge will begin publishing a new academic journal entitled, Human Trafficking. This focused journal will hopefully provide researchers with the impetus to conduct solid, primary research on this topic to provide better solutions to the problem. Such studies will have to include a multidisciplinary approach to address the victims and those committing the trafficking. But studies will also have to be focused on the prevention of human trafficking based on those who are at most risk for becoming victims.
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