UC provides road map to combat human trafficking

The UC study, titled “Estimating the Prevalence of Human Trafficking in Ohio,” examined data from 14 distinct sources that included child welfare, law enforcement, legal and juvenile justice agencies, primarily from the years 2014 through 2016. UC researchers then processed the information into a single database with a common set of measures. The process included identifying and removing duplicate victim records. An estimated 1,032 victims were identified.

“This study demonstrates that it is imperative that Ohio’s child welfare and juvenile justice systems are equipped with appropriate resources to identify and serve victims of human trafficking and the youth who are at risk to be victimized,” said Governor Mike DeWine.

The study found that law enforcement, courts, child welfare services and other agencies use disparate recordkeeping systems that are unable to easily integrate or share information. The study’s conclusions include recommendations to optimize data collection among the agencies involved in combating human trafficking. Recommended are:

• The creation of a uniform reporting system for agencies serving vulnerable populations to trace trafficking cases and risk factors while preventing the creation of duplicate reports;
• Incentives for agencies to implement this system, along with training for law enforcement and other service providers who are likely to interact with potential trafficking victims;
• Prioritizing the collection of socio-demographic information, such as race, ethnicity and foreign national status; and
• Integration of strategies that researchers have used to measure other hard-to-reach or hidden populations, such as behavioral screening and assessment tools.

The findings emphasize the importance of working toward identifying individuals not reached by existing systems — individuals who could have different experiences than those eventually identified by formal systems.

Individuals ages 17 and under who exhibited a history of four or more of the following were considered to be at risk of human trafficking victimization by a child welfare agency examined in the study:

• Child sexual abuse
• Running away (four or more times in the prior year)
• Homelessness
• Truancy
• Juvenile court involvement
• Child Protective Services involvement, including foster care
• Drug use
• Psychiatric admissions
• Multiple sexual partners
• Sexually transmitted diseases and/or pregnancy

Featured image by Alex Ronsdorf/Unsplash

Graphics by UC Creative Services