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Problem-Oriented Guides for Police 

The Exploitation of Trafficked Women


Center for Problem-Oriented Policing
www.PopCenter.org


 
Web-enhanced versions of all currently available Guides 
 
Interactive training exercises 
 
Online access to research and police practices 
 
Online problem analysis module. 


Designed for police and those who work with them to 
address community problems, www.popcenter.org is a great 
resource in problem-oriented policing. 

Supported by the Office of Community Oriented Policing 
Services, U.S. Department of Justice. 


Problem-Oriented Guides for Police 
Problem-Specific Guides Series 
Guide No. 38 

The Exploitation of
Trafficked Women


Graeme R. Newman 

This project was supported by cooperative agreement 
#2003CKWX0087 by the Office of Community Oriented Policing 
Services, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions contained herein 
are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official 
position of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific 
companies, products, or services should not be considered an 
endorsement of the product by the author or the U.S. Department 
of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement 
discussion of the issues. 

www.cops.usdoj.gov 

ISBN: 1-932582-59-2 

February 2006 


About the Problem-Specific Guides Series 

The Problem-Specific Guides summarize knowledge about 
how police can reduce the harm caused by specific crime 
and disorder problems. They are guides to prevention 
and to improving the overall response to incidents, not 
to investigating offenses or handling specific incidents. 
The guides are written for policeof whatever rank or 
assignmentwho must address the specific problem the 
guides cover. The guides will be most useful to officers 
who: 

 
Understand basic problem-oriented policing principles 
and methods. The guides are not primers in problem-
oriented policing. They deal only briefly with the initial 
decision to focus on a particular problem, methods to 
analyze the problem, and means to assess the results of a 
problem-oriented policing project. They are designed to help 
police decide how best to analyze and address a problem 
they have already identified. (A companion series of Problem-
Solving Tools guides has been produced to aid in various 
aspects of problem analysis and assessment.) 
 
Can look at a problem in depth. Depending on the 
complexity of the problem, you should be prepared to spend 
perhaps weeks, or even months, analyzing and responding 
to it. Carefully studying a problem before responding helps 
you design the right strategy, one that is most likely to 
work in your community. You should not blindly adopt the 
responses others have used; you must decide whether they 
are appropriate to your local situation. What is true in one 
place may not be true elsewhere; what works in one place 
may not work everywhere. 



 
Are willing to consider new ways of doing police 
business. The guides describe responses that other police 
departments have used or that researchers have tested. 
While not all of these responses will be appropriate to 
your particular problem, they should help give a broader 
view of the kinds of things you could do. You may think 
you cannot implement some of these responses in your 
jurisdiction, but perhaps you can. In many places, when 
police have discovered a more effective response, they have 
succeeded in having laws and policies changed, improving 
the response to the problem. 
 
Understand the value and the limits of research 
knowledge. For some types of problems, a lot of useful 
research is available to the police; for other problems, 
little is available. Accordingly, some guides in this series 
summarize existing research whereas other guides illustrate 
the need for more research on that particular problem. 
Regardless, research has not provided definitive answers to 
all the questions you might have about the problem. The 
research may help get you started in designing your own 
responses, but it cannot tell you exactly what to do. This 
will depend greatly on the particular nature of your local 
problem. In the interest of keeping the guides readable, 
not every piece of relevant research has been cited, nor has 
every point been attributed to its sources. To have done so 
would have overwhelmed and distracted the reader. The 
references listed at the end of each guide are those drawn 
on most heavily; they are not a complete bibliography of 
research on the subject. 
 
Are willing to work with others to find effective 
solutions to the problem. The police alone cannot 
implement many of the responses discussed in the guides. 
They must frequently implement them in partnership with 



other responsible private and public entities including other
government agencies, non-governmental organizations, 
private businesses, public utilities, community groups, 
and individual citizens. An effective problem-solver must 
know how to forge genuine partnerships with others 
and be prepared to invest considerable effort in making 
these partnerships work. Each guide identifies particular
entities in the community with whom police might work to 
improve the overall response to that problem. Thorough 
analysis of problems often reveals that entities other than 
the police are in a stronger position to address problems 
and that police ought to shift some greater responsibility to
them to do so.


The COPS Office defines community policing as 
a policing philosophy that promotes and supports 
organizational strategies to address the causes and reduce 
the fear of crime and social disorder through problem-
solving tactics and police-community partnerships. 
These guides emphasize problem-solving and police-community 
partnerships in the context of addressing specific public 
safety problems. For the most part, the organizational 
strategies that can facilitate problem-solving and police-
community partnerships vary considerably and discussion 
of them is beyond the scope of these guides. 

These guides have drawn on research findings and police 
practices in the United States, the United Kingdom, 
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and 
Scandinavia. Even though laws, customs and police 
practices vary from country to country, it is apparent that 
the police everywhere experience common problems. In 
a world that is becoming increasingly interconnected, it is 
important that police be aware of research and successful 
practices beyond the borders of their own countries. 


The COPS Office and the authors encourage you to provide 
feedback on this guide and to report on your own agencys 
experiences dealing with a similar problem. Your agency 
may have effectively addressed a problem using responses 
not considered in these guides and your experiences and 
knowledge could benefit others. This information will be 
used to update the guides. If you wish to provide feedback 
and share your experiences it should be sent via e-mail to 
cops_pubs@usdoj.gov. 

For more information about problem-oriented policing, visit 
the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing online at www. 
popcenter.org. This website offers free online access to: 

 
the Problem-Specific Guides series 
 
the companion Response Guides and Problem-Solving Tools 
series 
 
instructional information about problem-oriented policing 
and related topics 
 
an interactive training exercise 
 online access to important police research and practices. 



Acknowledgments 

The Problem-Oriented Guides for Police are very much a 
collaborative effort. While each guide has a primary 
author, other project team members, COPS Office staff 
and anonymous peer reviewers contributed to each guide 
by proposing text, recommending research and offering 
suggestions on matters of format and style. 

The principal project team developing the guide series 
comprised Herman Goldstein, professor emeritus, 
University of Wisconsin Law School; Ronald V. Clarke, 
professor of criminal justice, Rutgers University; John 

E. Eck, professor of criminal justice, University of 
Cincinnati; Michael S. Scott, clinical assistant professor, 
University of Wisconsin Law School; Rana Sampson, 
police consultant, San Diego; and Deborah Lamm 
Weisel, director of police research, North Carolina State 
University. 

Cynthia Pappas oversaw the project for the COPS Office. 
Stephen Lynch edited the guide. Research for the guides 
was conducted at the Criminal Justice Library at Rutgers 
University under the direction of Phyllis Schultze. 

The project team also wishes to acknowledge the members 
of the San Diego, National City and Savannah police 
departments who provided feedback on the guides' format 
and style in the early stages of the project, as well as the 
line police officers, police executives and researchers who 
peer reviewed each guide. 


Contents 

About the Problem-Specific Guides Series .................................i
Acknowledgments ....................................................v
The Problem of Exploiting Trafficked Women ...............................1
Related Problems .................................................4
Extent of the Problem ..............................................5
The Four Stages of Human Trafficking .................................7
Recruitment ..................................................10
Transportation .................................................11
Delivery/Marketing.............................................12
Exploitation...................................................13
Factors Contributing to the Exploitation of Trafficked Women ..................15
The Market for Commercial Sex ......................................15
Customer and Trafficker Attitudes ....................................16
Divided Public Attitudes ............................................18
Organized Crime ..................................................19
Attractive Locations ...............................................20
Understanding Your Local Problem .......................................23
Asking the Right Questions .........................................23
Police and Community Awareness.................................24
Marketing....................................................25
Venues ......................................................25
Incidents, Offenders, and Victims .................................27
Current Responses to the Exploitation of Trafficked Women ............28
Measuring Your Effectiveness .......................................29

Responses to the Problem of Exploiting Trafficked Women .................... 31
General Considerations for an Effective Response Strategy ................ 31
Preparatory Responses for Identifying the Problem ....................... 33
Specific Responses to the Exploitation of Trafficked Women ............... 40
Enforcing Laws Against Traffickers and Men Who Purchase Sex ........ 40
Reducing Demand.............................................. 44
Making the Local Environment Inhospitable to Exploitation of 
Trafficked Women .......................................... 46
Responses With Limited Effectiveness ................................ 50
Appendix A: 
Summary of Responses to the Exploitation of Trafficked Women ............... 53
Appendix B: 
Schematic Representation of Relationships among Exploitation, Trafficking,
Migration, Smuggling, Labor, and Consent ................................. 59
Endnotes ............................................................ 61
References .......................................................... 65
About the Author ..................................................... 75
Recommended Readings ............................................... 77
Other Problem-Oriented Guides for Police .................................. 81


The Problem of Exploiting Trafficked 
Women 

This guide begins by describing the problem of exploiting 
women who have been trafficked into the United States, 
and the aspects of human trafficking that contribute 
to it. Throughout the guide, the word trafficked shall 
mean internationally trafficked, unless otherwise stated. 
Additionally, the guides focus is on the final period in 
the process of trafficking at which women are further 
exploited by those into whose hands they are passed. 
This is the point at which human trafficking becomes 
a problem for local police and so the guide identifies a 
series of questions that can help analyze local problems 
related to trafficking. Finally, it reviews responses to the 
exploitation of trafficked women and examines what is 
known about the effectiveness of these responses from 
research and police practice. 


Concern about the exploitation of women who have 
been trafficked into the United States derives from the 
international issues of human trafficking and slavery. 
The characteristics of international human trafficking, 
including the profits, resemble those of the international 
drug trade.1 In the United States, until the passage of 
the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) in 2000, 
human trafficking was approached as an immigration 
problem, which meant that police viewed trafficking 
as a federal rather than a local responsibility. The 
TVPA clarified the definition of human traffickinga 



particularly difficult problem, as will be seen below 
and introduced a number of important protections for 
trafficked individuals (see Box 1). The TVPA defines two 
forms of severe human trafficking: 

a. 
sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is 
induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the 
person induced to perform such an act has not attained 
18 years of age. 
b. 
the recruitment, harboring, transportation, 
provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or 
services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion 
for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, 
peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.2 

 The trafficking of women within 
the United States is an old concern, 
dating back at least to the Mann Act 
of 1911, which criminalized taking 
persons across state lines for the 
purpose of prostitution. This law 
was directed towards prostitution 
in particular, without regard to 
immigration issues. 

Because some 70 percent of internationally trafficked 
women end up in the sex trade, the effect of the TVPA 
is to define many such women as crime victims rather 
than criminals. Whether pressed into forced labor or 
prostitution, the exploitation of these individuals is 
continued upon entry into the United States, whether in 
the same hands of those who trafficked them, or whether 
passed on to others who profit from commercial sex or 
cheap, often forced, labor. 

The TVPA does not require that a trafficked person be 
actually transported anywhere; it simply requires that 
the victims freedom be constrained by force, fraud or 
coercion. The focus of this guide, however, is on those 
women who are transported into the United States for 
the purposes of commercial sex or forced labor. The 
operational elements of forced labor, such as occurs in 
domestic service, agriculture, and sweatshops,3 are similar 


to those of forced prostitution: in both cases women 
may be kept in slave-like conditions, exploited for their 
labor and are physically and mentally abused. They also 
share the same trafficked experience: a system built on 
fraud, coercion, and false promises, which is meant to 
ensure that the women remain under the control of their 
traffickers from the moment they are recruited continuing 
indefinitely through forced labor or the commercial sex 
trade.4 

Box 1: 
THE TRAFFICKING VICTIM PROTECTIONS ACT 2000 (TVPA)5 

1. 
Established a task force comprising the U.S. Secretary of State, the Secretary of 
Labor, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Director General of 
the CIA, and the Attorney General. 
2. 
Required the establishment of programs designed to increase public awareness 
of human trafficking, including sex trafficking, forced labor and domestic 
servitude. 
3. 
Required an annual report from the U.S. Department of State on human 
trafficking around the world. 
4. 
Threatened economic sanctions against countries that failed to act against 
trafficking. 
5. 
Substantially increased punishments for offenses involving involuntary servitude 
and extended definitions to include traffickers or others who knowingly benefit 
from human trafficking. 
6. 
Defined victims of severe forms of trafficking and gave them refugee status. 
7. 
Removed the threat of deportation for those trafficked into the United States 
illegally, provided these victims cooperated with law enforcement. 
8. 
Provided protection for victims in federal custody and provided government 
housing, detention centers, shelters, medical care, and other services 
commensurate with victim status. 
9. 
Deemed victim consent irrelevant in determining trafficked status. 



Related Problems 

Exploiting internationally trafficked women is only 
one of a number of problems that are related to, or 
are examples of, human trafficking. Other related 
problems not directly addressed by this guide include: 

 
trafficking in children, sale of babies, and illegal 
adoptions 
 
kidnapping of children 
 
child pornography 
 
sex tourism 
 
trading in body parts 
 
smuggling of immigrants 
 
identity theft (see Problem-Specific Guide No. 25, 
Identity Theft) 
 
street prostitution (see Problem-Specific Guide 
No. 2, Street Prostitution) 
 
serial murder of prostitutes 
 
illegal employment of aliens 
 
domestic trafficking for forced labor 
 
juvenile runaways who are drawn into prostitution 
 
stalking (see Problem-Specific Guide No. 22,
Stalking)
 
domestic abuse of mail order brides 
 
homeless citizens who are trafficked for forced 
labor 
 
domestic trafficking of women and juveniles. 



