Abstract
Erin Heil and Andrea Nichols take on a timely topic in their study of human trafficking in the Midwest. They focus on St. Louis and the bi-state area (Illinois and Missouri) to examine labor and sex trafficking. Additionally, they discuss the challenges associated with the policing human trafficking as well as the social services available to trafficking victims. Both Heil and Nichols have extensive experience researching human trafficking. Heil regularly participates in human trafficking conferences, public forums, and training events and Nichols focuses on practitioner-oriented research, making them uniquely experienced to approach this topic.
To examine human trafficking, Heil and Nichols interviewed 31 respondents, consisting of victims, criminal justice system professionals, and social service providers. The criminal justice system professionals and social service providers represent 16 different organizations from St. Louis and the bi-state area under study, ranging from law enforcement organizations, legal services, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and various social service organizations, including rescue organizations and shelters. Their research offers a new perspective on human trafficking by examining it from a multidisciplinary perspective of sociology, criminology, and political science. Further, while many studies focus on sex trafficking only, they include labor trafficking, which is another pervasive, but misunderstood, problem in the area.
The introduction contains an extensive, and necessary, discussion of the definitions of trafficking. As Heil and Nichols assert, there is not one universally accepted definition of trafficking. Each state and the federal government vary in their definitions of trafficking, thus they allowed for case-by-case interpretation by the interviewees in defining human trafficking. The authors also discuss the terms used to describe those who have experienced trafficking, discussing the merits of referring to them as “victims” or “survivors” (and ultimately using those terms interchangeably) as well as the term “modern-day slavery.” They correctly identify the use of the term modern-day slavery to describe human trafficking as controversial, debated by academic and policy makers. Further, the authors themselves have differing views of the use of this term. Their discussion of each of their views on using modern-day slavery to describe human trafficking is a bit problematic, and the back and forth leaves the reader unclear on where either of them stand on the issue.
In each of the seven chapters, the authors use the words from victims, criminal justice system officials, and social service providers to illustrate the issues surrounding human trafficking. The first type of trafficking that is explored is labor trafficking. As Heil and Nichols explain, labor trafficking is often misunderstood and misidentified. Through their interviews, they learned that labor trafficking is not actively being investigated by police, that policy makers are not considering labor trafficking when creating legislation to address human trafficking, and that social service providers have limited resources to serve trafficking victims. Further, they illustrate the fact that when people hear the term “human trafficking,” they almost always think of sex trafficking, rendering labor trafficking victims essentially ignored or invisible. Their interviews with victims of labor trafficking, as well as social service providers who work with these victims, highlight the very real problem of labor trafficking in the St. Louis and the surrounding area. Although this study focused only on two states and was limited in its geographic scope, one can assume that labor trafficking is a pervasive problem nationwide, especially in areas with a focus on agricultural and farming.
The sex trafficking discussion presents a thorough review of the nature, prevalence, and risk factors associated with sex trafficking, interspersed with quotes from victims, law enforcement officers, and social service providers. The quotes highlight the issues surrounding sex trafficking as well as discuss the misconceptions that many hold about sex trafficking. Of particular note is that many people envision young women and girls held physically captive, often held in chains, when they think of or see images depicting sex trafficking. Rather, victims indicated that it was more likely the victims were under the psychological control rather than the physical control of their captors. This chapter also went into a great deal of discussion recruitment techniques for traffickers and how they operate.
The remaining chapters focus on the response to human trafficking—police, community, and social service provider. Of interesting note is the difference in attitudes between federal law enforcement officers and state and local officers. Because many trafficking cases are federal cases, federal officers have very different views and attitudes on trafficking than state and local officers. This is problematic, as state and local officers are the first responders in trafficking cases. Further, without proper training and understanding of the issue, it is difficult for local officers to recognize and respond to trafficking effectively. The authors conclude with a discussion of the implications of their research for law enforcement, the community, social service providers, and legislators. They make a number of recommendations as well as recognizing the promising efforts that are occurring as a response to trafficking. Ultimately, they argue that the focus must shift to what we can do better to address human trafficking in all manifestations.
Heil and Nichols provide an insightful and through examination into human trafficking in the St. Louis and bi-state area. Although their research is, admittedly, limited in that it focuses on one relatively small geographic area, it adds to the limited body of research on sex trafficking by examining it through a multidisciplinary lens, while also recognizing the different parties involved in responding to and addressing trafficking. Future research should continue to explore this issue across the United States.