Prostitution, Human Trafficking, and Victim Identification: Establishing an Evidence-Based Foundation for a Specialized Criminal Justice Response

A. Statement of the Problem
The past five years have seen the sudden growth of specialized diversion programs and courts in response to the intersecting problems of prostitution and human trafficking. To inform policies in
these new models, a strong evidence-based foundation does not yet exist concerning the size of the trafficked population; its characteristics, needs, and victimization experiences; and the ability of criminal justice staff to make appropriate service referrals.

B. Subjects
The study will be implemented with a minimum of: (1) 400 adults who exchange sex for money in New York City prostitution markets; and (2) 30 criminal justice and community stakeholders involved in implementing HTICs across New York City.

C. Research Design and Methods
The study involves two research strategies, reflecting the two definitions provided above for the subject population: (1) interviews in community settings, using proven respondent-driven sampling (RDS) techniques, to understand the size, needs, characteristics, and victimization status of adults engaged in prostitution; and (2) exploratory interviews with criminal justice stakeholders, service providers, and advocates about their perceptions, attitudes, and preferences regarding the goals and operational strategies that human trafficking intervention courts should adopt—and can feasibly adopt.

D. Analysis
Both research strategies will culminate in the use of standard quantitative analysis techniques (e.g., descriptive and correlation analysis, multivariable regressions, and interview content analysis); along with transcript production and qualitative analysis of themes and findings.

E. Products, Reports, and Data Archiving
The study will spawn an executive summary for NIJ; a series of research journal publications; and a series of policymaker/practitioner publications that identify major findings in accessible prose. Multimedia dissemination will also include posting products to web sites; e-mail blasts, Twitter updates, and audio interviews to announce and publicize publications; and conference presentations. Quantitative datasets will be stripped of identifiers and archived, per NIJ policy.

Note: This project contains a research and/or development component, as defined in applicable law.

nca/ncf