Extent of the Problem 

Statistics concerning human trafficking are necessarily 
unreliable because of the clandestine nature of the 
activity and the difficulties in defining it.6 The U.S. State 
Department estimates that between 600,000 and 800,000 
persons were trafficked across national borders worldwide 
between April 2003 and March 2004. Eighty percent of 
these were female, 70 percent of whom were trafficked 
for sexual exploitation. In 2003, between 14,500 and 
17,500 were trafficked into the United States.7 Most 
originate in poorer countries, where human trafficking has 
become a significant source of income; these include 
states in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Commonwealth 
of Independent States of the former Soviet Union, and 
Central and Eastern Europe. Most women are trafficked 
to developed countries, with the United States being the 
most popular country of destination.8 Human trafficking 
is reportedly as highly profitable a business as are arms 
smuggling and drug trafficking.9 

 Sixty to seventy-five percent of 
trafficked women in prostitution 
have been raped; 70 to 95 percent 
have been physically assaulted (U.S. 
State Department 2005). 

 In some countries, the sex trade 
has become an important economic 
development strategy and source 
of income, with profits amounting 
to 14 percent of gross domestic 
product (Raymond and Hughes 
2001). 

In fiscal year 2003, the number of victims certified or 
eligible for refugee benefits under TVPA was just 151.10 
When this figure is compared to the estimated 14,500 
females who were trafficked into the United States 
in 2003, it becomes clear that either the estimates are 
enormously exaggerated or trafficking victims are simply 
hidden from view. The answer is probably somewhere 
in the middle. Those who exploit trafficked women 
work hard at keeping their activities hidden from the 
authorities by constantly changing the locations and 
telephone numbers of their businesses and by isolating 
trafficked women from the public. In addition, because 
the requirements for meeting the TVPA are quite narrow, 






the collection of the appropriate information concerning 
the victim may take considerable time and resources. 
Thus, an important response for local police is to locate 
and identify trafficking victims who are hidden in their 
communities. 

 While sweatshop workers may 
be hidden from the community, 
exploited women in the sex trade 
are not hidden in the same way, 
since their services are often openly 
advertised. They are only hidden 
in the sense that the public turns a 
blind eye to their existence. 

Trafficking causes serious trauma to exploited women and 
adds to existing public health problems. Trafficked women 
in the sex trade are so isolated from the community that 
their clients and handlers physically abuse them with 
impunity, subjecting them to repeated rape and assault. 
They also deny them prenatal care or medical care in case 
of pregnancy, infections or injury, and force them to have 
abortions. Having no recourse, the women are forced 
to comply with client demands, the majority of whom, 
research has shown, refuse to use condoms. Thus, the 
spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted disease 
is more likely. Furthermore, women are induced into 
heavy alcohol and drug use as a means of ensuring their 
continued dependency on their traffickers.11 Needless to 
say, their illegal status makes it difficult or impossible for 
trafficked women to receive the social and health benefits 
that might otherwise be available to them.12 They are 
understandably reluctant to seek medical attention for fear 
of being turned over to immigration authorities. 


 Historically, trafficked women 
have been looked upon as 
transmitters of HIV and AIDS, 
rather than as victims of the disease. 
Measures, including forced HIV 
testing and medical examinations, 
have been implemented in order 
to protect the customers and 
the larger communitynot the 
trafficked victims themselves 
(HumanTrafficking.com 2004). 

 In some communities, up to 86 
percent of sex workers are infected 
with HIV (Willis and Levy 2002). 

Because they are out of sight of the authorities (though 
often in plain view of local communities), sweatshops and 
other forms of forced labor invariably fail to meet health 
and safety regulations. Sub-standard housing and working 
conditions are associated with increased illness and injury 
in these populations.13 In addition to being beaten and 
starved, women may be made to work long hours without 
breaks, or forced to work in hazardous or polluted 


environments. Even in locations where the presence and 
employment of undocumented immigrants is known, 
enforcement of health, safety, and labor regulations is at 
best sporadic.14 Language and cultural limits may prevent 
victims from understanding and appreciating both the 
risks in the workplace and the use of preventive measures. 
Injury and death rates of foreign workers have been shown 
to be higher than normal in some work environments.15 

The illegal status of trafficked women also makes them 
ready victims of other crimes. For example, undocumented 
immigrants are often easy and lucrative robbery targets, 
because those few who manage to earn any money at all 
are often fearful of opening bank accounts, lest their illegal 
status be discovered. And when victimized, many are too 
fearful to report the incident to the police.16 Furthermore, 
traffickers in the sex trade tend to concentrate their 
activities in immigrant communities that are often 
neglected by local government, which results in a higher 
incidence of crime.17 

The Four Stages of Human Trafficking 

Table 1 displays the typical stages of human trafficking 
and the techniques used at each stage. These techniques 
are listed as examples and may differ depending on the 
particular recruiting locality (catchment area) and the 
constraints or opportunities that may arise in moving 
humans across borders. Depending on the organizational 
sophistication of the traffickers, the third or even the 
fourth stage of exploitation may be directly linked to the 
initial stage of recruitment; that is, recruiters who are 
organizationally linked to the delivery end of the process 


may select women specifically for particular tasks, such 
as domestic servitude, escort services, brothels that 
specialize in providing very young women, or cheap labor 

 Fees to traffickers and recruiters 
range from $2,000 to $47,000 and for garment industry sweatshops. Although the extent to 

often vary by countries of origin: which all stages of trafficking are linked is unknown, it is 

e.g., $40,000 to $47,000 for Chinese 

women, $35,000 for Korean women, usually assumed that where gangs or criminal syndicates 

and $2,000 to $3,000 for Mexican are involved, considerable linkage exists. 
women (Raymond and Hughes 2001). 

 In the Philippines, overseas 
workers are required to send back 
a percentage of their wage as a 
condition of permission to travel 
abroad (Gatmaytan 1997). The 
Dominican Republic depends on 
more than 100,000 women working 
abroad as a source of foreign 
exchange (Wijers and Lap-Chew 
1999). 

Table 1: The Four Stages of Human Trafficking 

Stage Strategies Techniques 



 
Stage ONE Recruitment 
Strategies
Select vulnerable womenusually 
poor, young, and uneducatedwho 
are easy to trick and will believe 
promises of future employment 
 Hide behind an apparently legal 
business, such as an employment or 
travel agency 
 Get client into debt or find a debt-ridden family 
 Traffic from countries that benefit
from foreign exchange resulting 
from export of trafficked women
 Offer services as coyote or 
smuggler 

Techniques
 False promises of work and well paying 
jobs 
 False promises of work visas and passports 
 Offer of safe passage to destination 
country 
 Use person from victims culture to 
recruit 
  Use of tourist visas without work visas 
 Recruiter buys young girl for small sum
 Arrange marriage to American men 
including serviceman 
 Advertise for women needed for 
housekeeping work 
 Kidnapping 
 Trafficker convinces the woman he loves 
her
 Pay for client travel, give loan  


Stage Strategies Techniques 

Stage TWO Transportation and entry
Strategies
 Provide a service such as all necessary 
documentation and travel arrangements 
 Use a tourist or employment 
agency as a front 18 
 Provide guide service
 Search for weak points of entry
into the United States

Techniques
 Document forgery 
 Stolen passports and visas
 Bribery of border officials 
 Transportation in concealed vehicles 
 Provide recruits with tourist visas19 
 Employers manipulate special visas 
 Handlers (e.g. coyotes on Mexico/U.S. 
border) guide individuals across borders 
or over difficult terrain,20 sometimes 
providing transportation 

Stage THREE Delivery and marketing
Strategies
 Make contact with clients using 
standard marketing techniques
 Prearrange deals through legal 
or illegal businesses, such as 
domestic employment agencies, 
entertainment agencies, and escort services
 Market through organized crime 
rings for sex trade
 Keep trafficked woman dependent
on trafficker until delivery 

Techniques
 Advertising in pornographic magazines 
 and web sites and in the ethnic media 
 Establish matchmaking web sites to 
advertise women 
 Deliver to farm labor, sweat shops; 
domestic service agencies etc. 
 Mail order brides and matchmaking 
camps 
 Retention or confiscation of travel 
 documents 
 Traffic women domestically by constantly 
moving them between cities and states 
to satisfy demand for new women and to 
keep the women isolated 

Stage FOUR Exploitation
Strategies
 Exploit alien status 
 Threaten violence against womans
relatives in home country 
 Use actual violence to ensure compliance and silence

 Create and maintain debt
 Create and maintain alcohol and drug dependency
 Exploit ambiguities in and lax
enforcement of sex trade laws
 Keep in isolation

Techniques
 Retention of passports and visas 
 Threaten to turn over to authorities  
 Keep imprisoned in the place of employment 
 Sex trade: forced prostitution, off street 
prostitution, night clubs, exotic dancing, 
escort services 
 Forced labor: bonded labor, virtual 
imprisonment, indentured labor, 
coercion and violence; labor intensive 
manufacturing (e.g. clothing trade) or 
rural farm labor 
 Massage parlors, nail salons, employment 
agencies as fronts for illegal activity 
 Move from place to place 


 

Recruitment 

Although there are many reported cases of kidnapping 
for trafficking purposesas well as reports of parents 
selling their daughters to traffickersit is likely that 
the majority of trafficked women are recruited through 
fraud, deception, and other enticements that exploit real 
social and financial needs.21 A typical human trafficking 
scheme begins not with violence or coercion but rather 
as a confidence gamethe young woman is convinced 
by traffickers that a desirable job awaits her in a foreign 
country. At that point, she believes that she is going 
to voluntarily participate in a smuggling scheme, in 
which she will incur a debt in return for being brought 
into the destination country. In the case of individuals 
trafficked for forced labor, the victim may enter into a 
contract with the trafficker that is very much against 
her interests. The woman may be enticed by the offer 
of a loan for travel to the United States or of aid in 
finding employment. The complicated interplay between 
trafficking and smuggling is very much at work here 
(see Box 2). Employment agencies are used as a front for 
these deceptions, as are agencies for mail order brides. 
Mail order bride agencies22, exploit the blurred line 
between deception, trickery, and the voluntary attitudes of 
would-be brides. However, human trafficking charges 
under the TVPA must always involve forced labor or 
commercial sex of some kind. Abuses of mail order 
bride situations may or may not include these elements. 
Nonetheless, it is clear that numerous mail order bride 
agencies utilize the same kind of deception that traffickers 
do in luring foreign women to come to the United States. 

 In one excellent study of women 
recruited in the Philippines, all 
women stated that they had willingly 
agreed to be transported to the 
country of destination; some even 
paid the travel costs up front. 
All those interviewed, however, 
subsequently fell into heavy debt 
and became enslaved in the sex trade 
(Aronowitz 2003). 

 The United States is the number 
one importer of mail order brides 
and the number one importer of 
Philippine women. One company 
charges men a modest sum for its 
catalog of Russian women and holds 
a mixer in Russia to which U.S. 
men travel; the company charges the 
women a substantial amount, often 
their life savings, to travel to the 
mixer, the catch being that there are 
many more women at the mixer than 
there are men (Caldwell et al. 2001). 

 Traffickers find marriage agencies 
and mail order bride services 
attractive because as legal businesses 
they can recruit women openly; they 
are also virtually unregulated (Lloyd 
1999-2000). However, the overall 
extent to which traffickers use such 
businesses is unknown (Hughes 
2004b:13).


Transportation 

Research suggests that the main means of trafficking 
into the United States is by air.23 Most often, women 
are trafficked according to a previously planned route, 
often using the services of a tourist agency that may or 
may not be linked to trafficking. Trafficked women may 
be transported across borders with or without legitimate 
documentation. The use of forged or stolen passports and 
visas and the use of tourist visas are common. Again, 
the interplay between smuggling and trafficking (see Box 
2) is evident at this stage of the process. In locations 
where borders are porous or stretch across inhospitable or 
isolated territory, smugglers may offer safe passage across 
established or known routes. In locations where border 
security is tight, traffickers may help individuals conceal 
themselves in trucks or trains in order to enter the country 
illegally. Military bases are also popular points of entry. 

 One study found that over 50 
percent of trafficked women entered 
the Unites States with tourist visas 
and overstayed their visas (Raymond 
et al. 2001). 

