This publication presents Southern Methodist University’s (SMU) Human Trafficking Data Project (“Project”).
Southern Methodist University’s (SMU) Human Trafficking Data Project (“Project”) directly addresses the deficiencies in human trafficking data collection and analysis and in the collaboration of expertise needed to ensure data efficacy and complete, effective human trafficking research. The Project constructed the SMU Human Trafficking Data Warehouse (“Data Warehouse”), created a human computational-machine learning game to scrape and complete human trafficking datasets, and consulted with stakeholders who own datasets, are interested in collecting data, and have the need for human trafficking data for anti-human trafficking research and work. Multiple research projects were conducted to gain an understanding of how current data can be used to determine deeper understanding about human trafficking. The Data Warehouse provides for the secure collection, storage, cleaning, and filling in the gaps of the wide variety of human trafficking data types and sources. The Data Warehouse can be made available on a secure basis to stakeholders with existing sources of human trafficking data as well as organizations and individuals involved in anti-trafficking work who are interested in collecting data. Secure, online dashboards provide data visualization to present data for dissemination in a format and method that practitioners, policy makers, and researchers can easily access, understand, and use. Human trafficking (both labor and sex) continues to be on the agendas of federal, state, and local authorities. Reports and laws state the need for more and higher-quality human trafficking data. Human trafficking efforts by stakeholders, including government, law enforcement, nonprofit organizations, service providers, lawyers, and researchers, call for reliable data collection and analysis.