Anti-Human Trafficking Task Forces and Levels of Law Enforcement Activity

• In Event: Using Data and Coordinated Responses to Improve Policing

Abstract

The multi-agency task force combining law enforcement, social services, and NGOs has emerged as the preferred organizational structure for combatting human trafficking in the United States. Data on the incidence of human trafficking across jurisdictional boundaries has been limited, with most comparisons made at the state level and based on calls to the national human trafficking hotline. Systematic arrest data at the county level were first made available through the FBI Uniform Crime Reports for calendar year 2014. A study by Huff-Corzine et al. (2015) using data from Florida found a strong, positive influence of the task forces on human trafficking arrests. In this paper, we replicate the earlier research with 2015 arrest data for the reporting agencies located in Florida’s 67 counties. Independent variables include social and demographic characteristics of counties, tourism variables, and measures of law enforcement capabilities, including number of sworn officers per capita and membership in one of Florida’s Human Trafficking Task Forces.

Authors

• Lin Huff-Corzine, University of Central Florida

• Sarah Sacra, University of Central Florida

• Jay Corzine, University of Central Florida

• Emily Strohacker, University of Central Florida

• Brielle Francis, University of Central Florida