Box 2: Trafficking vs. Smuggling 

Smuggling and trafficking are closely connected. Generally, smuggling does not 
involve coercion, but rather is performed at the request of the alien, who pays 
a fee for safe, albeit illegal, passage. In its simplest form, it involves only the 
second stage of trafficking: transportation. However, trafficked women who 
begin their trip voluntarily may become victims at the delivery stage, when 
their illegal status is exploited by those seeking cheap labor. If the smuggling is 
part of an organized activity, the smuggler may deliver the smuggled individual 
directly into the sex trade or another form of forced labor. In this case, the 
individual is both smuggled and trafficked.24 

Trafficking Smuggling 

 
Crime or violation against a person  Unauthorized border crossing 
 
Contains element of coercion  No coercion 
(cannot consent to enslavement)  Facilitated illegal entry of person 
 
Subsequent exploitation and/or from one country to another 
forced labor  Smuggled persons seen as 
 
Trafficked persons seen as victims criminals by the law 
by the law 



Delivery/Marketing 

Both before and after a woman has reached the United 
States, her services can be marketed through standard 
outlets, such as advertising in personal columns; but 
by far the most effective marketing is via Internet chat 
rooms, bulletin boards, and the many web sites that offer 
matchmaking services for men and women.25 Where a 
prior arrangement has been reached, the trafficked woman 
is handed over to her intended employer once she reaches 
her destination. Forced prostitution may also be confined 
within particular ethnic communities, where men seek to 
purchase sex from women or young girls of their own 
ethnicity. This serves to further isolate trafficked women 
from the broader community.26 Recent research suggests 
that there is considerable trafficking of women between 
various U.S. cities. Frequent movement of women serves 
three purposes: first, it makes detection more difficult 
and removes the incentive for local investigative agencies 
to become involved; second, it provides a variety of 
women for customers; and third, it inhibits women from 
establishing ties to their communities.27 In cases where 
there is no delivery to a specific person or organization, 
the woman is technically not trafficked, but smuggled. In 
this case, if she is young, without family, and without the 
ability to speak English, she may end up in the sex trade, 
and her trafficked status will be difficult to determine by 
local police. 


Exploitation 

Trafficked women are extremely vulnerable, for three 
reasons. First, as illegal aliens, many women who do not 
know they have rights are fearful of seeking assistance 
from police or other service agencies. Second, women 
and their families are often in debt to the traffickers who 
exploit their labor. Third, should a womans situation, 
such as working in the sex trade become known back 
home, her familys honor may be damaged. As a result, 
those who employ trafficked women have enormous 
control over them. In effect, conditions of employment 
become conditions of slavery. However, the definition of 
exploitation is difficult, because trafficked personsand 
even legal immigrantsoften consent to exploitation in 
the hope that they can improve their circumstances by 
doing so.28 This creates a serious problem for local police, 
because victims may refuse to cooperate and may even 
resist attempts to improve their circumstances. 

In fact, the problem of definitions of the many activities 
involved in the trafficking of women is considerable. 
Only in recent years has a definition of human trafficking 
been agreed upon internationally. It was not until the 
passage of TVPA in 2000 that the U.S. Congress defined 
trafficking and its associated terms in an attempt to clarify 
the difficult overlap between smuggling, trafficking, 
coercion, consent, bondage, and exploitation. The 
extremely complex interplay among these terms as well as 
their links to other crimes is displayed in Appendix B. The 
definitions now accepted are reproduced in Box 3. 

 In the pre-Civil War South, 
replacing a slave cost the modern 
equivalent of $40,000. Slaves in the 
twenty-first century can be purchased 
for as little as $90. For example, a 
family in Thailand was reported to 
have sold a daughter into the sex 
trade in order to buy a television set 
(Florida State University, Center for 
the Advancement of Human Rights, 
2003:14). 


Box 3:
TVPA DEFINITIONS OF TRAFFICKING AND TRAFFICRELATED 
ACTIVITIES29


Severe human trafficking. (a) Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is 
induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to 
perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or (b) the recruitment, 
harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or 
services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of 
subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. 

Sex trafficking is defined as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, 
provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex 
act. 

Involuntary servitude is defined as (a) a scheme, plan, or pattern intended to 
cause a person to believe that, if the person did not enter into or continue in 
such condition, that person or another person would suffer serious harm or 
physical restraint or (b) the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process. 

Peonage is defined as a status of involuntary servitude based upon real or 
alleged indebtedness. 

Debt bondage is defined as the condition of a debtor who has pledged his 
or her personal services in security for debt but whose services are not 
reasonably applied toward relieving the debt, or the length and nature of 
services are not limited and defined. 

Smuggling is having knowingly encouraged, induced, assisted, abetted, or 
aided any other alien to enter or try to enter the United States [illegally].30 


Factors Contributing to the Problem of 
Exploiting Trafficked Women 

Understanding the factors that contribute to local 
trafficking problems can help frame local analysis, identify 
effective remedial measures, recognize key intervention 
points, and select appropriate responses. 

The Market for Commercial Sex 

Supply. The international proliferation of trafficking 
has created a supply of trafficked women that is so large 
that it drives the market. Countries that make no attempt 
to control human trafficking use the trade as a means 
of importing foreign currency, especially U.S. dollars 
and Euros. This is achieved both by encouraging sex 
tourism in the originating country and by tacitly approving 
the exportation of women to wealthy countries.31 
Globalization has facilitated the movement of cheap labor 
from one country to another. Thus, even those women 
who are not trafficked into the sex trade add to the 
plentiful supply of undocumented migrant labor at best, 
sweatshop and forced labor at worst. 

 The TVPA established a set of 
standards for countries to combat 
trafficking. Countries are rated 
annually according to these standards 
and allocated to one of three 
tiers: (1) full compliance; (2) some 
compliance; and (3) no compliance 
or no effort to comply. As of 2005, 
all countries are required by U.S. law 
to collect and publish prosecution 
and conviction statistics on human 
trafficking. Countries making no 
effort to combat trafficking are 
subject to various U.S. sanctions (U.S. 
Department of State 2004, 2005). 

U.S. Department of State 
Global map of countries that are TVPA non-compliant
Some countries are deemed by the U.S. government as 
making no effort to comply with the Trafficking Victims 
Protection Act. 




Demand. The demand issues surrounding trafficking 
for forced labor are simple enough: because illegal or 
quasi-legal businesses can gain considerable advantage by 
employing cheap labor, there will always be demand for 
such labor. The demand issues involved in trafficking for 
the sex trade are much more complicated and subject to 
considerable debate. Some argue that human trafficking 
for the sex trade is simply a response to a natural need; 
that is, men will be men. Others argue that this is a 
misconception, that rather than mens sexual needs being 
such that prostitution must exist to fulfill them, the truth 
is that mens sexual appetites respond to the opportunities 
offered them by the purveyors of prostitution. (See also 
Response 9 for an elaboration of this point). In other 
words, it is the marketthe trafficking in womenthat 
creates the demand, not the customers. If there is 
a plentiful supply of vulnerable women and girls, a 
profitable business plan follows: offer the services of 
young women that cater to any customer preference at a 
competitive price and pay the women little or nothing. 

 This is the rationale that underlies 
the Swedish legislation outlawing 
the purchase of sexual services. As 
its advocate says: It is the market 
that is the driving force. Demand is 
defined by the services produced, not 
vice versa, which contradicts certain 
popular traditional market theories. 
(Sven-Axel Mansson, interviewed by 
Maria Jacobson 2002). 

 There is some evidence of a 
growing demand by purchasers of 
sex for foreign women of various 
ethnic backgrounds. There is 
considerable evidence that mens 
sexual expectations are driven 
by ethnic stereotypes and myths 
(Hughes 2004). 

Customer and Trafficker Attitudes 

The sex trade. The customers of the sex trade reveal 
callous attitudes towards the trafficked women they 
rent. In the case of prostitutionwhether the prostitute 
is trafficked or notmen adopt the view that they own 
the prostitute for the period for which they have paid 
and believe that they have a right to do whatever they 
please, including physical and psychological abuse.32 The 
purveyors of prostitution, whether pimp or madam, 
do not demand compensation if the customer damages 
the woman. Indeed, they routinely abuse prostitutes 
themselves.33 Here again, profit is the key. Trafficked 


women in the sex trade quickly depreciate in value 
particularly, where beauty and youthfulness are important 
to the customer. Youth and beauty are cheap to replace 
where there is a plentiful supply of trafficked women. 

 Sex trade customers commonly 
report that it is none of their 
concern if prostitutes are trafficked 
or even imprisoned in the brothel. 
While some feel sorry for the 
prostitutes situation and may even 
offer help, they nevertheless continue 
to purchase her services and expect 
the same services from trafficked 
as from non-trafficked prostitutes 
(Seabrook 2001). 

Domestic servitude. Employers of domestic servants 
who are trafficked women display attitudes not so 
much indifferent as paternalistic. Interviews show that 
employers often treat the trafficked women in their service 
as children without rights, sometimes subjecting them 
to physical and mental abuse, and placing considerable 
restrictions on their movements, including low pay and 
little or no time off. In many cases, employers feel that 
they are doing the trafficked woman a favor by providing 
employment that would otherwise be unavailable to 
an illegal alien.34 In short, because the conditions of 
employment within households are invisible to the 
authorities, working conditions that would be important 
outside the household are seen as irrelevant.35 

Forced labor. Debt bondage is the most frequent type 
of coercion employed against women in labor trafficking 
situations. Rape and sexual assault are also frequently used 
by traffickers to maintain women in labor trafficking 
situations. Whatever the technique used to maintain 
debt bondagewhether on a rural farm or in an urban 
sweatshopthe obvious advantage to employing trafficked 
women is that they are cheap, thus increasing profit and 
competitive pricing. Money is saved in many ways. Because 
these businesses are operated on premises that are hidden 
from public view, they can dispense with health and safety 
compliance. Of course wagesif anynever match the 
minimum wage. And in fact, wages are garnished to 
pay the loans that financed the trafficked individuals 
transportation to the country of destination.36 

 Every floor is a rabbit warren of 
corridors and numbered doorways, 
a labyrinth of iron grilles and black 
wire mesh reminiscent of a reform 
school, or a prison. Behind every 
one of these forbidding doors 
is a garment shop, where mostly 
undocumented immigrant workers 
toil away with scissors, sewing 
machines and industrial irons for 
poverty-level wages for up to 12 
hours a day. Description of a sweat 
shop in the south end of downtown 
Los Angeles (Gumbel 2001). 




Divided Public Attitudes 

Prostitution. Sex trafficking of women involves 
commercial sex where the victims ability to legally 
consent to the sex act is negated through some form of 
force, fraud or coercion that is employed against her. 
There are widely differing views of prostitution and in 
general who is responsible for it.37 These often conflicting 
opinions affect community responses and the extent of 
police intervention. Public ambivalence is reflected in the 
incredible patchwork of state and local prostitution laws 
and ordinances, some punishing the purchase of sexual 
services, some punishing its sale, some targeting pimps 
and brothel owners, and still others criminalizing all of 
the above. The result is inconsistent enforcement by local 
police, who carry out well-publicized crackdowns from 
time to time. There is growing evidence that women who 
are trafficked into prostitution do not differ greatly from 
domestic prostitutes who have not been trafficked: neither 
group has chosen the profession voluntarily. Many report 
that they do not want to work as prostitutes, would leave 
the profession if they could, and that they were recruited 
into prostitution as girls or teenagers.38, Of course, those 
women who entered into the sex trade as minors, could 
not have done so voluntarily from a legal standpoint. 

 The focus on the victimization 
of trafficked women has put 
the spotlight on all prostitutes, 
making it clear that the trafficked 
prostitutes are victims, not offenders. 
Thus, many now advocate that 
enforcement attention should be 
shifted to the purchasers of sex. The 
recent announcement by the U.S. 
Department of Defense that military 
personnel purchasing sex will face 
court martial is the first significant 
indication of this shift (Jelinek 2004). 

Immigration. There are widely differing public views of 
immigrants, both legal and illegal. During economically 
difficult times, immigrants are often blamed for stealing 
jobs and committing crimes, even though there is no 
definitive evidence to prove either accusation.39 There is 


good reason, therefore, for trafficked women to perceive 
that they are not welcome in their country of 
destination. In contrast, there is a tradition in some parts 
of the United States of public support for illegal aliens,  
stemming from the aid given to political refugees from  
Central and South America during the 1980s. There  
continue to be a number of sanctuary states and cities  
that have policiesand in some cases (e.g., Oregon) 
even lawsthat prohibit state and local police agencies 
from using money or equipment to apprehend suspected 
violators of federal immigration law.40 Even many states 
and cities that are not designated sanctuaries do not 
report illegal immigrants to the authorities simply because 
immigration is seen as a matter for federal rather than 
local law enforcement. All these conflicting views result in 
one thing: they make it easier for traffickers to keep their 
victims isolated and out of sight of the authorities. 

Organized Crime 

Europol 41 classifies trafficking networks into three groups: 

(1) Large scale mafia-like networks such as the Russian 
and Albanian syndicates that control about 60 percent 
of prostitution in Western Europe. These networks 
also traffic in drugs, but more recently have turned 
to trafficking in women because the profit margins 
are higher. Highly organized from the recruitment 
to the exploitation stages, these groups are well 
connected financially and politically and are typically 
cruel and brutal in doing business. 

 Drug use is common in 
prostitution, serving as another
weapon to keep trafficked women
dependent on their pimps or
managers and isolated from the 
outside world (Raymond and Hughes
2001). 


(2) Medium scale networks that specialize in trafficking 
women from a particular recruitment country to 
a particular destination country. These networks 
usually arrange transportation and also own their own 
brothels in the destination country. 

