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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 10:17 pm
Time: 10:17 pm
Results for human trafficking (washington state, u.s.)
2 results foundAuthor: Kreyling, S.J. Title: Technology and Research Requirements for Combating Human Trafficking: Enhancing Communication, Analysis, Reporting, and Information Sharing Summary: The U.S. Department of Energy’s Science & Technology Directorate directed PNNL to conduct an exploratory study on the domain of human trafficking in the Pacific Northwest in order to examine and identify technology and research requirements for enhancing communication, analysis, reporting, and information sharing – activities that directly support efforts to track, identify, deter, and prosecute human trafficking – including identification of potential national threats from smuggling and trafficking networks. This effort was conducted under the Knowledge Management Technologies Portfolio as part of the Integrated Federal, State, and Local/Regional Information Sharing (RISC) and Collaboration Program. The major recommendations of this report are: • Defensible methodologies are needed to estimate the number of victims of human trafficking, both nationally and regionally. Various modeling and expert elicitation techniques can be applied, using the members of each DOJ anti-trafficking task force as the pool of experts, including victim service providers. Separately, there is a need to harmonize and standardize the existing efforts to estimate the scale of human trafficking in the US. • Variations in the definitions of human trafficking employed by law enforcement, service providers, and others pose a significant challenge to accurate measurement. Develop and implement a methodology that helps practitioners clarify and describe their conceptual frameworks/mental models. • Further identification of information-sharing processes and technologies currently in use by both DHS component agencies and partner organizations that participate in each of the federally-funded Anti-Human-Trafficking Task Forces across the county is required. • Research is needed on the applicability of collecting victim data from a wide variety of sources beyond law enforcement, the outreach strategies necessary to increase the breadth of sources from which information is collected, the reduction of the methodological challenges as more data is collected from different sources, and methods for using this data for the regional examination of patterns and trends. • The information collected about human trafficking investigations by local, regional and federal law enforcement is not easily accessible by investigating agents and data is not efficiently compared between agencies or across systems. Identify an emerging industry standard for federated search and begin to move existing and new systems to support it. • Ad-hoc information sharing between investigating officers/agents in different agencies is difficult and not a routine occurrence. Given the difficulties of browsing and searching the systems of other agencies, research is needed into tools that can be accessed and edited by any vetted law enforcement officer, yet with fixed geographic and categorical sections to focus on their specific interests (human trafficking, Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC), gangs, narcotics, etc.). • Despite significantly increased attention to human trafficking, Washington State has not seen an increase in identifiable and prosecutable human trafficking-related cases associated with forced labor and domestic servitude of foreign nationals. An analysis based on analyzing visa applications (e.g., B1, H2A, H2B) should be conducted to produce a “proactive triage” of potential victims from high-risk populations. • Despite significantly increased attention to human trafficking nationwide, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has not seen a comparable increase human trafficking related criminal convictions - only 30% of human trafficking cases that ICE initiated in FY09 eventually led to a criminal conviction. A lessons-learned study should be conducted to identify the factors that are most influential to a case’s successful transition from investigation to a conviction. • An International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Working Group should be convened that builds on IACP’s pre-existing work related to combating human trafficking with a specific focus on the application of technology for training and investigations from the user perspective. Lessons learned, best practices and tools or technologies needed by local law enforcement will be the expected knowledge-product outcomes. • There is large body of knowledge and perspective on trafficking and smuggling residing in the Intelligence Community (IC) which is not widely available within law enforcement. Research should be conducted on lessons learned from the intelligence community concerning human trafficking and related networks (terrorism, smuggling, narcotics, weapons, etc.) which can then be applied to law enforcement and presented in an unclassified report. • There is no systematic means of proactively assessing the scale, movement, demand, inter-connectedness, or general operation of juvenile prostitution and Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST) at a regional or larger level. A pilot sensor platform