Data Collection

Last edited: January 26, 2011

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Drafters should incorporate provisions into the sex trafficking law to collect and disseminate data on a regular basis. The Polaris Project Model Comprehensive State Legislation to Combat Trafficking in Persons recommends that federal, state and local governments:

  • In cooperation with other appropriate authorities, collect and periodically publish statistical data on trafficking;
  • Elicit the cooperation and assistance of other government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and other elements of civil society as appropriate to assist in the data collection required under the law;
  • Make best efforts to collect information relevant to tracking progress on trafficking, including but not limited to:

o   Numbers of investigations, arrests, prosecutions, and successful convictions of traffickers and those committing trafficking-related crimes (pimping, pandering, procuring, maintaining a brothel, child pornography, visa fraud, document fraud, and other crimes related to trafficking);

o   The estimated number and demographic characteristics of persons engaged in violations of the criminal provisions defined in subsection 1.2 of this article as well as persons who purchase or receive commercial sex acts or sexually-explicit performances, or labor or services, performed by victims of trafficking in persons;

o   Statistics on the number of victims, including nationality, age, method of recruitment, and city, state and country of origin;

o   Trafficking routes and patterns (states or countries of origin, transit states or countries, and destination states or countries);

o   Methods of transportation (car, boat, plane, foot), if any transportation took place; and

o   Social and economic factors that contribute to and foster the demand for all forms of exploitation of persons that lead to trafficking.

(See: UNODC Model Law Against Trafficking in Persons, Art. 27, 2009;Polaris Project Model Comprehensive State Legislation to Combat Trafficking in Persons, 2.2, 2006; Model Provisions for State Anti-Trafficking Laws, Center for Women and Public Policy, Mandating a Statewide Assessment Proposed Language, 12, 2005; State Model Law on Protection for Victims of Human Trafficking, Division F, Section 4, 2005)

Data collection should also include statistics and information on demand and efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sexual exploitation.

Tool:

Enhancing Capacities to Eradicate Violence Against Women is a guide to help countries and regional partnerships develop enhanced data collection and surveys to gather information about violence against women. (UN Regional Commissions, 2013).

 

Promising Practice:

In 2013, the European Union published the working paper, Trafficking in human beings. The publication includes data from all of the European Union Member States and Iceland, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey. It is the first report at the European Union level on trafficking in persons. The data included in the report was collected from a number of sources, including civil society, from 2008-2010. The report includes statistics on the number of victims disaggregated by gender, age, and form of exploitation, as well as information on the benefits or other assistance received. The report also includes statistical information on suspected, prosecuted and convicted traffickers.

The working paper notes that the data will aid in the strategic approach to combat the trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation in the European Union and assess effective strategies across the European Union. (See: Trafficking in human beings, Eurostat, European Union, 2013)