(3) Informal family networks of individuals who  have come 
together to reap the financial benefits of the opportunities 
provided by trafficking. These individuals usually have 
legitimate jobs in other fields and operate trafficking 
businesses on the side. Much of the buying, selling, and 
delivery arrangements take place via the Internet. 

In general, these observations of the organizational 
aspects of trafficking have been confirmed for the United 
States.42 However, the degree to which trafficking is part 
of well established organized criminal organizations is 
unknown.43 

Attractive Locations 

Locations that provide cover for the deployment of 
trafficked women include the following. 

 
Communities that tolerate red light districts, strip 
clubs, and late night bars and clubs. Where domestic 
prostitutes are plentiful, internationally trafficked 
women can blend in without drawing much attention. 
 
Areas around military bases, where there is a constant 
supply of men willing to purchase sexual services, 
frequently from foreign women. 

 Military bases are magnets for 
trafficked women. For example, as 
a result of the presence of 16,000
U.N. soldiers in Cambodia between 
February 1992 and September 1993,
the number of prostitutes in Phnom 
Penh reportedly increased from 6,000
to 20,000 (Ekberg 2004:1197). This
pattern is repeated around military
bases within the United States 
(Raymond and Hughes 2001).


Factors Contributing to the Exploitation of Trafficked Women 21 
 Old warehouse and manufacturing districts, where 
sweatshops can flourish out of sight of local 
communities. 
 Well-off suburbs, where residents employ domestic 
servants who may be trafficked. 
 Isolated rural areas, where trafficked women may be 
employed as seasonal farm laborers or be used to 
provide sexual services to male seasonal laborers. 
 Locations close to poorly patrolled border entry 
points or in immigrant communities that are neglected 
by local government.44 
 Areas with large immigrant or foreign-born 
populations that may frequent establishments set up in 
culturally familiar styles. 


Understanding Your Local Problem 

The information provided above is only a generalized 
description of the exploitation of trafficked women. 
You must combine the basic facts with a more specific 
understanding of your local problem, especially the 
cultural issues that may face potential victims in your 
area. Carefully analyzing the local problem will help you 
design a more effective response strategy. The most 
difficult problem you will face is the clandestine nature 
of the exploitation of trafficked women, which is made 
possible by the isolation and separation of trafficked 
women from the local community. In the case of forced 
labor, the locations and situations of trafficked women 
will be hard to uncover, especially in the case of domestic 
servitude, which occurs within families that have, by 
right and tradition, a measure of privacy and separation 
from government. In the case of the sex trade, although 
trafficked women are hidden from public view, there 
is one point of weakness: sex traffickers must break 
the isolation they maintain in order for their trafficked 
women to service their customers. In fact, prostitutes 
are often hidden in plain view; their presence is usually 
well known in a local community. However, the public 
may not recognize or know that they are also trafficked 
women. 

Asking the Right Questions 

Some critical questions you should ask in analyzing 
your particular trafficking problem are listed below. 
The answers to these and other questions will help you 
choose the most appropriate set of responses later on. 
The main challenge is to locate the businesses and venues 
where trafficked women are hidden and to identify which 


women are trafficked and which are not. This may be 
particularly difficult in regard to prostitution, because 
many prostitutes are coerced either into or as part of 
their working conditions and may also be domestically 
trafficked. 

Police and Community Awareness 

 
Are police aware of the problem of trafficked 
women? 
 
Is the community aware of the problem of trafficked 
women? 
 
Is there an active sex trade in your jurisdiction? If so, 
what forms does it take? Street prostitution? Escort 
services? Brothels, massage parlors, strip clubs, 
late night bars? Are foreign women encountered in 
brothel raids? 
 
How much of the local sex trade involves recent 
immigrants or ethnic communities? 
 
Is there a hidden or rumored sex trade? Are there 
known telephone numbers and addresses? 
 
Is there a drug trade linked to the sex trade or to a 
particular locality? 
 
Are there local businesses that benefit from the 
sex trade or forced labor? Employment agencies? 
Garment industry? Bars and strip clubs? Nail salons? 
Hotels? 
 
Are there community organizations that specialize in 
caring for immigrants? 
 
Are there known smuggling operations, routes or 
entry points in or close to your locality? 
 
Does your department formally recognize the 
immigrant community and its problems? Have you 
attempted to develop collaborative partnerships to 
deal with such problems? 
 
If there is a red light district? What are business and 
community attitudes toward it? 



Understanding Your Local Problem 

 Do local employers typically report job applicants 
who attempt to obtain work without proper 
documentation? 

Marketing 

 
Do brothels advertise very young prostitutes with 
exotic foreign characteristics, and at very low prices? 
 
How do brothel owners market their services? 
Phone numbers? Yellow pages? Word of mouth? 
Solicitations in bars and strip clubs? Street corner 
pimps? 
 
Are any labor intensive products manufactured in 
your area? 
 
Do advertisements in local newspapers and magazines 
offer menial jobs at unrealistically high wages? Are 
there notices or advertisements in ethnic media? 
 
Are there local web sites or chat rooms that deal with 
sexual services? 
 
Do advertisements for mail order brides appear 
in local newspapers and magazines, local free or 
community papers? Do the ads promise foreign 
women? 
 
Do escort services advertise in the yellow pages? 
On the Internet? In other media? Does your agency 
monitor them? 
 
Does the sports page of the local newspaper 
advertise massage parlors? 


Venues 

 
Do massage parlors and brothels constantly move 
to different locations? What kinds of buildings or 
housing do they occupy? 
 
Are there locations where bars or sexually oriented 
businesses cater to a particular immigrant or ethnic 
community? 



 
Are there locations where legal businesses (massage 
parlors, nail salons) may be fronts for sex trafficking? 
 
Are there farms that require low paid workers or 
seasonal labor? How do they find and recruit their 
workers? 
 
Are there sweatshops in your area? Is there a garment 
district? 
 
Are there industrial based businesses that employ low 
paid workers and how do they recruit them? 
 
Are there employment agencies in your area? Do 
they place persons of foreign birth? Into what kinds 
of jobs? Do they place individuals who speak little 
English? 
 
Are there travel agencies that promote matchmaking 
or sexual tourism? 
 
Are there dating or escort services in your area that 
offer women of foreign birth? 
 
Are there massage parlors in your area? If so, are they 
licensed or supervised by local health authorities? 
 
Does your jurisdiction contain a run-down warehouse 
or manufacturing district? 
 
Are there suburbs where domestic servants are 
routinely employed? 
 
Is tourism a major business in your jurisdiction? Are 
there hotels, motels, or restaurants that suddenly 
appear to be employing foreign women as maids, 
waitresses, or kitchen help? 
 
Do certain employers recruit workers from local 
homeless shelters? Are homeless persons transported 
to remote locations to work? 
 
Are there bus stations where runaway teenaged girls 
tend to congregate? 



Incidents, Offenders, and Victims 

 
Have prostitutes been assaulted or murdered? If so, 
were they foreign-born? 
 
Are there cases of drug use or dealing involving 
foreign women? Does drug dealing occur in locations 
close to areas where the sex trade is plied? 
 
Are there local prostitutes who are unable to speak 
English? 
 
Are prostitutes typically drug users? 
 
Do hospitals report battered women who may be 
illegal immigrants? 
 
Are there local or ethnic healthcare providers who are 
off-line from the normal healthcare system?45 
 
What information is collected by officers and others 
concerning prostitutes? Is background information 
collected, such as age, country or place of birth, and 
where and how they were recruited? 
 
What pricing system is employed in brothels? How 
much are prostitutes paid? 
 
Who are the pimps and brothel managers? Where do 
they come from? 
 
What are the backgrounds of the purchasers of sex? 
How do they find their partners? How do they 
reach the venue? Walk from local hotels? Drive from 
suburbs? 
 
Are other crimes reported in the areas where 
prostitution or forced labor are located? 
 
Are undocumented migrants frequent robbery 
victims? 
 
Do incidents of domestic violence occur where the 
wife is an immigrant? 
 
Do local domestic violence shelters care for 
immigrant victims? 




Current Responses to the Exploitation of 
Trafficked Women  

 
What is your departmental policy for dealing with 
prostitution? What is the prosecutors policy regarding 
prostitution-related offenses? What are the typical 
sentences handed out to those who are convicted? Do 
prostitutes and their clients complete those sentences? 
What effect, if any, does the imposition of a sentence 
have on subsequent involvement in prostitution? 
 
What responses do police officers use, other than 
arrest and prosecution? Are any of these responses 
effective? 
 
Are social, healthcare, or substance abuse treatment 
services available to prostitutes? Do prostitutes use 
these services? 
 
What is your departmental policy on reporting illegal 
immigrants to immigration and customs officials? 
 
Are specific officers allocated to identify trafficked 
women? 
 
Do you have sufficient access to interpreters and 
cultural advisors? 
 
Is there a special vice squad? What are its duties? 
 
Are assault cases and domestic violence situations 
considered as possible crime scenes in which human 
trafficking may be the real offense being perpetrated? 
 
Have your victim service specialists been trained 
about human trafficking? Are they called to potential 
human trafficking crime scenes? Are they present 
when potential human trafficking victims are 
interviewed? 
 
What foreign language capabilities does your unit 
have? Are there local universities, military personnel, 
or immigrant advocacy groups that could assist you 
with translation needs? 

 See Problem-Oriented Guide No. 
2, Street Prostitution, for additional 
questions that may also be relevant 
to women trafficked into the sex 
trade. 

 See the U.S. Department of 
Health & Human Services, Office 
for Minority Health for Culturally 
and Linguistically Appropriate 
Services (CLAS) standards at 
http://www.omhrc.gov/assets/pdf/ 
checked/finalreport.pdf. 


Measuring Your Effectiveness 

Measurement will allow you to determine the degree 
to which your efforts have been successful and can 
also suggest how your responses can be modified to 
produce the intended results. Measuring the extent of 
your problem before you implement remedial responses 
will allow you to determine how serious the problem is; 
it will also give you a baseline against which to measure 
the effectiveness of the responses that you choose to 
implement. All measures should be taken in both the 
target area and the surrounding area. For more detailed 
guidance on measuring effectiveness, see the companion 
guide to this series, Assessing Responses to Problems: An 
Introductory Guide for Police Problem-Solvers. 

The following are potentially useful measures of the 
effectiveness of responses to the problem of the 
human trafficking of women. Their utility, however, will 
depend upon the specific conditions in your locality, and 
especially upon the particular aspect of trafficking that 
you choose to focus upon. For example, if you decide 
to focus on separating trafficked women from their 
handlers, the number of foreign women in the sex trade 
will probably drop. Your follow-up should show that 
these women have not been trafficked elsewhere and have 
been provided with the protections afforded them under 
TVPA. 

 Reduced number of trafficked women in the sex 
trade. Your initial success should uncover significant 
numbers of trafficked women. Your subsequent 
success should see a rapid decline in the numbers 
of trafficked women in the sex trade. 


 Increased number of trafficked women seeking 
help at health facilities and other community care 
groups, churches, or domestic violence shelters. 
Over time, this figure should decrease as fewer 
women require help.
 Reduction or elimination of brothels. 
 Reduced number of escort services, massage 
parlors, and other fronts for the sex trade. 
 Reduced number of rentals of local warehouses and 
run-down office buildings. 
 Reduced total reported crime in target areas, 
compared to control areas. Keep in mind that 
changes may be due to other factors and that 
reported crime does not always correlate with actual 
crime. 
 Reduced number of undocumented migrants 
employed in businesses. 
 Reduced number of advertisements for domestic 
help. 
 Reduced number of drug offenses in the area near 
the sex trade.
 Reduced number of assaults against women 
reported in local emergency rooms.
 Reduced number of domestic abuse cases that 
involve non-English speaking women. 

 

Responses to the Problem of 
Exploiting Trafficked Women 

Analyzing your local trafficking problem will give you 
a better understanding of the factors that contribute 
to it. Once you have analyzed your local problem and 
established a baseline for measuring effectiveness, you can 
consider possible responses to the problem. 

The following strategies provide a foundation for 
addressing local trafficking problems. These strategies are 
drawn from a variety of studies and police reports; several 
may apply in your community. It is critical that you tailor 
responses to local circumstances and that you can justify 
each response based upon reliable analysis. In most cases, 
an effective strategy will involve implementing several 
different responses, because law enforcement alone is 
seldom effective in reducing or eliminating the problem. 
Do not limit yourself to considering what police can do: 
instead, carefully consider who else in your community 
shares responsibility for the problem and can help address 
it. The cooperation of local businesses, community 
organizations, local service providers, andwhere 
applicablemilitary bases will be essential. 

General Consideration of an Effective Response 
Strategy 

Although estimates vary, it is likely that at least one-third 
of prostitutes are either internationally or domestically 
trafficked women.46 The police response to trafficking 
in women will therefore likely be closely linked to 
its response to the sex trade. Many of the responses 
described in Problem-Oriented Guide No. 2 on Street 


 A proactive approach to enforcement 
is necessary because very few cases will 
be reported to local police. Physical and 
psychological control by the traffickers, 
fear of law enforcement, illegal 
immigration status, and language barriers 
are all factors in limiting the possibility 
of complaints. (National Trafficking 
Alert System) 

Prostitution may therefore apply. However, from the point 
of view of human trafficking, some reconsideration of 
established police responses to prostitution is necessary. 

