Final Research Paper

CJ 4880 – Proposal

Human Trafficking the New Immigration

2. Human trafficking is modern day slavery, a global phenomenon that is a spider’s web

of never ending trouble. Research has been extensive, studies and survey’s, in person interviews

of prosecutors, law enforcement, trafficking cases, etc. In pinpointing any new proposal it will

take precedence, past cases and studies will be reviewed and reflected over to find a new angle a

new proposal, theory, hypothesis, research design, and so forth. My theory is that band aids can

be applied and money and resources can be brought in, but like immigration my proposal is there

is no CLEAR ANSWER! At the heart of immigration and human trafficking are issues that

associate them with illegal activity, and as an American society the tatemae is that we resolve

issues and something will be done however the honne is we have dug ourselves a deep hole.

3. The research of several scholarly journals and online articles helped me realize my

original proposal had already been done through identification. I had the idea of sending out

surveys to various law enforcement agencies and also of doing phone or in person interviews to

help me really pinpoint what issues local law enforcement agents were really dealing with, but

again this had already been done. It would seem that the data collected, the results that were

published, the new insights, and the obvious glaring issues would lead to the benefit of society

and law enforcement but it did not. I’m not sure if my research will provide any new meaningful

answers but the question is if human trafficking is the new immigration? The purpose and

importance of this question is the clear something really needs to be done and we can no longer

ignore this issue. 10 million people being forced into slavery period, I don’t care who you are

that is a glaring issue in and of itself! Now the fact that we understand it’s this severe and still

can’t provide a real tangible solution just like immigration is a separate but just as large issue.

4. In coming to this conclusion I did literature review on four relevant studies that were

actually tied into my original proposal of law enforcement and it’s handling of human trafficking

crimes. The first study I came across was focused on “identification” of human trafficking cases

by local authorities, they interviewed prosecutors, police, and victim services in 12 of their local

counties. This helped me to see what had already been done by other researchers, and forced me

to think on a larger scale of what I could now propose. Policing Human Trafficking was a great

journal article and a great starting point in my reviews. Since the focus was on identification the

key points I took away were that law enforcement is aware of human trafficking but

identification is minimal. Most cases that are investigated are from tips in the community, and

majority are not investigated because agencies don’t know how. The obstacles that must be

overcome after this point are huge, because unless it relates to a minor being trafficked for sex

it’s normally not a priority then. Most agencies have other priorities that are more clearly

defined based off of the communities needs and the departments focus, if gang activity increases

in the community that now becomes law enforcements focus and so on. Now in tying this in

with my proposal I present the elephant in the room. When Americans or law enforcement think

of human trafficking or immigration they think of foreigners coming to our country illegally and

breaking the law. Since we view these victims as law breaking non-citizens the empathy is there

but not the tolerance and in extreme cases some feel they get what they deserve. So like

immigration you have groups and organizations that look to help the victims get back home or on

their feet in some manner but that does not stop human trafficking or immigration. The common

theme is the need and want for a better life, to have the same opportunities as Americans even if

it means breaking the law. Any of the four literature reviews that I pondered over all had the

same essence to them, money is there, resources are there, training is available, and the federal

government is doing something about this as are other countries. What I’m proposing is a new

view a new angle of the already obvious, that we can train our local agents, we can conduct

studies and interviews to see what the main issues are, we can try and learn from other countries,

we can pour more money into agencies on all levels and the list goes on but so far it’s money

being wasted because of the new issues that come with each of these. Example in Police Practice

& Research they identified that training and awareness is there but it isn’t effective. So this new

view is the fact that we have laws, we have study cases, we have all this knowledge and data and

still we haven’t even begun to penetrate this phenomenon. Immigration similarly has been at the

front of almost every presidential election and laws have been passed in states and progress has

been made however in Obama’s time in office estimates say that “2.5 million illegal immigrants”

came across the border many which live among us. So like human trafficking studies have been

done, data analysis has helped to make small improvements but overall it’s still happening and

will continue to happen.

The next literature review which had many similar points as the first stated that

farmworkers and advocates in North Carolina saw labor trafficking where on the other hand local

agencies were reluctant to participate or if they did said that labor trafficking didn’t happen in

North Carolina. This sentiment was shared in the prior review where it was estimated that

victims of labor and sex trafficking was in the millions in the US, Canada, and Western Europe

but local agencies only reported a few hundred cases. Another study which looked into the

future of human trafficking talked about possibly legalizing migration to decriminalize human

trafficking, and brought up many great ideas to possible resolving or help narrowing the focus on

other aspects of human trafficking but none seem like long term solutions. The studies of these

reviews and other articles online all describe the phenomenon and it’s characteristics in great

detail, and outline solid proposals but the results have shown that none have truly been effective.

The ambiguity we have as a result of all the studies conducted, leave us basically with great

concepts and ideas that are being implemented but the only result is that we are doing something

about it.

