Why Human Trafficking is Not a Hoax

Every few years, some big study tries to find instances of human trafficking and fails to find them in any significant number. And every time this happens, fiscal conservatives and others come out of the woodwork and claim that the failed study is proof that human trafficking exists only in the imaginations of liberals, evangelicals, federal agents, social service providers, feminists, police officers, organized criminals, immigration officials, parents... you get the idea. Human trafficking was not a hoax before the recent failed study in the UK, and it won't be a hoax after the failure blows over.

The Pentameter study in the UK sought to root out human trafficking in the commercial sex industry by assigning 55 units of police officers to investigate human trafficking. And despite the fact that author Nick Davies begins his article in The Guardian claiming they found not a single trafficker, they actually found several, five of whom were eventaully convicted. But they didn't find the broad and sweeping numbers of victims that they originally thought they would. Is it because there really were only five traffickers on all the UK? Probably not. There are a multitude of reasons this particular study might have failed: the police didn't know what to look for, the victims lied, the traffickers moved the victims before getting caught, the police looked in the wrong places, etc. and so forth.

But the reasons why this study may have failed are not nearly as important as the many, many other studies that have shown human trafficking does exist and in significant numbers. The UN just estimated that 270,000 victims live in the EU right now. The U.S. State Department ballparks the number of individuals trafficked globally at 800,000 each year, with 17,000 of those being brought to the U.S. The International Labor Organization has also weighed in, claiming 2.4 million trafficking victims around the world. I could go on, but that would be quite boring to read. The point is, sometimes studies fail, but that doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist. Many issues, like global warming, that were once denounced as liberal conspiracy based a some flawed or failed studies have been proven to be real and dangerous phenomenon.

The field of human trafficking desperately needs more studies, sounder methodologies, and better statistics so we can appropriately address what's actually happening. I don't know anyone who works in this area who disagrees that we need to know more. But we need most is an actual field of academic literature on this subject. Right now we have one study that says human trafficking is real and one that calls it a hoax. We have one estimate that there are 27 million moder-day slaves in the world and one that says 500,000. When the information is so different, it's almost impossible to make policy decisions based on it. 

For the time being, here are my answers. If you are person who loves math, statistics, and research methodologies, please go into this field.  If you already in this field, do more and better research. And if you are an activist for this cause, please don't give up on the very real victims out there while the academics get their act together.

Photo credit: photogirl17