The response to the exploitation of trafficked women 
depends on attitudesattitudes held by the public, 
stereotypes held by the purchasers of sex and users of 
forced labor, and police attitudes towards prostitutes. As 
far as the sex trade is concerned, from a human trafficking 
point of view, prostitution is primarily an exploitative 
activity perpetrated against prostitutes, both by their 
handlers and by the purchasers of sex. Prostitutes are 
therefore victims, not offenders. Although controversial, 
this view is crucial in responding to the problem of 
trafficked women, because those who traffic women for 
sex often use the womens criminal designation as a means 
of exploitation and of keeping the women out of sight 
of the authorities. It may also provide a ready excuse 
for purchasers, who may believe that their culpability 
is lessened because the prostitutes are just illegal 
immigrants. In addition some researchers have argued 
that stereotypes of prostitutes and the failure to take the 
exploitative nature of prostitution seriously is stronger 
in the mostly male dominated field of criminal justice.47 
As far as forced labor is concerned, the public, including 
criminal justice personnel,48 find it difficult to believe that 
slave-like working conditions still exist in the twenty-first 
century, even in America. 

Both situations of exploitation make it very difficult to 
convince trafficked individuals to testify against their 
traffickers. Although TVPA was designed to correct this 
problem, the number of individuals eligible for protection 
under the act is still very low, for two reasons: first, the 
definitions of eligibility for TVPA protection are quite 
restrictive; second, the policeoften the first contact 
with exploited womenare neither trained to identify 


trafficked women nor to report them to the appropriate 
authorities according to TVPA requirements. Thus, 
educating police, prosecutors, and judges is central to 
solving the problem of exploiting trafficked women. 

In addition to the information provided in this guide, 
you can also draw on the resources offered by the U.S. 
Department of Justice, the Department of State, and the 
Department of Health and Human Services to develop 
training courses that will introduce police to the ethnic 
and cultural issues embedded in this problem and to the 
skills necessary in interviewing and uncovering victims of 
trafficking. 

Besides training, there are a number of preparatory 
responses that should be undertaken before attempting 
any of the specific responses recommended below. 
These are clearly necessary, because it is not possible 
to reduce the exploitation of trafficked women without 
having the skills, training, and experience to identify the 
problem. You should consult the earlier section called 
Asking the Right Questions as you read the following, which 
describes the steps that should be taken to prepare for 
the responses that are directed specifically at reducing and 
preventing the exploitation of trafficked women. 

Preparatory Responses for Identifying the Problem 

1. Locating trafficked women. 49 Illegal immigrants 
are not necessarily trafficked, and trafficking victims 
are not always illegal immigrants. Thus, although 
brothels are commonly placed in migrant areas, police 
should not assume that they will always find trafficked 
women in those areas. In fact, exploiters may keep 
victims away from areas where their languages are 
spoken, even while catering to customers who speak 
those languages. The obvious place to begin looking 

 In conjunction with the U.S. 
Bureau of Justice Assistance, the 
Institute for Intergovernmental 
Research (IIR) has developed a 
detailed instructional program for 
trainers who can then return to 
their departments and train local 
officers (SPOG 2005). For further 
information, visit the IIR web site at 
http://www.iir.com/.


for evidence of trafficking is with the vice squad, 
which will certainly have had contact with trafficked 
women, although unless they have been trained to 
look for them, they may not know it. Indicators of the 
presence of trafficked women and venues where they 
may be found include: 

 
buildings with heavy on-premises security, such 
as barred windows, locked doors, and electronic 
surveillance 
 
buildings in which women both live and work 
 
nail salons, bars, and strip clubs that serve as 
fronts for prostitution 
 
parks and recreation areas where nannies, au-pairs, 
and other domestic servants congregate 
 
brothels that advertise only in foreign language 
newspapers or that restrict services to members 
only 
 
advertisements for escorts or other sexual services 
 
Internet web sites and chat rooms 
 
workers in hotels, restaurants, domestic situations 
who cannot speak English 
 
hospital emergency rooms and health and abortion 
clinics 
 
ethnic healthcare providers 
 
immigrant support groups 
 
HIV/AIDS community groups 
 
locations with large numbers of transient males, 
such as military bases, sports venues, conventions, 
and tourist attractions. 


If there are no visible signs of the sex trade in your area, 
you should investigate the informal network that exists in 
all localities. Word of mouth, whether from a bartender 
or a taxi driver, is a typical way of finding out about the 
underground sex trade. Remember, the purveyors of sex 
must advertise their services; if customers can learn about 
these services, so can you. 


2. Identifying trafficked women. Interviewing women 
to determine their immigration status requires training 
and skill. It is particularly difficult to overcome the 
deep-seated fear and distrust that many such women 
have of police and other government officials. And 
in fact, until the passage of TVPA this fear was well 
grounded, because women who were identified as 
trafficked were arrested and deported. Furthermore, 
many trafficked women are trained in what to say to 
police by their exploiters.50 They may also be fearful 
of reprisals by their exploiters for speaking to police, 
or anyone outside their organization for that matter. 
The following are indications of possible trafficking:51 

 
workers who are frightened to speak, especially to 
police or other officials, including healthcare and 
social workers 
 
the presence of very young prostitutes in brothels 
and massage parlors 
 
workers who look sickly or who display signs of 
physical abuse 
 
prostitutes who cannot speak English 
 
women who are unable or unwilling to explain 
how they came into the United States or what they 
did before gaining entry 
 
women who are closely supervised when taken to 
a doctor or hospital 
 
women who are denied clothing other than those 
provided by a brothel 
 
prostitutes whose legal representation is supplied 
by their trafficker, often as a means of controlling 
their testimony 
 
women who appear fearful of collaboration 
between traffickers and police 
 
women who do not know how their travel 
documents were obtained or where they are 




 
women who paid a fee to obtain travel documents 
or make travel arrangements 
 
domestic workers who appear frightened or 
apprehensive. 


3. Protecting trafficked women. How you deal 
with specific incidents of trafficking is important, 
not only to the welfare of the victim, but also to 
establishing relationships with other trafficked women 
and community groups that may be able to assist in 
solving the problem of trafficked women. Once you 
have identified trafficked women, you must protect 
them from their traffickers and inform them of their 
rights under TVPA. In cases of severe victimization, 
you should prevent the woman from returning to 
her home or workplace, because the risk is very high 
that the victim will be quickly trafficked to another 
location and will remain in constant threat of physical 
abuse. You can help the victim by doing the following: 
 
Call the national hotline and report the case. 
 
Obtain information from Federal and State task 
forces such as the Trafficking in Persons and 
Worker Exploitation Task Force. 
 
Contact a local community group that specializes 
in protecting victims from abuse, such as a 
womens shelter or a group that has a tradition 
of caring for immigrants. To help locate these 
groups, call The Office for Victims of Crime 
(OVC) (800.851.3420). The OVC provides a 
comprehensive list of victim services throughout 
the United States and the world. These groups 
can support trafficked victims until they attain 
certification under TVPA. 







 
Arrange for medical assistance where necessary. 
 
Obtain brochures and cards that inform the victim 
of her rights under TVPA. Many of these are 
available in several languages on the web, via the 
hotline, or from the National Trafficking Alert 
System (NTAS). 
 
Contact the FBI or the Civil Division of the 
Justice Department and make sure that you 
speak to someone who is familiar with the rights 
afforded to victims under TVPA. 
 
Ensure that members of your department are 
informed of the specific criteria for establishing 
whether a victim qualifies for continued presence, 
a T-Visa, or other protections under TVPA. 
There are ample materials and information 
available from many governmental and private 
organizations. For a good example of a clear and 
concise brochure that covers all the basic facts 
concerning trafficked persons, including how to 
establish immigrant status and how to determine 
eligibility for benefits, see Trafficking In Persons, 
published by the Texas Office of Immigration and 
Refugee Affairs (available at www.dhs.state.tx.us/ 
programs/refugee). Many states have developed 
similar brochures and information services. 



Box 4: HELP FOR VICTIMS 

The toll-free Trafficking in Persons and Worker Exploitation Task Force 
complaint line, at 888.428.7581 (voice and TTY), is staffed by personnel 
who have access to interpreters and can speak with callers in many 
languages. Located at the U.S. Department of Justice, it helps answer 
questions, takes a case forward, and refers to prosecutors. 

For translation assistance and other advice on identifying trafficking cases, 
call the National Trafficking in Persons Hotline: 866.US.TIPLINE 

Other Hotlines: 

 Department of Health and Human Services Hotline: 888.373.7888. 
Provides links to service providers working with trafficked persons 
across the country. 
 U.S. Office of Refugee Settlement: 202.401.4825 
 U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops/Migration and Refugee Services: 
202.541.3385 
 Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services: 410.230.2725 
 National Korean Hotline: 888.9.POLARIS 
 National Thai Hotline: 866.856.THAI 
 National Spanish Hotline: 888.80.AYUDA 


4. Working with service organizations. As noted, the 
chances of a trafficked woman revealing her status to a 
police officer are limited. She may, however, reach out to 
other groups or agencies. You should therefore: 

 
work closely with and support community groups that 
provide refuge for battered women or that have an 
interest in taking care of immigrants 
 
develop partnerships with local social service agencies, 
hospital emergency rooms, ethnic healthcare providers, 
and others who may provide services to sick or injured 
trafficked women. 


These can be important sources of information on identifying 
trafficked women and for supporting and assisting trafficked 


women once they are identified. Do not assume that these 
organizations are aware of the plight of trafficked women. 
The idea that something like slavery still exists in the United 
States is difficult for most people to believe. 

5. Educating the public about human trafficking. 

Public education through outreach programs and 
publicizing particular cases that have been successfully 
prosecuted through the media can raise awareness 
of human trafficking problems. Efforts to enforce 
laws against the exploitation of trafficked women, 
especially prostitution, will be severely limited without 
public support. Many of the responses below require 
money, resources, and changes in the local community 
environment. It will be difficult or impossible to 
accomplish these goals without community support. 
There are many web sites that provide posters, 
brochures, and other materials that can be useful in 
educating the public about human trafficking; many 
of these are available in multiple languages. However, 
probably the most effective means of publicity is 
informing the media when cases of human trafficking 
are discovered in your community or elsewhere. There 
are many such cases available on the web, such as those 
reported by the Palm Beach Post in Florida.52 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 

anti-human trafficking poster
 The learning module on Street 
Prostitution (available on the POP 
Center web site at http://www. 
popcenter.org/learning/) provides 
an excellent opportunity to learn 
how to respond to the problem 
of prostitution and emphasizes 
especially the role of community 
support in accomplishing the goals 
of problem-oriented policing. 

A search on the web for anti-slavery and anti-human 
trafficking web sites produces many promotional 
materials. 


Specific Responses to the Exploitation of 
Trafficked Women 

There are three approaches to reducing or preventing the 
exploitation of trafficked women: 

 
enforcing laws directed against exploiters, traffickers, 
and men who purchase sex 
 
reducing demand for commercial sex and cheap labor 
 
changing the environment so that it is inhospitable to 
traffickers and exploiters. 


Enforcing Laws Against Traffickers and Men Who 
Purchase Sex 

6. Adopting an unambiguous enforcement policy. 

Enforcement attitudes to the sex trade are currently 
in flux. At the international level, some countries such 
as Sweden argue that trafficked prostitutes are victims 
rather than offender and that the purchasers of sex 
should be punished, not the sex workers themselves. 
This view was first translated into law in Sweden 
in 1998, and has increasingly become policy of the 

U.S. Department of State, and the Department of 
Defense. It is too early to tell whether this approach 
will be translated into policy or law at the local levels 
of criminal justice, or whether it will contribute to the 
reduction of trafficking in women for the sex trade, as 
claimed by some early Swedish research (see Response 
8).53 Whatever policy your department adopts, it 
should be clear and unambiguous, leaving no room for 
ambivalent enforcement, such as occasional sweeps 
and raids (see Response 17). The success of any policy 


also depends upon training officers to understand 
the diverse ethnic and cultural issues outlined in the 
preparatory responses above, and the clarity with 
which the policy of enforcement is applied in that 
setting. 

