DOI: 10.3886/icpsr35609
title: Understanding the Organization, Operation and Victimization Process of Labor Trafficking in the United States, 2000-2013
title: Archival Version

description: Although researchers have begun to piece together a picture of the characteristics of vulnerable individuals, participating industries, and exploitative practices that may lead to labor trafficking, few studies have systematically reviewed labor trafficking cases known to victim service providers and law enforcement officials in the United States. As a result, little is known about the phenomenon of labor trafficking and the illicit networks that support it.For example, it is not known if those networks that facilitate certain types of labor exploitation also facilitate certain types of labor trafficking. This study seeks to address these gaps in knowledge by providing foundational information about labor trafficking victimization and the illicit networks that facilitate it across a range of industries. This study was guided by three research questions:What is the nature of the labor trafficking victimization experience in the United States?How are domestic and international labor trafficking syndicates operating in the United States organized? Who are the traffickers, and what is their connection to other illicit networks that help facilitate labor trafficking operations?What are the challenges of law enforcement agents investigating labor trafficking cases identified by victim service providers? Why are so few identified labor trafficking cases investigated by law enforcement and prosecuted?
description: This study examines the organization, operation, and victimization process of labor trafficking across multiple industries in the United States. The study focused on the prevalence, context, and characteristics of human trafficking cases and victims across the study sites. The goals of this study include:Gathering information about the labor trafficking victimization process, including victim recruitment, entrapment such as document acquisition and fraud, transportation, efforts to seek help, and extrication from exploitation and abuse. Gathering information on the nature and characteristics of labor trafficking in the United States, including information about how labor traffickers carry out their operations. Identify the characteristics of victims and perpetrators of human trafficking.Examine the barriers encountered by law enforcement and service delivery organizations in responding to suspected perpetrators and victims of human trafficking.
description: This study was limited to human trafficking that occurs within the United States. Data from closed victim service records from service providers was used and focused on aiding labor trafficking victims in four US locations. Interviews with labor trafficking survivors, victim service providers, legal advocates, and law enforcement supplemented the secondary use data. The researchers aimed to gather systematic information about the nature and characteristics of labor trafficking victimization among identified labor trafficking victims in the United States. The study design included a multiple step research approach. <b>Stage One:</b> Site selection for the study involved multiple steps, including preliminary site identification and screening calls with potential sites. Eleven service providers were chosen for additional telephone screening interviews to gather non-identifying, general case characteristic information and to assess the quality of the available case files and the willingness of the service provider to participate in the study <b>Stage Two:</b> Studied service providers in each site were asked to provide a list of all the cases in which they had provided services to victims of labor trafficking since 2000. Before transferring this information to the research team, each record was assigned an alphanumeric code known only to the site. Initial site visits were conducted to review and code the client case records that were included in the initial sample. For each client file, a client case record coding sheet was developed to collect basic details about the victims. The names of cases, victims, and any suspects or other individuals were given a randomly generated alphanumeric identifier in the case record notes to safeguard the confidentiality of information regarding victim and suspect identities. 35 cases were dropped from the sample as a result of missing or incomplete information. <b>Stage Three:</b> Conducted voluntary, semi-structured interviews with service provider program staff. These qualitative interviews were used to gain a broader picture of the nature of labor trafficking victimization and the experiences of victims in the local area, gather information on the challenges of working with labor trafficking victims, and understand victim service provider perceptions about the factors that facilitate or inhibit partnerships with law enforcement. <b>Stage Four:</b> A follow-up site visit was conducted to interview victims of labor trafficking and the law enforcement officials associated with the labor trafficking cases identified and coded in the first site visit. Working with the victim service providers in each study site and using client information collected during the initial site visit (Stage 2), the research team identified a set of former labor trafficking survivors that were still in the local area and were willing, and in an appropriate position