Introduction
The 2016—2021 evaluation of the National Human Trafficking Hotline (NHTH) was conducted by RTI International through a contract from the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in collaboration with ACF’s Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP).
This brief provides detailed information regarding the demographics of the NHTH’s contactor population.
Purpose and Research Questions
The overall purpose of this project was to develop and execute an evaluation of the NHTH, with the following specific objectives of the evaluation:
- Describe the activities, procedures, and organization of the NHTH, including staff training, staff capacity, and service delivery.
- Describe the customer service of the NHTH.
- Describe the immediate outcomes of the NHTH, specifically regarding experiences of contactors.
Key Findings and Highlights
Contactors have multiple modes to choose from when reaching out to the NHTH, including phone call, email, online report, text chatbot, or webchat, though the ways in which contactors have accessed the hotline have varied over time. Most contactors (78.0%) who accessed the hotline did so via Hotline call, though the NHTH experienced a significant increase in SMS text contact from 2017 through 2018. This may be attributed to Polaris’ expansion of the NHTH’s confidential text services, which scaled up to become available 24/7 and in multiple languages by mid-2017.
Most contactors identified as female (55.1%) and noted English as their first language (75.5%). From 2013 through 2018, the hotline received contacts from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and all habited US territories, as well as international locations. Only a small proportion (9%) of incoming contacts were made anonymously.
The NHTH processes contacts from individuals with diverse identities, including individuals of all genders, language preferences, locations, and varied roles (e.g., potential victim of trafficking, community member, law enforcement). However, not all identities nor locations are represented equally throughout NHTH database records. It is possible that this is because 1) some individuals opted not to disclose all their identities to the NHTH, 2) these communities experience trafficking at lower rates, or 3) they are not aware of or do not feel comfortable using NHTH services. While missing data does not allow this evaluation to discern whether there are truly differential rates of NHTH utilization among these populations, the NHTH may consider bolstering their advertising within communities where they process fewer contacts (e.g., transgender or gender non-conforming individuals).
Methods
All evaluation data were collected by or in collaboration with the NHTH from 2016 through 2021. Eight data collection methods were used to inform the findings of the evaluation. Data collection methods, presented in the order in which they were collected, include:
- Review of NHTH database records
- Interviews with NHTH staff
- Interviews and focus groups with key NHTH partners
- Observational listening of NHTH contacts
- Case study interviews with law enforcement agencies receiving tips from the NHTH
- Assessment of the NHTH’s referral directory
- Case study of other similar national hotlines
- Follow-up survey with individuals contacting the NHTH
The primary data source for this brief is exports from the NHTH’s case-level database for all contacts processed by the hotline from 2013 through 2018 (N = 253,326 contacts). This brief is supplemented by case-level data for all contacts processed by the hotline from June 2020 through January 2021 (N = 54,328 contacts) as well as data collected through observational listening (N = 301 calls observed).
Citation
Feeney, Hannah, Charm, Samantha, Vollinger, Lauren, Hardison-Walters, Jennifer, and Kathleen Krieger (2023). Evaluation of the National Human Trafficking Hotline: Contactor Population Brief. OPRE Brief # 2023-221. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Glossary
- NHTH:
- National Human Trafficking Hotline
- Individuals who have experienced trafficking/survivor:
- These phrases will be used interchangeably to refer to individuals who are experiencing or have experienced human trafficking. At the time of data collection, the NHTH used the term “potential victim of trafficking” and thus, this phrasing may be present throughout the reports and briefs.
- Contactors:
- Individuals who have accessed the NHTH via phone, text, webchat, or email. Contactors may or may not be survivors of human trafficking. At times, when specifying contactors who connected with the NHTH via phone, the word “callers” may be used. The NHTH refers to contactors as signalers but endorsed the use of contactors for the purposes of this brief for increased clarity.
- Contacts:
- Contacts are the individual level calls, texts, webchats, or emails received by the NHTH.
- Cases:
- Contacts are stored at the case level, whereby a case represents all calls, texts, webchats, and emails received regarding a particular circumstance of sex or labor trafficking. For example, if two independent community members contact the NHTH with two separate tips regarding the same potential victim, both contacts will be placed in the same case.