DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03438.v1
title: International and Domestic Trends in Sex Trafficking of Women in the United States, 1999-2000
title: Version 1

description: This study by the Coalition Against Trafficking Women was
 the first to research both contemporary international and domestic
 trafficking of women for sexual exploitation in the United States and
 to include primary research information from interviews with
 trafficked and prostituted women in the sex industry. Telephone and
 personal interviews were conducted with people who had experience with
 or knowledge of sex trafficking in the United States. This data
 collection consists of the verbatim questions and responses from the
 following groups of individuals who were interviewed: (1)
 international and United States women who had been or were in the sex
 industry in the United States, (2) law enforcement officials who had
 experience and expertise in sex-industry related cases or immigration,
 (3) social service workers who provided services to women in
 prostitution or might have come into contact with women from the sex
 industry and those providing services to immigrant populations, and
 (4) health care workers who provided services to women in prostitution
 or who may have come into contact with women in the sex industry. The
 research framework was developed to follow the path of trafficked
 women from their hometown, through their experiences in the sex
 industry, to their present place in life. Information was collected
 on trafficked women's backgrounds, roles and activities while in the
 sex industry, how they were controlled, and how they coped with their
 situations. Respondents were also asked about experiences with
 recruiters, traffickers, pimps, and customers. Additional information
 was gathered on the respondents' views on policies regarding
 trafficking and prostitution, the organization of the sex industry,
 and health and legal aspects of the business. Questionnaires for each
 group of interviewees were constructed according to the topics about
which each group would most likely have knowledge or experience.
description: The aim of this research was to broadly
 investigate the international and domestic trafficking in women in the
 United States. The specific goals were to: (1) document known cases
 and information on sex trafficking in the United States, (2) establish
 a research framework for studying sex trafficking in the United
 States, (3) describe connections between the supply of women
 trafficked from abroad and within the United States and the demand
 created by the sex industries, (4) describe local sex industries and
 their involvement in sex trafficking and prostitution, (5) describe
 linkages between international and domestic trafficking and sex
 industries, (6) describe regional differences in sex trafficking and
 sex industries in the United States, and (7) describe the social
 consequences of sex trafficking in terms of violence, crime, health,
and other human costs.
description: To gather information on sex trafficking and the
 sex industry in the United States as effectively and efficiently as
 possible, target sampling was used, in which individuals with
 knowledge on trafficking and the sex industry were interviewed. The
 goal was to gather information from the most informed experts on the
 topic, not to do a broad survey of knowledge and attitudes. The data
 files in this collection consist of the verbatim questions and
 responses from the following groups of individuals who were
 interviewed: (1) international (Parts 1-16) and United States (Parts
 17-41) women who had been or were in the sex industry in the United
 States, (2) law enforcement officials who had experience and expertise
 in sex-industry related cases or immigration (Parts 42-66), (3) social
 service workers who provided services to women in prostitution or
 might have come into contact with women from the sex industry and
 those providing services to immigrant populations (Parts 67-101), and
 (4) health care workers who provided services to women in prostitution
 or who may have come into contact with women in the sex industry
 (Parts 102-107). A research framework was developed to follow the path
 of trafficked women from their hometown, through their experiences in
 the sex industry, to their present place in life. Interviewees were
 asked about women's backgrounds before being recruited or trafficked
 into the sex industry, about the methods used to recruit them, whether
 and how they were moved around while in the sex industry, how they
 were initiated into the roles and activities they had to carry out,
 how they were controlled while in the sex industry, and how they coped
 with and resisted the conditions under which they lived. Interviewees
 were asked for their recommendations for policies on trafficking and
 prostitution. Since the women interviewed most likely had daily
 contact with other women in prostitution, they were asked for their
 observations and knowledge about other women (possibly trafficked
 women) in the sex industry. Women were asked about their experiences
 with recruiters, traffickers, and pimps and the men who buy them in
 the sex industry. They were asked about their health and well-being
 while in the sex industry and after getting out. Interviewees were
 also asked about the operation of the sex industry in their city or
 region. They were asked about who the traffickers were, how they
 operated, and how the sex industry was organized in that area. The
 questionnaire used in this study was constructed and organized by
 topics related to the path trafficked women might follow and the
 operation of the sex industry in which they were
 exploited. Questionnaires for each group of interviewees were
 constructed according to the topics about which each group would most
 likely have knowledge or experience. The questionnaires were composed
of open- and closed-ended questions on each topic.
description: inap.
description: Response Rates: Not applicable.
description: Presence of Common Scales: None.
