Data and Research on Human Trafficking

The trafficking of women and children for commercial sex has become a profitable transnational enterprise, ranking third in criminal earnings, after drugs and arms dealings (Hughes, Chon, & Ellerman, 2007). It is also a human rights violation and a global public health issue. While data on the national and international magnitude of human trafficking differ considerably, estimates range from 4 to 27 million people considered to be victims of forced labor, and the U.S. Department of State's latest report on trafficking in persons stated that approximately 80% of the victims are females (the majority of which are exploited in the sex trade) and nearly 50% are children. Discrepancies in both the estimates and scope of the problem reflect not only methodological issues (such as the definition of human trafficking or inclusion and exclusion criteria) but also the hidden and elusive condition of the trafficked population.

In the last ten years research on human trafficking has increased, in part because the United Nations proposed a definition of "trafficking in persons" in its 2000 Palermo Protocol. Although the UN definition was broad and included different forms of exploitation, from forced labor and sexual slavery to the removal of organs, it brought to the fore human trafficking as a global concern and promoted interdisciplinary research that told a more detailed story of the health risks and consequences of human trafficking. Academic researchers often used action-oriented approaches which gave policymakers, service providers, and law-enforcement agencies valuable information about the multifaceted nature of human trafficking. However, researchers also faced many methodological challenges that limited the studies they were able to produce, such as disagreement on what should be studied, a lack of funding for longitudinal studies, and difficulties getting access to the victims for data collection (Laczko & Gozdziak, 2005). Moreover, trafficked women had a broad spectrum of experiences within far-reaching contexts making the aggregation of data and the development of universal measures problematic. In spite of these difficulties, many new global collaborative projects were initiated in recent years to improve the collection, sharing, and analysis of data on human trafficking.

The goal of this roundtable session is to stimulate a conversation about the role of the social work profession in human trafficking interdisciplinary research, policymaking, and service provision. The first presenter will review the literature on the trafficking of women and children for commercial sex, and the second presenter will describe and analyze the methodological challenges in doing research on victims of trafficking. After both presentations, the first presenter will facilitate a discussion with the roundtable participants.