Measuring trafficking in persons: An application of item response theory to labor trafficking among domestic workers across three countries

• In Event: Frontiers of Research on Human Trafficking

Abstract

Measuring human trafficking victimization has been a longstanding challenge to the applied scientific community. As part of a multi-country Prevalence Reduction Innovation Forum (PRIF), a 12-item instrument was developed and used to measure labor trafficking among domestic workers across three countries – Morocco, Tanzania, and Tunisia (N = 5,818). This presentation applies an multidimensional item response theory framework to examine the construct validity of the PRIF instrument, and further examines cross-country variation in item performance. The results suggest that trafficking victimization is multidimensional, but that the measurement properties vary from country to country, presenting complications in cross-country comparisons of trafficking prevalence as well as challenges in modeling risk and protective factors. Implications for research will be discussed.

Authors

• Xichen Wang, University of Massachusetts Lowell

• Jason Rydberg, University of Massachusetts Lowell

• Sheldon Zhang, University of Massachusetts Lowell

• Meredith Dank, New York University

• Kareem Kysia, NORC at the University of Chicago