Exploring the Intersection of Human Trafficking, Drug Trafficking, and Other Criminal Activity in the United States

Since the passage of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protections Act (TVPA) in 2000 and its subsequent reauthorizations, the U.S. has made progress in increasing awareness of human trafficking, investigating, and prosecuting traffickers, and providing specialized, trauma-informed services for survivors of human trafficking. However, to date, there has been limited research and data collected on the co-occurrence of human trafficking, drug trafficking and other criminal activities, including money laundering and smuggling, despite increasing reports that there are many ways in which human trafficking intersects with international and U.S.-based criminal activity. In the absence of research on these issues, it is unclear how experts and practitioners, including Enhanced Collaborative Model (ECM) Task Forces to Combat Human Trafficking and High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) programs who receive federal funds to combat human trafficking and drug trafficking are working to identify the co-occurrence of the crimes. In response, NORC is collaborating with THE WHY and the Police Executive Research Forum to conduct the first national, mixed-methods study on the intersection of human trafficking and drug trafficking. Objectives of this study include: 1) Conducting a landscape scan to develop a current state of knowledge on the intersection of human trafficking and drug trafficking, including emerging trends in our understanding of the issue and efforts to disrupt traffickers and trafficking networks, as well as data collection efforts on the issue; 2) Administering a survey to ECM task forces and HIDTA programs to increase understanding of the work of task forces as it relates to the intersection of these crimes, including the incidence in the co-occurrence of human trafficking and drug trafficking, the characteristics of cases involving human trafficking and drug trafficking, ECM task force/HIDTA program stakeholder human trafficking/narcotics training and prior experience, techniques relied on to investigate human and drug trafficking, and collaboration between ECM task forces/HIDTA programs; and, 3) Conducting case studies with five sites where both an ECM task force and HIDTA program are present to explore the intersection of human trafficking and drug trafficking in communities across the U.S. Through these objectives, this study will address gaps in knowledge in the field, increase understanding of the co-occurrence of drug trafficking, human trafficking, and other criminal activities, and provide recommendations for how to build a foundation to increase capacity to disrupt drug and human traffickers and collect data to evaluate disruptions efforts. CA/NCF