should be built to examine a significant subset of on-line prostitution sites in a regional set of participating urban areas, as well as, street-based prostitution associated with DMST. • The greatest and most immediate need that the Co-Chairs of WashACT (Seattle Police, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington, ICE, and the Washington Anti-trafficking Response Network) identified was for more shelters with specialized services for victims. In order to successfully investigate and prosecute traffickers, victims must be stable and free from fear and intimidation to be effective witnesses. • There is also a lack of capacity to deal with large numbers of trafficking victims at once, should the need arise (i.e., there is no “surge capacity”). Details: Richland, WA: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 2011. 39p. Source: Internet Resource: PNNL-20258: Accessed December 1, 2012 at: http://www.pnl.gov/main/publications/external/technical_reports/PNNL-20258.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.pnl.gov/main/publications/external/technical_reports/PNNL-20258.pdf Shelf Number: 127088 Keywords: Human Sexual ExploitationHuman SmugglingHuman Trafficking (Washington State, U.S.)Information SharingInter-Agency CollaborationTechnology |
Author: University of Washington. Jackson School of International Studies. Human Trafficking Taskforce Title: Human Trafficking: A Spotlight on Washington State Summary: The U.S. State Department’s (2005) estimates that between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States each year. However, since the passing of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) in 2000, only about 600 people nationwide, including 14 people in Washington State, have been certified as victims of human trafficking. This report seeks to address the reasons for this discrepancy and propose ways in which more victims can be found. In doing so, we examine the discourses that revolve around trafficking, the stakeholders who have the power and will to create change, the Federal and Washington State law and legislation and the potential for Washington State in public mobilization and political willpower as demonstrated through its groundbreaking anti-trafficking legislation. From there, we look at the ways in which trafficking operates through networks and industries. In doing so, we examine particular industries that contain characteristics that make them vulnerable to trafficking, including: the commercial sex industry, sweatshops, domestic work, agriculture, small businesses such as restaurants and hotels, international marriage brokers, and the international adoption industry. In addition, this report surveys the local community in order to assess the general public’s knowledge about trafficking. From this survey we draw a set of recommendations about what the content and audience should be for future campaigns. The result of our research has lead us to find five major factors that contribute to the discrepancy between the estimated number of trafficked persons and the number of trafficked persons who are either found or come forward. • The nature of trafficking as an underground institution makes it very difficult for victims to be found or come forward. • The complex elements of fear and cultural barriers that trafficked persons face also inhibit them from being found or coming forward. • The general public lacks awareness, misunderstands, or misrepresents the issue of human trafficking. • The limited way in which trafficking is framed within the law affects the number of victims found and the way victims are assisted. • There exist some weaknesses in government and service providing institutions that find and assist trafficked persons which include, but are not limited to, a lack of law enforcement training, cultural competency training, and sufficient funding for such programs. To address these challenges our task force recommends: 1. The creation of an anti-trafficking campaign that is aimed towards the general public, greater support of grassroots movement and cultural community involvement in the development of antitrafficking campaigns and in the Washington State Trafficking Task Force, and mandatory training about trafficking for civil servants and healthcare workers. 2. Addressing the demand side of trafficking. 3. Amending the S Visa, by not requiring individuals to waive their ability to contest deportation, and by providing an incentive to informants. 4. Greater collaboration between NGOs that aid trafficking victims and law firms in order to encourage more pro-bono civil suits to be filed against traffickers. 5. And, we propose the creation of a non-governmental organization in Washington State to cohesively and comprehensively address all the proposals and issues mentioned above through trainings, public awareness, direct service provision, and research and evaluation. Details: Seattle, WA: Jackson School of International Studies, 2006. 375p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 14, 2013 at: http://csde.washington.edu/~scurran/files/HumanTraffickingSpotlightonWashingtonState.pdf Year: 2006 Country: United States URL: http://csde.washington.edu/~scurran/files/HumanTraffickingSpotlightonWashingtonState.pdf Shelf Number: 127960 Keywords: Forced LaborHuman Trafficking (Washington State, U.S.)Illegal AdoptionsMarriage BrokersSex TraffickingSexual Exploitation |