Advances in Measurement: A Scoping Review of Prior Human Trafficking Prevalence Studies and Recommendations for Future Research

ABSTRACT

Human trafficking victimization is harmful to individuals, families, institutions, communities, and nations. It is commonly understood that human trafficking is a widespread problem, yet the variation in global estimates is extreme, ranging from 12.3 million to 20.9 million to 45.8 million people worldwide. The wide variation in estimates has led some to argue that claims about the scope of the problem are unsubstantiated. Calculating an estimate of human trafficking victims has proven to be complex; there is growing recognition that it is necessary to improve the methodologies used to generate such estimates. This article addresses the need for a better understanding of the methodologies used in human trafficking prevalence estimation studies. We conducted a comprehensive scoping review of prior human trafficking prevalence studies, including an analysis of the methodologies utilized and the context in which they were used, and offer a set of recommendations for future research on human trafficking prevalence. The goal of this effort is to provide guidance to researchers planning to undertake prevalence estimation studies and to help advance and improve human trafficking prevalence estimation research.

KEYWORDS:

• Human trafficking
• prevalence
• sampling
• scoping review

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/02/05/2020-02438/combating-human-trafficking-and-online-child-exploitation-in-the-united-states

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by contract number HHSP233201500039L from Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation in partnership with the Office on Trafficking in Persons at the Administration for Children and Families, in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The project was funded to build on learnings from the 2019 National Academies of Sciences workshop on estimating the prevalence of human trafficking in the United States sponsored by the HHS Office on Women’s Health and contribute to the 2020 Prevalence Reduction Innovation Forum organized by the U.S. Department of State. The sponsors had no role in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to submit the article for publication. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, the Office on Trafficking in Persons the Administration for Children and Families, or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services;Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (US) [HHSP233201500039L];