Does training make a difference? An evaluation of a specialized human trafficking training module for law enforcement officers

Abstract

Since 2008, the US federal government has prioritized human trafficking prosecutions, although the expectation is that these cases will be brought to federal prosecutors by local law enforcement authorities. Recent research shows, however, that while local law enforcement officers are typically well positioned to identify human trafficking victims, most do not think human trafficking occurs in their jurisdictions and few are prepared to identify and investigate such cases. Recognizing the need for training of law enforcement regarding human trafficking, the Department of Criminal Justice Training at the Kentucky Leadership Institute undertook a statewide training conducted by victim advocates. This article reports the results of an evaluation of that training module. The article discusses the effectiveness of the program in terms of: (1) raising awareness of human trafficking in the officers' jurisdictions, (2) increasing officers' self-reported likelihood of identifying and investigating suspected human trafficking cases, and (3) the dissemination of knowledge gained through training from executive-level and mid-level officers to patrol-level officers. The findings show that participation in the training produced positive, but limited effects with regard to each of the three outcomes of interest.

Keywords::

• evaluation
• human trafficking
• law enforcement
• training

Notes

^1. Email: [email protected]

^2. Email: [email protected]

^3. Email: [email protected]

^4. Executive officers include the highest-ranking law enforcement personnel: sheriffs and chiefs of police. Mid-level officers, including captains and sergeants, have management and supervisory roles and rank above patrol officers, but below sheriffs, chiefs, and deputy chiefs.

^5. In 2013, the Kentucky legislature also passed the Human Trafficking Victims Rights Act, making it one of only 11 states to mandate safe harbor for child victims of trafficking. This legislation, however, was not covered in the training module we evaluated.

^6. One might expect that given the large rural population and agrarian tradition in the state of Kentucky, there would be more cases of labor trafficking than sex trafficking. Official statistics do not support this expectation, although they are not necessarily an accurate indicator of the actual extent of labor versus sex trafficking in the state. Rather, these figures may simply reflect the national trend documented by other researchers (e.g., Farrell et al., 2010) that sex trafficking appears to be a greater concern among the general public and, therefore, is given more attention by law enforcement and the criminal justice system.

^7. Unfortunately, we are unable to calculate a response rate for patrol officers, since the number of patrol officers in each department is not available. The websites for only a handful of departments provide data on number of officers by rank or job title. In most cases, the counts available are for total number of sworn and civilian employees in each department.

^8. Given the scope of the data, we wished simply to examine the effects of perception of likelihood of encountering human trafficking in the next 12 months, rather than teasing out perceptions of the likelihood of encountering each type of trafficking in the next 12 months. Moreover, in the original Likert scale, ‘not likely’ is the only rating that is dissimilar from the ratings of ‘likely,’ ‘somewhat likely,’ and ‘very likely.’ Consequently, our single dichotomous measure more accurately compares respondents who thought encountering human trafficking in their jurisdiction in the next 12 months was unlikely versus those who thought it was at all likely.

^9. Given the sample size of 325, there was no sound justification for separating out small and medium-sized agencies. Rather, we judged the dummy variable for agency size to be sufficient as a control variable for the purposes of these analyses. We recognize that the patrol officers were nested within departments, therefore making multi-level modeling a better analytic tool. However, to undertake such an analysis would require us to be able to match each patrol officer with the specific department or agency in which each he or she worked – data we did not collect because we promised the respondents anonymity.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Claire M. Renzetti

Claire M. Renzetti, Ph.D. is the Judi Conway Patton Endowed Chair for Studies of Violence Against Women in the Center for Research on Violence Against Women, and Professor and Chair of Sociology at the University of Kentucky. She is editor of the international, interdisciplinary journal, Violence Against Women. Her research interests include services for human trafficking victims; horticultural therapy for victims of intimate partner violence (IPV); and the effects of religiosity and religious self-regulation on men's IPV perpetration. Her recent research appears in Violence and Victims, and the Journal of Family Issues.

Amy Bush

Amy Bush received her MA in Sociology from the University of Kentucky. Her research interests include human trafficking, intimate partner violence, gender, and criminology.

Marissa Castellanos

Marissa Castellanos is the Human Trafficking Program Manager at Catholic Charities in Louisville, KY. She trains law enforcement, health professionals, and service providers statewide about human trafficking crimes, local cases, and victim services. Marissa has provided case management and other services to more than 90 survivors of sex and labor trafficking.

Gretchen Hunt

Gretchen Hunt is Staff Attorney for the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs. Her areas of interest include human trafficking, sexual assault, civil rights of immigrant victims and legislative advocacy. Her work has appeared in Trauma, Violence and Abuse: A Review Journal, National Journal of State Judicial Educators and Bench & Bar.