description: To gather information on sex trafficking and the sex
 industry in the United States as effectively and efficiently as
 possible, target sampling was used, in which individuals with
knowledge of trafficking and the sex industry were interviewed.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Interview with International Woman 1
DS2: Interview with International Woman 2
DS3: Interview with International Woman 3
DS4: Interview with International Woman 4
DS5: Interview with International Woman 5
DS6: Interview with International Woman 6
DS7: Interview with International Woman 7
DS8: Interview with International Woman 8
DS9: Interview with International Woman 9
DS10: Interview with International Woman 10
DS11: Interview with International Woman 11
DS12: Interview with International Woman 12
DS13: Interview with International Woman 13
DS14: Interview with International Woman 14
DS15: Interview with International Woman 15
DS16: Interview with International Woman 16
DS17: Interview with United States Woman 1
DS18: Interview with United States Woman 2
DS19: Interview with United States Woman 3
DS20: Interview with United States Woman 4
DS21: Interview with United States Woman 5
DS22: Interview with United States Woman 6
DS23: Interview with United States Woman 7
DS24: Interview with United States Woman 8
DS25: Interview with United States Woman 9
DS26: Interview with United States Woman 10
DS27: Interview with United States Woman 11
DS28: Interview with United States Woman 12
DS29: Interview with United States Woman 13
DS30: Interview with United States Woman 14
DS31: Interview with United States Woman 15
DS32: Interview with United States Woman 16
DS33: Interview with United States Woman 17
DS34: Interview with United States Woman 18
DS35: Interview with United States Woman 19
DS36: Interview with United States Woman 20
DS37: Interview with United States Woman 21
DS38: Interview with United States Woman 22
DS39: Interview with United States Woman 23
DS40: Interview with United States Woman 24
DS41: Interview with United States Woman 25
DS42: Interview with Law Enforcement 1
DS43: Interview with Law Enforcement 2
DS44: Interview with Law Enforcement 3
DS45: Interview with Law Enforcement 4
DS46: Interview with Law Enforcement 5
DS47: Interview with Law Enforcement 6
DS48: Interview with Law Enforcement 7
DS49: Interview with Law Enforcement 8
DS50: Interview with Law Enforcement 9
DS51: Interview with Law Enforcement 10
DS52: Interview with Law Enforcement 11
DS53: Interview with Law Enforcement 12
DS54: Interview with Law Enforcement 13
DS55: Interview with Law Enforcement 14
DS56: Interview with Law Enforcement 15
DS57: Interview with Law Enforcement 16
DS58: Interview with Law Enforcement 17
DS59: Interview with Law Enforcement 18
DS60: Interview with Law Enforcement 19
DS61: Interview with Law Enforcement 20
DS62: Interview with Law Enforcement 21
DS63: Interview with Law Enforcement 22
DS64: Interview with Law Enforcement 23
DS65: Interview with Law Enforcement 24
DS66: Interview with Law Enforcement 25
DS67: Interview with Social Service Provider 1
DS68: Interview with Social Service Provider 2
DS69: Interview with Social Service Provider 3
DS70: Interview with Social Service Provider 4
DS71: Interview with Social Service Provider 5
DS72: Interview with Social Service Provider 6
DS73: Interview with Social Service Provider 7
DS74: Interview with Social Service Provider 8
DS75: Interview with Social Service Provider 9
DS76: Interview with Social Service Provider 10
DS77: Interview with Social Service Provider 11
DS78: Interview with Social Service Provider 12
DS79: Interview with Social Service Provider 13
DS80: Interview with Social Service Provider 14
DS81: Interview with Social Service Provider 15
DS82: Interview with Social Service Provider 16
DS83: Interview with Social Service Provider 17
DS84: Interview with Social Service Provider 18
DS85: Interview with Social Service Provider 19
DS86: Interview with Social Service Provider 20
DS87: Interview with Social Service Provider 21
DS88: Interview with Social Service Provider 22
DS89: Interview with Social Service Provider 23
DS90: Interview with Social Service Provider 24
DS91: Interview with Social Service Provider 25
DS92: Interview with Social Service Provider 26
DS93: Interview with Social Service Provider 27
DS94: Interview with Social Service Provider 28
DS95: Interview with Social Service Provider 29
DS96: Interview with Social Service Provider 30
DS97: Interview with Social Service Provider 31
DS98: Interview with Social Service Provider 32
DS99: Interview with Social Service Provider 33
DS100: Interview with Social Service Provider 34
DS101: Interview with Social Service Provider 35
DS102: Interview with Health Care Worker 1
DS103: Interview with Health Care Worker 2
DS104: Interview with Health Care Worker 3
DS105: Interview with Health Care Worker 4
DS106: Interview with Health Care Worker 5
DS107: Interview with Health Care Worker 6
description: Parts 1-16: International women who had been or were in
 the sex industry in the United States. Parts 17-41: United States
 women who had been or were in the sex industry in the United
 States. Parts 42-66: Law enforcement officials who had experience and
 expertise in sex-industry related cases or immigration in the United
 States. Parts 67-101: Social service workers who provided services to
 women in prostitution or who may have come in contact with women from
 the sex industry and those providing services to immigrant populations
 in the United States. Parts 102-107: Health care workers who provided
 services to women in prostitution or who may have come into contact
with women in the sex industry.
description: (1) The number of data files in this collection does
 not match the number of interviewees described in the Final Report for
 this project because some data files contain interviews with multiple
 respondents. (2) The number of data files in this collection does not
 match the number of interviews described in the Final Report for this
 project because ICPSR did not include duplicate interviews in this
 collection. (3) The data files were converted to plain ASCII text from
 Microsoft Word documents by ICPSR. Some formatting from the MSWord
 files were not retained in the conversion. Data users are strongly
 encouraged to use the data files in conjunction with the PDF data
 collection instrument provided as part of this data collection to
 distinguish question text and interviewer prompts from actual
 responses from interviewees. In particular, data users should note
 that many of the closed-ended questions required a discrete answer
 from the respondents, such as "Yes," "No," or "Don't know." Responses
 to such questions may be present in the data file in one of three
 ways: (1) interviewers typed the respondent's answer after the
 question, (2) all possible responses are present for a question and
 the respondents' answers are designated by an "X" to the left of the
 given response, or (3) all possible responses are present but none is
 marked, indicating that the question was not answered. (4) ICPSR
 blanked certain identifying information, such as names and
 locations. This information has been replaced by a generic identifier
 in brackets, such as [name]. (5) The user guide and data collection
 instruments are provided by ICPSR as Portable Document Format (PDF)
 files. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated
 and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe
 Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat
Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.