5. If I was to take this proposal and run with it, the hope would be that the proposal

opens everyone’s eyes to the reality that this problem is not going away. The uniqueness of my

proposal since it is comparative, would need to be distributed differently. Since a lot of focus

and attention is directed in to society’s needs and the popular opinion surveys would be

submitted to law enforcement agencies to see if this is a perception or idea that they can adapt,

and then use that to overcome by thinking outside of the box on possible solutions. Survey’s or

interviews can be submitted or done among the local public or among peers at work and school

to see if my proposals premise is something that can be supported, and feedback would be

collected to see how it can be addressed with this new realization. This new feedback would be

feasible because it’s a new idea that has not been explored, and accordingly will provide

different insight and thoughts on what can be done knowing that past research hasn’t worked or

been as effective as hoped.

6. The key variables in my question will be effected by the group or sample of

individuals I will send my survey out to or interview with. The answers provided will obviously

differ based on subjects’ feelings or thoughts on the matter, and again how big of a priority they

see it as or how big of an issue it is seen as. To best achieve measurements and data collection I

would use probability sampling with the stratified random sampling approach. This is a better

start since my sample size will start with local law enforcement agencies and my specific group

of peers and co-workers. The disadvantages don’t really concern me in this sample because the

advantages of having that more accurate sample will be more beneficial in seeing where I can

take my proposal to next and what ideas I can get from that. The weaknesses in using this

approach is that it’s group targeted and not indicative of societies view of human trafficking or

random individuals like I could have incorporated with random sampling. Cluster sampling

would be another approach I would use and could be as effective for me as stratified. I would

like to use this approach to because it’s one used in common studies but the weakness there is it

has been done before and I’m trying to show how my approach will stand out above what has

already been done. To minimize weaknesses and make my results credible, I can show the

subgroups that I select what has already been done and the results obtained from prior studies.

Being able to conduct interviews and surveys with a target population that has been targeted

before will be important because I can now say hey we’ve studied identification, we’ve studied

the laws on human trafficking, we’ve analyzed how society feels about it, how your agencies feel

about it, now what about this approach? The other weakness I see is that because it is a proposal

that doesn’t have clear results agencies can possibly pass it off as irrelevant and ignore survey’s

or follow up calls because it’s forcing them to act. My best resource would be by doing in

person interviews so that way there is no room for vagueness or confusion, or I could even

provide the survey while in person so if there is any misunderstanding I would be there to clarify

it. By doing in person interviews and expounding on the issues we already are aware of, I can

help produce more feasible steps that can be made moving forward. By saying hey human

trafficking is the new immigration, I’m addressing the fact that we have spent millions in trying

to do something about it like we have with immigration and yet we are achieving the same

results. We have made no great movements forward and money is being wasted, what the heck

are we going to do about it now! By controlling the variables and moving them forward in

another direction I can achieve a new result, I can say hey more research needs to be done on

issue A, B, C, D so forth let’s move forward because we can’t keep doing the same things we did

before.

7. Approval would not be needed in my paper, because the interviews and questions

would be done through ethical interview practices. It is my job to make sure that whoever I

interview or survey understands my purpose, by building trust and rapport this will help my

credibility and also reemphasize my intent on providing resourceful results. If consent is needed

it will be asked for beforehand to add to trustworthiness, and the confidentiality of any data

gathered will be handled by myself only and group if this topic is chosen moving forward. The

ethical issues I would have to be aware of is sensitivity on the topic of comparing illegal

immigration to human trafficking. The contexts are different because entering the country

illegally is not the same as being forced to have sex with someone or work against your will, but

helping participants understand my true purpose and what I plan to do with the results of my

research will be key. The studies being conducted besides the issue of context should not be in

violation of any ethical issues because the goal is to find a solution to a huge problem.

8. The timetable would be 6 months, the first 3 months would be used to complete

interview questions and surveys that can hit all the hot topics already covered by prior research.

Time to carefully plan on how the surveys will be disseminated, and coordinating with agencies

to set up these 1 on 1 interviews. Also, covered in the first 3 months will be the actual interviews

and surveys being sent out. In the final 3 months, the data gathered will be analyzed and the

group can now have time to write up a new proposal on how to move forward with these results.

So if the survey’s and interviews provide us with new insight on what we can do to implement an

action item for agencies this can be planned during the final 3 months and this will be our testing

stage moving forward. The timetable is reasonable because 6 months is more than enough time

to plan, coordinate, execute, and provide tangible results.

9. Farrell, Amy, and Rebecca Pfeffer. "Policing Human Trafficking: Cultural Blinders

and Organizational Barriers." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social

Science 653. (2014): 46-64. EconLit with Full Text. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

 Barrick, Kelle, et al. "When Farmworkers And Advocates See Trafficking But Law

Enforcement Does Not: Challenges In Identifying Labor Trafficking In North

Carolina." Crime, Law & Social Change 61.2 (2014): 205. Publisher Provided Full Text

Searching File. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

 Parmentier, Stephan. "Epilogue: Human Trafficking Seen From the Future." European

Journal of Criminology 7.1 (2010): 95-100. PsycINFO. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

 Grubb, Deborah, and Katherine Bennett. "The Readiness of Local Law Enforcement to

Engage In US Anti-Trafficking Efforts: An Assessment of Human Trafficking Training

and Awareness of Local, County, and State Law Enforcement Agencies in the State Of

Georgia." Police Practice & Research 13.6 (2012): 487-500. Academic Search Premier.

Web. 23 Apr. 2016.