in their recovery, to be interviewed. After the research team selected survivors from the eligible pool of potential interviewees, the service providers contacted clients to gauge their interest in participating in the interviews. Translators were used to make consent form and one-page project description readable in Spanish and Tagalog. Interpreters were also were used to assist the interview process face-to-face and telephonic. Some of the languages that required interpretation included Spanish, Thai, Mixtec, Somali, Bengali, and Indonesian. Interviews was conducted with victims of labor trafficking across all sites. The interview protocol was designed to elicit information on a survivor's background, recruitment, and movement of the trafficking experience; the victimization itself; how the victim escaped; and any service and contact the victim had with law enforcement. Survivors were also asked about their current living situations, the impact of the labor trafficking experience, their hopes and goals for the future, and any recommendations or advice for changes. Interviews with clients ranged in length from one to three hours. In addition to the 28 victims who were interviewed, a focus group was held in one site where numerous victims of labor trafficking in agricultural work had been located a few years before this study. To overcome the limitation of not being able to interview victims directly associated with migrant farm cases in this community, a focus group was conducted with 11 unauthorized immigrant farmworkers who were potentially at risk for labor trafficking to talk about their experiences. <b>Stage Five:</b> It was initially planned to review and code law enforcement records for labor trafficking cases included in the study. The data collection strategy was changed due to law enforcement having a small number of labor trafficking investigations and the majority of the investigative work on labor trafficking cases was done by federal law enforcement personnel. Federal law enforcement agencies would not release physical copies of their investigative records to be reviewed and coded. Instead, the federal law enforcement agencies walked through the details of each case, often with agents directly consulting the case record. Four to seven law enforcement officers, including municipal, county, and state law enforcement as well as agents from Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, were also interviewed in each site. Interviews were conducted with state or federal prosecutors in sites where labor trafficking cases had gone forward to prosecution. In addition to interviews with law enforcement, the researchers conducted a few interviews with stakeholders familiar with the labor trafficking cases selected for our study; including representatives from the Department of Labor.
description: <b>Labor Trafficking Data</b> (Dataset 1: 176 records) Section 1: Victim Information. Variables include demographics, immigration background, health conditions, and history of abuse and exploitation. Section 2: Recruitment. Variables include how the victim was recruited in human trafficking and if recruitment involved force, fraud, or involved in the process. Section 3: Movement. Variables include how the victim was transported, immigration documentation, and if movement involved force, fraud, or coercion. Section 4: Victimization. Variables include the venues of exploitation, treatment by employers and traffickers, methods of escaping traffickers, and services received by victims. Section 5: Network. Variables include other types of victimization in addition to human trafficking. <b>Labor Trafficking Suspect Data</b> (Dataset 2: 134 records) Section 1: Suspect Information. Variables include demographics, the role in human trafficking, legal background before and after being involved with human trafficking, and relationship to victims and other suspects. Section 2: Victim Information. Variables include demographics, immigration background, health issues, and history of abuse and exploitation. Section 3: Recruitment. Variables include how the suspect recruited victims and if recruitment involved force, fraud, or coercion. Section 4: Movement. Variables include how the suspect transported victims, immigration documentation, and if movement involved force, fraud, or coercion. Section 5: Victimization. Variables include the venues of victim exploitation, different forms of harm, employer treatment, methods used to escaped from traffickers, and services received by victims. Section 6: Network. Variables include other types of victimization the suspect engaged in, the amount of financial gain, and relationship with suspects and criminal syndicates.
description: Not Applicable
description: Response Rates: Not Available
description: Presence of Common Scales: None
description: Dataset 1: A sample size of 122 victims associated with 72 unique labor trafficking incidents across 4 study sites since 2000. Dataset 2: A total of 169 individuals, excluding corporations and businesses, suspected of engaging in labor trafficking by federal law enforcement agencies.
description: Datasets: DS0: Study-Level Files DS1: Labor Trafficking Data DS2: Labor Trafficking Suspect Data
description: Victims and suspects associated with closed labor trafficking service records.. Smallest Geographic Unit: Region
description: coded on-site observation; face-to-face interview; telephone interviewQualitative data are not available at this time.