DOI: 10.3886/icpsr37907
title: Capturing Human Trafficking Victimization Through Crime Reporting, United States, 2013-2016
title: Archival Version

description: Despite public attention to the problem of human trafficking, it has proven difficult to measure the problem. Improving the quality of information about human trafficking is critical to developing sound anti-trafficking policy. In support of this effort, in 2013 the Federal Bureau of Investigation incorporated human trafficking offenses in the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. Despite this achievement, there are many reasons to expect the UCR program to underreport human trafficking. Law enforcement agencies struggle to identify human trafficking and distinguishing it from other crimes. Additionally, human trafficking investigations may not be accurately classified in official data sources. Finally, human trafficking presents unique challenges to summary and incident-based crime reporting methods. For these reasons, it is important to understand how agencies identify and report human trafficking cases within the UCR program and what part of the population of human trafficking victims in a community are represented by UCR data. This study provides critical information to improve law enforcement identification and reporting of human trafficking. Coding criminal incidents investigated as human trafficking offenses in three US cities, supplemented by interviews with law and social service stakeholders in these locations, this study answers the following research questions: How are human trafficking cases identified and reported by the police? What sources of information about human trafficking exist outside of law enforcement data? What is the estimated disparity between actual instances of human trafficking and the number of human trafficking offenses reported to the UCR?
description: <b>Key Study Questions</b> How are human trafficking cases identified and reported by the police? How are human trafficking cases identified by the police? Once human trafficking cases are identified, how are these cases reported within internal law enforcement information systems? Once human trafficking cases are identified, how are these cases reported to external crime reporting programs such as the state reporting systems or the UCR program? What sources of information about human trafficking incidents exist outside of law enforcement data? How could the sharing of information from these data sources improve case identification and increase our understanding of the prevalence of human trafficking within a jurisdiction? What are the barriers to sharing information across administrative systems? What is the estimated disparity between actual instances of human trafficking identified in the study communities and the number of human trafficking offenses reported to the UCR? How frequently are human trafficking victims identified across multiple administrative data systems in a community? What are the reasons for the disparity between reported UCR offenses and the actual prevalence of identified and unidentified human trafficking in a community?
description: This study analyzes incident reports that were investigated as human trafficking by specialized units in three US police departments between 2013 and 2016 to better understand the characteristics of incidents investigated as human trafficking. Additionally, the study compared human trafficking related incidents that contained an offense code of human trafficking (involuntary servitude or commercial sex) with other incidents investigated as human trafficking but that contain other offense codes than human trafficking. A targeted selection methodology was used to identify three US jurisdictions where the research team could independently verify that the primary law enforcement agency had investigated a sufficient number of human trafficking cases to support the research. Following an intensive screening process, three sites were chosen. All three study sites represent major metropolitan areas though the sites vary in crime reporting structure (summary vs NIBRS), history reporting of human trafficking crimes into the UCR, and region (Northeast, South and West).
description: Targeted selection of three US communities with known human trafficking investigations and capacity to facilitate access to incident report data.
description: Datasets: DS1: Capturing Human Trafficking Victimization Through Crime Reporting, United States, 2013-2016
description: Police agencies in three US communities, incident reports of human trafficking investigations. Smallest Geographic Unit: region
description: record abstractsFor further information, please see the study's page on the National Institute for Justice website.