Box 5: HELP FOR LOCAL POLICE 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families 
Campaign to Rescue and Restore Victims of Human Trafficking provides an excellent tool kit 
for police. This kit includes: 

 
Tips for Identifying and Helping Victims of
Human Trafficking (pdf version)
 
Screening Questions to Assess Whether a
Person is a Trafficking Victim (pdf version)
 
Understanding the Mindset of a Trafficking
Victim (pdf version)
 
Communicating with Victims of Human
Trafficking (pdf version)
 
Health Problems Seen in Traffic Victims (pdf
version)
 
PowerPoint Presentation for Health Care
Providers (ppt)
 
Health Care Provider Poster (pdf) 
 
Health Care Provider Brochure (pdf) 
 
Health Care Provider Pocket Card (pdf) 


anti-human taffficking posterYou can download this entire kit at: 
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/campaign_kits/index.html#law 


7. Working with immigration and Labor Department 
officials. Developing a close working relationship 
with immigration officials is essential to the successful 
investigation and prosecution of human trafficking 
cases because the victim is always the key witness. 
It will also help in identifying trafficked women and 
in establishing their immigrant or refugee status. 
Unfortunately, there is a long history of conflict 
between local police and federal immigration officials 
in many parts of the United States. Even though local 
police have the legal and constitutional responsibility 
to enforce federal immigration law, they may lack 
the local authority to intervene or be concerned 
that enforcing immigration laws will damage their 
acceptance in local immigrant communities.54 As 
noted, some states and sanctuary cities have even 
passed laws forbidding police from enforcing 
immigration laws. Because the situation of trafficked 
women is complicated by their ambiguous status as 
both illegal aliens and crime victims, extensive policies 
and procedures must be worked out between local and 
federal officials, especially in terms of establishing 
the status of one who has suffered a severe form of 
human trafficking as defined by the TVPA. Without 
cooperation on both sides, a trafficking victim could 
be deported or detained for immigration related 
crimes, thus losing the valuable eyewitness testimony 
needed to prosecute traffickers. Indeed, in fiscal year 
2004, only 43 individuals were convicted of trafficking 
offenses under the TVPA by the U.S. Department of 
Justice.55 

When potential traffickers are encountered, their 
immigration status can often be verified if they 
have been issued an Alien Number (also known as 
an A number). ICE (Immigration and Customs 


Enforcement) maintains a 24/7 hotline (866.347.2423) 
for U.S. law enforcement officers (called the Law 
Enforcement Service Center) that can be called to see if 
a trafficker is already in the ICE system. If a trafficker 
is not legal, he or she can often be held on immigration 
charges (smuggling, transporting, or harboring 
illegal aliens) while a human trafficking investigation 
continues. 

Department of Labor (DOL) officials can also be 
crucial allies in combating the exploitation of women 
through forced labor. Federal officials from the Wage 
and Hour Division of DOL can walk onto a worksite 
and immediately demand to see the I-9 forms of all 
immigrant workers employed there (law enforcement 
officials might otherwise need a subpoena to see these 
same documents). The DOL Wage and Hour Division 
can also ensure that immigrant workers are paid what 
they are owed under the law and can help verify 
subsequent victim claims for legal compensation from 
their traffickers for lost wages and benefits. 

8. Using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt 
Organizations Act of 1996 (RICO). Because their 
labor costs are minimal and they do not comply with 
standard health and safety regulations, the owners of 
brothels and sweatshops who use trafficked labor have 
an unfair competitive advantage over their rivals. Thus, 
they are ripe for civil suits aimed at their bottom line. 
RICO can be especially effective in that regard, as it 
allows for treble damages. Originally enacted by the 

U.S. Congress to facilitate the prosecution of organized 
crime, a number of significant RICO cases have found 
against sweatshops that benefit economically from 
employing illegal immigrants or trafficked labor.56 This 
approach has been used successfully in prostitution 
cases as well. Additionally, as recommended in 

 In 2001, police and state and 
federal prosecutors combined their 
efforts to prosecute a network 
of competing pimps. The men 
were convicted of extortion and 
involuntary servitude as well as 
forming a RICO conspiracy (de Baca 
and Tisi 2002). 


 The enforcement of this law 
has proven very difficult, not 
only because of attitudes of law 
enforcement about prostitution, but 
also because of serious difficulty 
in interpreting the language of the 
law, which in many circumstances 
seems to leave open the possibility 
of prosecuting prostitutes. In some 
cases prostitutes have threatened 
to expose their clients unless they 
were paid more money. Others 
have questioned the Swedish 
governments claim that prostitution 
by trafficked women has not 
increased at the same rate as other 
more liberal European countries 
(Kulick 2003). It is reasonable to 
conclude that there are no studies of 
sufficient scientific quality to support 
either side of the argument. 

Problem-Oriented Guide No. 2, Street Prostitution, 
strict enforcement of zoning laws, nuisance abatement 
ordinances, and business licensing regulations against 
properties that allow prostitution can serve to make 
your community inhospitable to exploiters and 
traffickers (See also Responses 13-16). 

Reducing Demand 

9. Punishing the purchasers of sexual services 
and not the sex trade workers. As noted above, in 
1998, Sweden passed a law prohibiting the purchase 
of sexual services. Although the punishment of 
commercial sex traffickers continued, the law made 
it clear that rather than being the sellers of sex, 
prostitutes were in fact the product that was being 
sold. Swedish authorities claim that as a result of the 
law the majority of sex purchasers have disappeared 
and that the number of women trafficked to Sweden 
has not increased, as it has in other Western European 
nations.57 Sweden found, however, that although 
the law had widespread public support, judges 
and prosecutors were slow to adopt the view that 
they should prosecute the buyers rather than the 
prostitutes. The Swedish police also opposed the law 
when it was originally enacted. 

Although U.S. laws that specify punishments for 
men who solicit prostitutes vary enormously, they 
usually impose fines, probation, community service, 
and publicity; in almost every case they constitute 
misdemeanors. Publishing the names of buyers of sex 
has been found to be effectivealthough there are 
some difficult legal issues involved58and community 


service has been found to be more effective than 
fines or jail time (see the Problem-Oriented Guide 
on Street Prostitution). Some U.S. cities, such as Los 
Angeles, California and West Palm Beach, Florida, 
have introduced car confiscation programs for men 
who solicit prostitutes. Other programs combine these 
punishments with attempts to educate offenders about 
the social consequences of their acts (see Response 10). 
The extent to which these programs have been effective 
in reducing the prostitution of trafficked women in the 
United States has not been thoroughly researched, but 
early indications are that they may be effective.59 For 
example, in response to the recent announcement by 
the U.S. Department of Defense of a zero tolerance 
policy for military personnel who solicit prostitutes, 
Korea has announced that it will close all red light 
districts that are adjacent to U.S. military bases.60 

10. Changing the attitudes of prostitution customers. 

A number of cities have introduced john schools, in 
which men convicted of purchasing sex are educated 
about the damaging consequences that their behavior 
has on the lives of prostitutes. Various programs of 
this kind operate in cities such as Portland, Oregon 
and St. Paul, Minnesota. These may be applied to first 
time offenders only, as is the case in San Francisco, 
California, or to all offenders. In general, studies 
in the United States and Canada have found these 
programs to be very effective in reducing recidivism. 
When enforcement is focused on the buyers, the cost 
of providing sexual services is increased, because 
johns, fearful of getting caught, demand higher levels 
of security, such as private escorts to the place of 

 Of the 1512 men completing the 
First Offender Prostitution Program 
in San Francisco (from 3/95 
to 3/98), only 14 men had been rearrested 
for soliciting a prostitute 
anywhere in California (Hughes 
2004a:40). 


business.61 However, commercial sex clients in ethnic 
or immigrant communities may display differences 
in their approach to purchasing sex. The cultural 
orientation of those from regions of the world where 
prostitution is either legal, tolerated, or encouraged 
may influence both their behavior and their response 
to arrest. 

11. Notifying those with influence over client 
conduct. Employers, schools, the military, convention 
organizers, and other individuals and groups can 
often exert significant informal influence over the 
conduct of the clients of prostitution. This influence 
can be leveraged by seeking third-party cooperation 
to discipline clients who come to police attention. 
This strategy is not intended merely to shame clients; 
rather, it is intended to change their behavior through 
disciplinary systems outside the formal justice 
system. Keep in mind, however, that some forms of 
discipline, such as termination of employment, can be 
severe. 

Making the Local Environment Inhospitable to 
Exploitation of Trafficked Women 

While focusing on the demand side of sexual exploitation 
shows considerable promise, it cannot on its own eradicate 
prostitution from your locality. This is because the alleged 
demand by men for sex is not really that strong. For 
example, in the United States, where about 16 percent 
of men report having paid for a sex act, only 0.6 percent 
admit to doing so on a regular basis.62 In other countries, 
particularly Latin and Asian countries, the percentage of 
men who admit to paying for sex is as high as 70 percent. 
It follows that the demand by men for sex is related 
to the opportunities and cultural norms that prevail 


in their respective environments. Therefore, reducing 
opportunities to buy sex by removing the sex trade 
from your area stands a very good chance of drastically 
reducing both prostitution and the exploitation of women. 

It can be argued that such a response will merely displace 
the activity. Although there has been no research on 
displacement of prostitution, research on the displacement 
of other crimes suggests that sometimes displacement 
occurs and sometimes it does not, depending on the 
particular crime and environment.63 It has also been 
found that other crimes may decrease as a result of 
successful efforts to thwart a specific crime (diffusion of 
benefits). The following responses are adapted from the 
Problem-Oriented Guide on Street Prostitution. We strongly 
recommend that you consult that Guide for further 
information. 

prostitution-free zone road signMaking an area inhospitable for prostitution helps 
discourage the exploitation of trafficked women. 


12. Enforcing zoning laws, nuisance abatement 
ordinances, and business licensing regulations 
against the owners of properties used for 

 The Nassau County Police 

Department (New York) eliminated prostitution or forced labor. Prostitution markets 
illegal massage parlors by targeting depend on other businesses to support them. The 
property owners, in partnership with police and other enforcement agencies can exert 

the local county clerk, fire marshal, 

and building department (Goldstein pressure on those businesses by enforcing civil 
submission: http://www.popcenter. laws and business regulations. Zoning regulations 
org/library/goldstein/1995/95-that restrict the sorts of businesses that support 

52.PDF). In 1999, similar results 
were achieved by the Chattanooga prostitution, such as adult entertainment, can be 
Police Department (Tennessee), effective. Zoning restrictions have been key in the 
which served eviction notices and redevelopment of Times Square in New York City, 

initiated building condemnations 
(Goldstein submission: http:// where prostitution has significantly declined.64 The 

www.popcenter.org/library/ police and private parties can file nuisance abatement 

goldstein/1999/99-07.PDF).

actions against businesses that support prostitution or 
 In 1998, the South Mountain forced labor. You should get advice and support from 
Police Precinct (Arizona) identified legal counsel before pursuing these options. 

nuisance rental properties owned by 
absentee landlords as contributing 
to prostitution and drug dealing. 13. Warning and educating property owners about 
To alleviate the problem, landlords the use of their premises for prostitution or 

were required to attend seminars 
that detailed the debilitating effects forced labor. Many property owners unwittingly 

of property neglect and offered support street prostitution because they fail to 

training on property management. 

In combination with considerable appreciate how their business practices allow it 
community support and the release to flourish. You can remind them of their legal 
of successful cases to local media, obligations and provide business owners and their 

the program led to a successful 
neighborhood revitalization employees with specific training to help them prevent 
(Goldstein submission: http:// their properties from being used for prostitution. 
www.popcenter.org/library/ It is also possible that owners of property that 

goldstein/1998/98-57.pdf).

house sweatshops may not realize that the workers 
are trafficked. You should make sure that they 
know the warning signs of trafficking. Developing 
training programs by partnering with businesses 
in entertainment districts should also assist in 
identifying trafficked women whether into forced 
labor or the sex trade. 


14. 
Establishing a highly visible police presence. A 
highly visible police presence, typically with extra 
uniformed officers, can discourage street prostitution 
and may discourage off-street prostitution as well. An 
extra police presence is expensive, of course, and is 
only effective if followed up with more permanent 
strategies; remember too that a heavy police presence 
can create the perception that an area is unsafe. 
Alternative methods for establishing a police presence 
include opening a police station in the area, such as 
in a storefront, a mobile office, or a kiosk, or affixing 
anti-prostitution warnings to police patrol vehicles. 
Private security forces can also be deployed to 
supplement a police presence. 
15. 
Redeveloping the local economy. The exploitation 
of trafficked women flourishes in substandard social 
and economic environments: street prostitution 
markets thrive under marginal economic conditions; 
run-down apartments in impoverished neighborhoods 
are often all that are available to illegal immigrants, 
who can afford only the cheapest housing; dilapidated 
buildings in old industrial areas are commonly used 
for sweatshops. Thus, it follows that economic 
redevelopment is often necessary to permanently 
eliminate prostitution markets and forced labor. 
The idea is that improved economic conditions 
will foster the establishment of new businesses 
that are less hospitable to prostitution markets and 
sweatshops. Although economic redevelopment 
usually cannot occur without a substantial investment 
of governmental and private resources, police can 
play an important role in bringing the need for 
redevelopment to the attention of the appropriate 
authorities. 


 Working with local communities 
to change high risk areas using 
civil remedies, as suggested in 
Responses 13, 14, and 16, can be 
very complicated and is not always 
effective (Mazerolle and Roehl 1999). 


