March 20, 2019
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is hosting a workshop on Estimating the Prevalence of Human Trafficking in the U.S. sponsored by the HHS Office on Women's Health on April 8-9, 2019.
The workshop will bring together statisticians, survey methodologists, demographers and researchers who have studied this population, as well as public health and other experts who have experience with innovative data collection methods. The workshop will explore:
- Statistical methods successfully applied to estimating the prevalence of human trafficking in other countries, such as the UK and the Netherlands.
- Innovative methodologies applied to estimate the prevalence of human trafficking in specific areas of the U.S., including Texas, San Diego, and several major cities in the U.S.
- Sampling methods, including time location sampling and respondent driven sampling, which have been used to study other rare or hard-to-reach populations, such as homeless persons and people who use intravenous drugs.
- Definitional and measurement issues in estimating human trafficking through survey questions and administrative records systems.
- Methodological and ethical issues in attempting to estimate the prevalence of human trafficking in the U.S.