Using Multiple Federal Data Platforms for Research into Human Trafficking: The Charging, Adjudication, and Sentencing Process of Offenders Suspected of Human Trafficking

• In Event: Using United States Sentencing Commission Data and Presentence Investigation Reports for Research on Transnational Organized Crime and Human Trafficking

Abstract

After more than a decade of intense federal and local activity, basic information about the scope of human trafficking remains scarce, and fundamental questions about criminal justice system responses remain insufficiently answered. Using data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics Federal Justice Statistics Program (FJSP), this study leverages data from case filing, adjudication, and corrections systems to describe federal criminal justice responses to human trafficking, focusing on case flows from initial charges through to conviction, sentencing, and correctional custody. Although the administrative case filing and adjudication data give us some insights into offender experiences and subsequent conviction charges once they are charged with human trafficking, the USSC data (both the guidelines calculation data and information from the PSRs), contain rich detail at both individual and criminal organization levels, and provide unique insight into the federal criminal justice system response to human trafficking.

Authors

• Michael Shively, Abt Associates Inc.

• Ryan Kling, Abt Associates Inc.

• Omri Drucker, Abt Associates Inc.