Responses With Limited Effectiveness 

16. Legalizing or otherwise tolerating prostitution. 

There are two closely-related reasons usually 
advanced for legalizing prostitution. First, 
decriminalization puts buying and selling sex on 
the same footing as other commercial enterprises, 
thereby removing both the moral stigma and the 
well-known criminal justice issues that surround 
the policing of the sex trade. Second, when the 
sex trade is treated like any other business, it 
becomes subject to all the usual health, safety, and 
environmental regulations, thus protecting the 
health and welfare of the prostitutes. The latter 
was the rationale underlying the legalization of 
prostitution in New Zealand in 2004. There is 
evidence, however, that because compliance with 
health and safety regulations increases the cost of 
doing business, legal prostitution can create a black 
market sex trade populated by trafficked women. 
Legalization can also lead to an increase in the 
demand for the sale of sex,65 because as legitimate 
businessmen the purveyors of prostitution can use 
sales and advertising tactics to increase their market 
shares. A final issue, which is the crux of this policy 
debate, is the moral argument: that prostitution 
converts a womans body into a commodity, even if 
she does it willingly.66 Clearly, this debate involves 
deep philosophical questions that no single police 
department can solve on its own, at least not without 
lengthy consultation with civic and community 
leaders. 


17. Punishing prostitutes. Although in most 
jurisdictions of the U.S. the prostitute remains 
criminally liable for her actions, the levels of 
enforcement or punishment that are applied against 
prostitutes vary enormously across jurisdictions 
and communities. The idea that prostitutes are 
both offenders and victims provides excuses either 
for inaction or for inconsistent and ineffective 
enforcement practices, such as sudden sweeps and 
raidsperhaps the most common police response 
(see Problem-Oriented Guide No. 2 Street Prostitution). 
Because of the highly vulnerable situation of a 
trafficked woman who is a sex worker, punishment 
will most likely drive her further into the clutches 
of her traffickers, ensuring that she will never 
cooperate with the police, making investigation and 
prosecution of traffickers that much more difficult. 
It will be necessary, therefore, for your department 
to have a clear policy on the levels of enforcement 
to be applied to prostitutes, and for the vice squad, 
should there be one, to be well trained in detecting 
the presence of trafficked women in advance of any 
crackdowns or raids. 


Appendix A: 

Summary of Responses to the 
Exploitation of Trafficked Women 

The table below summarizes various responses to 
the problem of the human trafficking of women, the 
mechanisms by which they are intended to work, the 
conditions under which they should work best, and factors 
that should be considered before a particular response 
is implemented. It is critical that you tailor responses to 
local circumstances and that you can justify each response 
based upon reliable analysis. In most cases, an effective 
strategy will involve several different responses, because 
law enforcement alone is seldom effective in reducing or 
solving the problem. 

Response 
No. 
Page 
No. 
Response How It Works Works Best If Considerations 
Preparatory Responses 
1. 33 LocatingWUDIFNHG 
Police are 
trained in 
 police know their 
localities well and can 
Not all illegal immigrants 
DUH WUDIFNHG DQG YLFH YHUVD 
women identifyingWUDIFNLQJ 
obtain information 
from informal 
venues and networks 
marketing 
practices 
2. 35 IdentifyingWUDIFNHG 
women 
Police interview 
victims looking 
for signs ofWUDIFNLQJ 
 police are well 
trained in interviewing 
YLFWLPV RI WUDIFNLQJ 
and NGOs are 
brought into the 
interviews 
Victims may not talk to 
police because of fear of 
arrest or reprisals from 
captors 


Response 
No. 
Page 
No. 
Response How It Works Works Best If Considerations 
3. 36 ProtectingWUDIFNHG 
women 
Police protect 
the victim from 
immediate 
violence, report 
the case to 
the national 
 police have a close 
working relationship 
with local community 
groups that can 
provide refuge 
Police must be skilled 
interviewers to overcome 
the victims fear of 
authorities 
WUDIFNLQJ 
hotline, and 
inform the 
victim of her 
rights under 
TVPA 
4. 38 Working 
with service 
organizations 
You educate 
local 
community 
groups and 
health agencies 
concerning 
the plightRI WUDIFNHG 
 you gain their 
FRQGHQFH PDNH 
use of their support 
services, and refer 
victims to them 
Requires long-term 
commitment to develop 
enduring partnerships; some 
community groups may be 
reticent to inform police 
of illegal immigrants in the 
community 
women so that 
they will help 
identify them 
and provide 
support 
5. 39 Educating the 
public 
Public support 
makes possible 
changes needed 
in enforcement 
and prevention 
RI WUDIFNLQJ 
 you use available 
materials and sources 
concerning human 
WUDIFNLQJ 
Outreach programs with 
schools and community 
groups and use of the 
media for publicity will help 
(QIRUFLQJ /DZV $JDLQVW 7UDIFNHUV DQG 0HQ :KR 3XUFKDVH 6H[ 
6. 40 Directing 
enforcement 
at pimps and 
purchasers 
Denies 
WUDIFNHUV WKH 
opportunity 
to deploy 
WUDIFNHG 
 you have the 
cooperation of both 
local government and 
the general public 
Depends on changing the 
DWWLWXGHV RI SXEOLF RIFLDOV 
towards prostitution 
women in your 
neighborhood 


55 

Response 
No. 
Page 
No. 
Response How It Works Works Best If Considerations 
7. 42 Working 
closely with 
immigration 
RIFLDOV 
Smoothes 
the process 
of protecting 
the victim 
and obtaining 
witness 
 carefully worked 
out policies and 
procedures are agreed 
upon by both parties 
&RQLFWLQJ ODZV DQG 
practices work against local 
police enforcement of 
federal immigration law, 
especially in sanctuary states 
and cities 
testimony 
8. 43 Using RICO Lawsuits and 
ordinances are 
used to raise 
 you have close 
relationships with 
labor and business 
When lawyers become 
involved, expenses escalate 
the cost of 
doing business, 
thus pressuring 
sweatshops 
and brothels to 
organizations, as well 
as the prosecutors 
RIFH 
relocate 
Reducing Demand 
9. 44 Punishing the 
purchasers of 
sexual services 
Serious 
punishments 
are used to 
deter men from 
buying sex 
 criminal justice 
personnel are 
committed to the 
view that the purchase 
of sex is a form of 
male violence 
Depends on the extent to 
which the public supports 
the policy 
10. 45 Changing the 
attitudes of 
prostitution 
customers 
Offenders 
submit to 
psychological 
and educational 
programs 
that teach the 
... judges and 
prosecutors are 
convinced of the 
effectiveness of these 
programs 
Studies have shown 
these programs to be 
very effective in reducing 
recidivism, although their 
effectiveness in overcoming 
ethnic or cultural values 
exploitative 
nature of their 
condoning prostitution have 
not been tested 
acts 


Response 
No. 
Page 
No. 
Response How It Works Works Best If Considerations 
11. 46 Notifying 
those with 
LQXHQFH RYHU 
the purchasers 
conduct 
Creates 
meaningful 
consequences 
for the 
purchaser 
 purchasers 
DUH LQXHQFHG E\ 
informal social 
controls 
Some penalties (e.g., 
termination from 
employment) may be 
harsher than some believe 
is fair 
0DNLQJ WKH /RFDO (QYLURQPHQW ,QKRVSLWDEOH WR ([SORLWDWLRQ RI 7UDIFNHG :RPHQ 
12. 48 Enforcing 
zoning laws, 
nuisance 
abatement 
ordinances, 
and licensing 
regulations 
against 
properties used 
for prostitution 
Restricts the 
availability of 
locations for 
sexual activities; 
discourages the 
use of motels 
and hotels for 
prostitution 
 sexual transactions 
or forced labor take 
place on properties 
subject to regulation 
Civil law processes can 
be cumbersome and 
are unfamiliar to police; 
requires support from 
government lawyers 
13. 48 Warning 
property 
owners about 
the use of their 
premises for 
prostitution or 
forced labor 
Increases 
property 
owners 
willingness 
to prohibit 
prostitution or 
forced labor on 
 forced labor 
takes place on those 
properties 
Some property owners may 
feel they are being unfairly 
accused 
their property 
14. 49 Establishing a 
highly visible 
police presence 
Discourages 
both 
prostitutes and 
clients from 
negotiations 
 followed by 
changes to the 
environment where 
street prostitution 
occurs 
Labor intensive; creates the 
perception that the area is 
unsafe 
15. 49 Redeveloping 
the area 
economy 
Promotes 
legitimate 
activity to 
displace 
illegitimate 
activity 
 improvements will 
substantially change 
the conditions that 
allow prostitution 
or forced labor to 
RXULVK 
Costly in the short term; 
potential displacement to 
more vulnerable areas 


57 

Response 
No. 
Page 
No. 
Response How It Works Works Best If Considerations 
5HVSRQVHV :LWK /LPLWHG (IIHFWLYHQHVV 
16. 50 Legalizing 
or otherwise 
tolerating 
prostitution 
Creates a black 
market for 
FKHDS WUDIFNHG 
prostitutes 
Rests on debates concerning 
public morality, which 
police departments cannot 
solve on their own 
17. 51 Punishing Leads to 'ULYHV WUDIFNHG ZRPHQ 
prostitutes inconsistent 
and ineffective 
into the clutches of 
WUDIFNHUV PDNLQJ 
enforcement investigation and 
SURVHFXWLRQ GLIFXOW 


Appendix B: 

Schematic Representation of Relationships 
among Exploitation, Trafficking, Migration, 
Smuggling, Labor, and Consent 

schematic representation of relationships among exploitation, trafficking, migration, smuggling, labor, and consent
Adapted from UNESCAP (2003:27) 


Endnotes

1 Tiefenbrun (2002:136).

2 U.S. Department of State (2005).

3 Bales and Fletcher (2004).

4 International Labour Office (2003).

5 TVPA (2000).

6 Salt (2000); Laczko and Gramegna (2003).

7 U.S. Department of State (2004). How these figures 
were computed remains unclear. The number of 
women assisted as a result of TVPA is substantially 
lower, in the hundreds (Bales and Fletcher 2004:10).

8 Kangaspunta (2003).

9 Tiefenbrun (2002:139-141). 
10 U.S. Department of Justice (2004). 
11 MacPherson and Gushulak (2004).
12 Gushulak and MacPherson (2000).
13 Gushulak and MacPherson (2000).
14 Gumbel (2001); Bales et al. (2004).
15 Walter (2002). 
16 Stuart Police Department (2001). 
17 National City Police Department (2000). 
18 Ryf (2002:50). 
19 Human Rights Watch (2001). 
20 Guerette (2004).
21 Cwikel et al. (2004). Early exposure to trauma also 

increases the chances that a woman will be recruited. 
22 Stone (2004).
23 Raymond and Hughes (2001). 
24 Florida State University (2003). 
25 Hughes (2001).
26 Parrado et al. (2004). 
27 Raymond and Hughes (2001). 
28 United Nations Economic and Social Commission for 

Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) (2003). 
29 TVPA (2000). 


30 8 U.S.C. sec. 1227(a)(1)(E)(i).
31 U.S. Department of State (2004).
32 Anderson and OConnell Davidson (2003).
33 Raymond and Hughes (2001); Hughes (2004a).
34 Wijers and Lap-Chew (1999); Zarembka (2000);


Anderson and OConnell Davidson (2003). 
35 Human Rights Watch (2001); Anderson and OConnell 

Davidson (2003). 
36 Bales et al. (2004).
37 Scott (2000).
38 Hughes (2004a).
39 See generally Freilich and Newman (2005). 
40 Seghetti et al. (2004).
41 Nordic Institute for Womens Studies and Gender 

Research (2002). 
42 Raymond and Hughes (2001); Ryf (2002:20). 
43 Salt (2000).
44 Kansas City, Missouri Police Department (2004). 
45 Mackenzie et al. (2003). 
46 Raymond and Hughes (2001). 
47 Hughes (2004a).
48 Torrey and Dubin (2003). 
49 Hughes (2003).
50 National Trafficking Alert System (no date). 
51 Venkatraman (2003). 
52 See http://www.palmbeachpost.com/ 

moderndayslavery/content/moderndayslavery/. 
53 Jacobsen (2002). 
54 Edwards (2003). 
55 SPOG (2005).
56 King (2003).
57 Ekberg (2004).
58 Persons (1996). 
59 Hughes (2004a).
60 Hughes (2004a). 


61 Hughes (2004a:27).
62 Hughes (2004a).
63 Hesseling (1994).
64 Weidner (1999).
65 Raymond (2004).
66 Hughes (2004a); Ekberg (2004); Nordic Institute for


Womens Studies and Gender Research (2002). 


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Jacobsen, M. (2002). Why do Men Buy Sex? An interview 
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Jelinek, P. Anti-Prostitution Rule Drafted for U.S. 
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Kangaspunta, K. (2003). Mapping the inhuman trade: 
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Kansas City (Missouri) Police Department (2004). 
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King, M. (2003). RICO: A New Tool for Immigration Law 
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Kulick, D. (2003). Sex in the new Europe: The 
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Lloyd, K. (2000). Wives for Sale: The Modern 
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Mackenzie, E., L. Taylor, B. Bloom, D. Hufford 
and J. Johnson (2003). Ethnic minority use of 
complementary and alternative medicine (CAM): 
a national probability survey of CAM utilizers. 
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MacPherson, D., and B. Gushulak. (2004). Irregular 
Migration and Health. Global Commission on 
International Migration, research paper series no. 7, 
October. http://www.gcim.org/en/ir_gmp.html. 

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Trends. North Amherst, Mass.: Coalition Against 
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a New Perspective. http://www.wsu.edu/~sorense1/ 
sexexploitation/.

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by Mending Fences. Submission for the Herman 
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goldstein/2001/01-67.pdf. 

