The research study described here had the goal of understanding what has worked in five U.S. regions that have demonstrated innovation in identifying and responding to labor trafficking cases; it lays out the study’s participants, objectives, design, and key findings.
This document reports on efforts to understand what five U.S. regions that have demonstrated innovation to identify and respond to labor trafficking cases, and identifies the critical role of federal, state, and municipal departments of labor (DOLs) and other regulatory agencies on improving the local and state response to labor trafficking. Guiding research questions were: if there were patterns in the characteristics of labor trafficking cases that were identified by law enforcement at the state and local level; how the identification and investigation of labor trafficking cases differed from that of sex trafficking in regards to case characteristics, collaboration within and among agencies, case resolutions, and case outcomes; and what were the features of successful labor trafficking investigations. The document discusses study participants, study objectives and design, and key findings. The authors also provide recommendations for DOLs, other civil labor regulatory agencies, and non-DOL members of the anti-trafficking community.