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Using Law Enforcement Data in Trafficking Research

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The Palgrave International Handbook of Human Trafficking

Abstract

Law enforcement data are a promising and largely untapped resource for academic research into human trafficking. Better use of such data can help inform and expand an evidence-based approach to counter-trafficking policy and practice. Authored by academics and a senior law enforcement practitioner, this chapter provides rare and important insights into the theoretical, practical, legal, and ethical considerations around using law enforcement data in human trafficking research. Its discussions should prove useful to researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers interested in understanding and tackling human trafficking more effectively. The chapter begins with a critical appraisal of the human trafficking literature, highlighting particular gaps, imbalances, and weaknesses. The stage is then set to explore the utility and applications of a long-neglected but empirically rich source of data on human trafficking: those that law enforcement agencies generate and/or hold. The limitations of law enforcement data are made explicit, and their benefits are explored, with reference to relevant human trafficking studies and innovative research into other crimes. Key considerations are addressed around the actual process of using law enforcement data, drawing on the authors’ experiences as researchers and a research enabler and a data provider. This section is informed in particular by four recent human trafficking studies in which the authors were involved, all of which used sensitive and hard-to-access law enforcement data. These innovative studies spanned both small- and large-scale datasets; qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method enquiries; internal and international trafficking movements; and some of the main variants of human trafficking: sex trafficking, trafficking for domestic servitude, and labor trafficking across diverse licit and illicit labor markets.

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Acknowledgments

The following agencies’ invaluable contributions to the research in the case studies are gratefully acknowledged: Bedfordshire Constabulary; Derbyshire Constabulary; Gloucestershire Constabulary; Greater Manchester Police; Hampshire Constabulary; Lancashire Constabulary; South Yorkshire Police; West Mercia Police; Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service; and the National Crime Agency. We are also grateful to our section editor, Masja van Meeteren, for her insightful comments on an earlier draft. Our final thanks go to the studies’ funders: the Engineering and Physical Research Council (EPSRC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). This chapter was written under Ella Cockbain’s ESRC Future Research Leaders Fellowship (grant reference: ES/K008463/1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Security and Crime Science, University College London (UCL), London, UK

    Ella Cockbain & Kate Bowers

  2. Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Unit, National Crime Agency, London, UK

    Liam Vernon

Authors
  1. Ella Cockbain
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  2. Kate Bowers
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  3. Liam Vernon
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ella Cockbain .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Mount Royal University , Calgary, AB, Canada

    John A. Winterdyk

  2. Bristol Law School, UWE , Bristol, UK

    Jackie Jones

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Cockbain, E., Bowers, K., Vernon, L. (2019). Using Law Enforcement Data in Trafficking Research. In: Winterdyk, J., Jones, J. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Human Trafficking. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63192-9_100-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63192-9_100-1

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