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Commitments and Recommended Practices. Bangkok,
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About the Author 

Graeme R. Newman 

Graeme R. Newman is a distinguished teaching professor at the 
School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, State University 
of New York. He has published works in the fields of the history 
and philosophy of punishment, comparative criminal justice, 
private security, situational crime prevention, and ecommerce 
crime, and has written commercial software. He was the CEO of 
a publishing company for 15 years and, in 1990, established the 
United Nations Crime and Justice Information Network. Among 
the books he has written or edited are Superhighway Robbery: 
Preventing Ecommerce Crime (with Ronald V. Clarke), and Rational 
Choice and Situational Crime Prevention (with Ronald V. Clarke and 
Shlomo Shoham). 


Recommended Readings 

 
A Police Guide to Surveying Citizens and Their 
Environments, Bureau of Justice Assistance, 1993. This 
guide offers a practical introduction for police practitioners 
to two types of surveys that police find useful: surveying 
public opinion and surveying the physical environment. It 
provides guidance on whether and how to conduct cost-
effective surveys. 
 
Assessing Responses to Problems: An 
Introductory Guide for Police Problem-Solvers, 


by John E. Eck (U.S. Department of Justice, Office of 
Community Oriented Policing Services, 2001). This guide 
is a companion to the Problem-Oriented Guides for Police series. 
It provides basic guidance to measuring and assessing 
problem-oriented policing efforts. 

 
Conducting Community Surveys, by Deborah Weisel 
(Bureau of Justice Statistics and Office of Community 
Oriented Policing Services, 1999). This guide, along with 
accompanying computer software, provides practical, basic 
pointers for police in conducting community surveys. The 
document is also available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs. 
 
Crime Prevention Studies, edited by Ronald V. Clarke 
(Criminal Justice Press, 1993, et seq.). This is a series of 
volumes of applied and theoretical research on reducing 
opportunities for crime. Many chapters are evaluations of 
initiatives to reduce specific crime and disorder problems. 



 
Excellence in Problem-Oriented Policing: The 
1999 Herman Goldstein Award Winners. This 
document produced by the National Institute of Justice 
in collaboration with the Office of Community Oriented 
Policing Services and the Police Executive Research Forum 
provides detailed reports of the best submissions to the 
annual award program that recognizes exemplary problem-
oriented responses to various community problems. A 
similar publication is available for the award winners from 
subsequent years. The documents are also available at 
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij.
 
Not Rocket Science? Problem-Solving and Crime 
Reduction, by Tim Read and Nick Tilley (Home Office 
Crime Reduction Research Series, 2000). Identifies and 
describes the factors that make problem-solving effective 
or ineffective as it is being practiced in police forces in 
England and Wales. 
 
Opportunity Makes the Thief: Practical Theory 
for Crime Prevention, by Marcus Felson and Ronald V. 
Clarke (Home Office Police Research Series, Paper No. 98, 
1998). Explains how crime theories such as routine activity 
theory, rational choice theory and crime pattern theory 
have practical implications for the police in their efforts to 
prevent crime. 
 
Problem Analysis in Policing, by Rachel Boba (Police 
Foundation, 2003). Introduces and defines problem 
analysis and provides guidance on how problem analysis 
can be integrated and institutionalized into modern 
policing practices. 



Recommended Readings 

 
Problem-Oriented Policing, by Herman Goldstein 
(McGraw-Hill, 1990, and Temple University Press, 1990). 
Explains the principles and methods of problem-oriented 
policing, provides examples of it in practice, and discusses 
how a police agency can implement the concept. 
 
Problem-Oriented Policing and Crime Prevention, 
by Anthony A. Braga (Criminal Justice Press, 2003). 
Provides a thorough review of significant policing research 
about problem places, high-activity offenders, and repeat 
victims, with a focus on the applicability of those findings 
to problem-oriented policing. Explains how police 
departments can facilitate problem-oriented policing by 
improving crime analysis, measuring performance, and 
securing productive partnerships. 
 
Problem-Oriented Policing: Reflections on the 
First 20 Years, by Michael S. Scott (U.S. Department of 
Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 
2000). Describes how the most critical elements of 
Herman Goldstein's problem-oriented policing model have 
developed in practice over its 20-year history, and proposes 
future directions for problem-oriented policing. The report 
is also available at www.cops.usdoj.gov. 
 
Problem-Solving: Problem-Oriented Policing in 
Newport News, by John E. Eck and William Spelman 
(Police Executive Research Forum, 1987). Explains the 
rationale behind problem-oriented policing and the 
problem-solving process, and provides examples of 
effective problem-solving in one agency. 



 
Problem-Solving Tips: A Guide to Reducing 
Crime and Disorder Through Problem-Solving 
Partnerships by Karin Schmerler, Matt Perkins, Scott 
Phillips, Tammy Rinehart and Meg Townsend. (U.S. 
Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented 
Policing Services, 1998) (also available at www.cops.usdoj. 
gov). Provides a brief introduction to problem-solving, 
basic information on the SARA model and detailed 
suggestions about the problem-solving process. 
 
Situational Crime Prevention: Successful Case 
Studies, Second Edition, edited by Ronald V. Clarke 
(Harrow and Heston, 1997). Explains the principles and 
methods of situational crime prevention, and presents over 
20 case studies of effective crime prevention initiatives. 
 
Tackling Crime and Other Public-Safety Problems: 
Case Studies in Problem-Solving, by Rana Sampson 
and Michael S. Scott (U.S. Department of Justice, Office of 
Community Oriented Policing Services, 2000) (also available 
at www.cops.usdoj.gov). Presents case studies of effective 
police problem-solving on 18 types of crime and disorder 
problems. 
 
Using Analysis for Problem-Solving: A Guidebook 
for Law Enforcement, by Timothy S. Bynum (U.S. 
Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented 
Policing Services, 2001). Provides an introduction for 
police to analyzing problems within the context of 
problem-oriented policing. 
 
Using Research: A Primer for Law Enforcement 
Managers, Second Edition, by John E. Eck and Nancy G. 
LaVigne (Police Executive Research Forum, 1994). Explains 
many of the basics of research as it applies to police 
management and problem-solving. 



Other Problem-Oriented Guides for Police 

Problem-Specific Guides series: 

1. 
Assaults in and Around Bars. Michael S. Scott. 2001. 
ISBN: 1-932582-00-2 
2. 
Street Prostitution. Michael S. Scott. 2001. ISBN: 1-932582-01-0 
3. 
Speeding in Residential Areas. Michael S. Scott. 2001. 
ISBN: 1-932582-02-9 
4. 
Drug Dealing in Privately Owned Apartment Complexes. 
Rana Sampson. 2001. ISBN: 1-932582-03-7 
5. 
False Burglar Alarms. Rana Sampson. 2001. ISBN: 1-932582-04-5 
6. 
Disorderly Youth in Public Places. Michael S. Scott. 2001. 
ISBN: 1-932582-05-3 
7. 
Loud Car Stereos. Michael S. Scott. 2001. ISBN: 1-932582-06-1 
8. 
Robbery at Automated Teller Machines. Michael S. Scott. 2001. 
ISBN: 1-932582-07-X 
9. 
Graffiti. Deborah Lamm Weisel. 2002. ISBN: 1-932582-08-8 
10. 
Thefts of and From Cars in Parking Facilities. Ronald V. 
Clarke. 2002. ISBN: 1-932582-09-6 
11. 
Shoplifting. Ronald V. Clarke. 2002. ISBN: 1-932582-10-X 
12. 
Bullying in Schools. Rana Sampson. 2002. ISBN: 1-932582-11-8 
13. 
Panhandling. Michael S. Scott. 2002. ISBN: 1-932582-12-6 
14. 
Rave Parties. Michael S. Scott. 2002. ISBN: 1-932582-13-4 
15. 
Burglary of Retail Establishments. Ronald V. Clarke. 2002. 
ISBN: 1-932582-14-2 
16. 
Clandestine Drug Labs. Michael S. Scott. 2002. 
ISBN: 1-932582-15-0 
17. 
Acquaintance Rape of College Students. Rana Sampson. 2002. 
ISBN: 1-932582-16-9 
18. 
Burglary of Single-Family Houses. Deborah Lamm Weisel. 
2002. ISBN: 1-932582-17-7 
19. 
Misuse and Abuse of 911. Rana Sampson. 2002. 
ISBN: 1-932582-18-5 



20. Financial Crimes Against the Elderly. 

Kelly Dedel Johnson. 2003. ISBN: 1-932582-22-3 

21. 
Check and Card Fraud. Graeme R. Newman. 2003. 
ISBN: 1-932582-27-4 
22. 
Stalking. The National Center for Victims of Crime. 2004. 
ISBN: 1-932582-30-4 
23. 
Gun Violence Among Serious Young Offenders. Anthony A. 
Braga. 2004. ISBN: 1-932582-31-2 
24. 
Prescription Fraud. Julie Wartell and Nancy G. La Vigne. 2004. 
ISBN: 1-932582-33-9 
25. 
Identity Theft. Graeme R. Newman. 2004. ISBN: 1-932582-35-3 
26. 
Crimes Against Tourists. Ronald W. Glesnor and Kenneth J. Peak. 
2004. ISBN: 1-932582-36-3 
27. 
Underage Drinking. Kelly Dedel Johnson. 2004. ISBN: 1-932582-39-8 
28. 
Street Racing. Kenneth J. Peak and Ronald W. Glensor. 2004. 
ISBN: 1-932582-42-8 
29. 
Cruising. Kenneth J. Peak and Ronald W. Glensor. 2004. 
ISBN: 1-932582-43-6 
30. 
Disorder at Budget Motels. Karin Schmerler. 2005. 
ISBN: 1-932582-41-X 
31. 
Drug Dealing in Open-Air Markets. Alex Harocopos and Mike 
Hough. 2005. ISBN: 1-932582-45-2 
32. 
Bomb Threats in Schools. Graeme R. Newman. 2005. 
ISBN: 1-932582-46-0 
33. 
Illicit Sexual Activity in Public Places. Kelly Dedel Johnson. 2005. 
ISBN: 1-932582-47-9 
34. 
Robbery of Taxi Drivers. Martha J. Smith. 2005. ISBN: 1-932582-50-9 
35. 
School Vandalism and Break-Ins. Kelly Dedel Johnson. 2005. 
ISBN: 1-9325802-51-7 
36. 
Drunk Driving. Michael S. Scott, Nina J. Emerson, Louis B. 
Antonacci, and Joel B. Plant. 2005. ISBN: 1-932582-57-6 
37. 
Juvenile Runaways. Kelly Dedel. 2006. ISBN: 1932582-56-8 
38. 
The Exploitation of Trafficked Women. Graeme R. Newman. 
2006. ISBN: 1-932582-59-2 



Response Guides series: 

 
The Benefits and Consequences of Police 
Crackdowns. Michael S. Scott. 2003. ISBN: 1-932582-24-X 
 
Closing Streets and Alleys to Reduce Crime: Should 
You Go Down This Road? Ronald V. Clarke. 2004. 
ISBN: 1-932582-41-X 
 
Shifting and Sharing Responsibility for Public Safety 
Problems. Michael S. Scott and Herman Goldstein. 
2005. ISBN: 1-932582-55-X 
 
Video Surveillance of Public Places. Jerry Ratcliffe. 
2006. ISBN: 1-932582-58-4 
Problem-Solving Tools series: 


 
Assessing Responses to Problems: An Introductory 
Guide for Police Problem-Solvers. John E. Eck. 2002. 
ISBN: 1-932582-19-3 
 
Researching a Problem. Ronald V. Clarke and Phyllis A. 
Schultz. 2005. ISBN: 1-932582-48-7 
 
Using Offender Interviews to Inform Police Problem 
Solving. Scott H. Decker. 2005. ISBN: 1932582-49-5 
 
Analyzing Repeat Victimization. Deborah Lamm 
Weisel. 2005. ISBN: 1-932582-54-1 


Upcoming Problem-Oriented Guides for Police 

Problem-Specific Guides 
Domestic Violence 
Mentally Ill Persons 
Student Party Riots 
Bank Robbery 
Witness Intimidation 


Drive-by Shootings 
Problem with Day Laborer Sites 
Child Pornography on the Internet 
Crowd Control at Stadiums and Other Entertainment Venues 
Traffic Congestion Around Schools 
Theft from Construction Sites of Single Family Houses 
Robbery of Convenience Stores 
Theft from Cars on Streets 

Problem-Solving Tools 
Partnering with Business to Address Public Safety Problems 
Risky Facilities 
Implementing Responses to Problems 
Designing a Problem Analysis System 

Response Guides 
Crime Prevention Publicity Campaigns 
Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design 

For more information about the Problem-Oriented Guides for 
Police series and other COPS Office publications, please call 
the COPS Office Response Center at 800.421.6770 or visit 
COPS Online at www.cops.usdoj.gov. 


FOR MORE INFORMATION: 

U.S. Department of JusticeOffice of Community Oriented Policing Services 

1100 Vermont Avenue, N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20530 

To obtain details on COPS programs, call the 
COPS Office Response Center at 800.421.6770 

Visit COPS Online at the address listed below. 

DOJ Seal