Article Review: Human Trafficking
Michael Byrnes
2/27/15
CCJ 3701 Human trafficking is essentially the latest form of slavery. It has developed into one of the largest and most dangerous illegal enterprises in the United States and yet it is still one of the least discussed. The article “Hidden in Plain Sight: Challenges to Identifying, Investigating, and Prosecuting Human Trafficking” examines exactly why human trafficking tends to go under the radar of the general public. It is estimated that there are millions of victims of human trafficking worldwide yet there is no way to know for sure just how many people are victims of this crime due to all of the difficulties in identifying victims. This has led to the United States, in recent years, …show more content…
The article states that in 2013 the U.S. only prosecuted 253 people for human trafficking (Farrell & McDevitt, 2014). That number is very low considering the number of victims that there are estimated to be around the globe and inside the United States. The low number of prosecutions led to studies being conducted to ensure that law enforcement officers were recognizing human trafficking and properly enforcing the law. These studies revealed that, in fact, law enforcement officers were not properly aware of the issues of human trafficking (Farrell & McDevitt, 2014). This led the article’s authors, Amy Farrell and Jack McDevitt to analyze a sample of 140 closed trafficking cases in 12 different counties and conduct interviews with those who participated in the arrests and prosecution of the defendants in those cases. Their study revealed that 86% of all cases of human trafficking identified by officers were found to be sex trafficking cases. Labor trafficking represented only 9% of cases and both labor and sex trafficking represented 5% of all identified cases. 89% of the victims that were identified were female (Farrell & McDevitt, 2014). What this research conducted by the authors reveals is that officers are stereotyping what human trafficking is. Officers appear to believe human trafficking is generally just women who are …show more content…
The article identified an issue (human trafficking being under enforced) and sought to examine exactly why that was the case. The study conducted by the authors, Amy Farrell and Jack McDevitt, analyzed 140 closed cases of human trafficking and sought to discover how those cases were recognized and eventually resolved. As the first two chapters of the text for this course describe, they developed an observational experiment to get to the bottom of why human trafficking frequently goes unnoticed and what exactly officers are looking for that makes many cases of human trafficking go unnoticed. Since Farrell and McDevitt did not conduct a physical experiment and since they examined only closed cases they avoided any possible ethical issues regarding harming or deceiving their subjects. In addition, given that only 13% of all cases were investigated due to victims or their families reporting the crime and that officers generally (86% of the time) only recognized sex trafficking cases or cases (89% of the time) involving females it appears that Farrell and McDevitt’s conclusion is a valid conclusion. Their conclusion essentially stated that many cases of human trafficking go unnoticed because of a failure of victims to report themselves as victims (13% in Farrell and McDevitt’s study) and a failure of law enforcement to properly recognize human trafficking (86%
Michael Byrnes
2/27/15
CCJ 3701 Human trafficking is essentially the latest form of slavery. It has developed into one of the largest and most dangerous illegal enterprises in the United States and yet it is still one of the least discussed. The article “Hidden in Plain Sight: Challenges to Identifying, Investigating, and Prosecuting Human Trafficking” examines exactly why human trafficking tends to go under the radar of the general public. It is estimated that there are millions of victims of human trafficking worldwide yet there is no way to know for sure just how many people are victims of this crime due to all of the difficulties in identifying victims. This has led to the United States, in recent years, …show more content…
The article states that in 2013 the U.S. only prosecuted 253 people for human trafficking (Farrell & McDevitt, 2014). That number is very low considering the number of victims that there are estimated to be around the globe and inside the United States. The low number of prosecutions led to studies being conducted to ensure that law enforcement officers were recognizing human trafficking and properly enforcing the law. These studies revealed that, in fact, law enforcement officers were not properly aware of the issues of human trafficking (Farrell & McDevitt, 2014). This led the article’s authors, Amy Farrell and Jack McDevitt to analyze a sample of 140 closed trafficking cases in 12 different counties and conduct interviews with those who participated in the arrests and prosecution of the defendants in those cases. Their study revealed that 86% of all cases of human trafficking identified by officers were found to be sex trafficking cases. Labor trafficking represented only 9% of cases and both labor and sex trafficking represented 5% of all identified cases. 89% of the victims that were identified were female (Farrell & McDevitt, 2014). What this research conducted by the authors reveals is that officers are stereotyping what human trafficking is. Officers appear to believe human trafficking is generally just women who are …show more content…
The article identified an issue (human trafficking being under enforced) and sought to examine exactly why that was the case. The study conducted by the authors, Amy Farrell and Jack McDevitt, analyzed 140 closed cases of human trafficking and sought to discover how those cases were recognized and eventually resolved. As the first two chapters of the text for this course describe, they developed an observational experiment to get to the bottom of why human trafficking frequently goes unnoticed and what exactly officers are looking for that makes many cases of human trafficking go unnoticed. Since Farrell and McDevitt did not conduct a physical experiment and since they examined only closed cases they avoided any possible ethical issues regarding harming or deceiving their subjects. In addition, given that only 13% of all cases were investigated due to victims or their families reporting the crime and that officers generally (86% of the time) only recognized sex trafficking cases or cases (89% of the time) involving females it appears that Farrell and McDevitt’s conclusion is a valid conclusion. Their conclusion essentially stated that many cases of human trafficking go unnoticed because of a failure of victims to report themselves as victims (13% in Farrell and McDevitt’s study) and a failure of law enforcement to properly recognize human trafficking (86%