Prevalence, Patterns, and Responses to Labor Trafficking in Southern California

Legislation passed in 2005 made all forms of human trafficking a felony and established civil and criminal penalties for forced labor in California. In the years since, lawmakers have largely focused efforts on targeting sex traffickers, protecting sexually exploited children and providing services to victims of sex trafficking. Less has been done to combat labor trafficking, which some experts believe is more widespread. An evidence-based estimate of the prevalence of human trafficking is needed within counties at the local level.

This project is a multi-methodological study that will provide a better understanding of the dynamics of labor trafficking within California counties, including the types of labor trafficking and locations where it is occurring, who is being trafficked (adults and/or children, U.S. citizens and/or foreign nationals), local responses to labor trafficking, and the experiences of trafficking survivors. This project is being conducted in three phases.

The first phase of the project was funded by the Royce Research Fellowship for Research on International Human Trafficking and a California State University, Fullerton’s Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity grant.  We interviewed service providers, local law enforcement officials, and other key stakeholders from two counties in Southern California to better understand the obstacles stakeholders confront when attempting to assess and address the issue. By speaking with a variety of stakeholders, we identify potential barriers as well as “best practices” or “what works” when combatting labor trafficking in their city and/or jurisdiction.

We are currently seeking funding for the second and third phases of the project. The second phase focuses on victims and survivors. We know little about the experience of labor trafficking from the victim/survivor perspective because few studies have incorporated interviews with victims.  An understanding of the issue from the perspective of lived experiences provides a unique opportunity to highlight the voices of those directly affected, which can better inform policy. The third phase of the project will be an analysis of social network data focusing particularly on the capacity of networks to facilitate labor trafficking in general and transnational labor trafficking specifically. Results from this project will provide a more comprehensive understanding of labor trafficking in Southern California, local and collaborative approaches to identifying and addressing the problem within cities, pathways into and out of labor trafficking victimization, as well as an understanding of the role of social networks in placing victims at risk.