Date of Graduation

12-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Sociology and Criminology

Advisor/Mentor

Shields, Christopher

Committee Member/Reader

Paez-Ritter, Rocio

Committee Member/Second Reader

Robinson, Samantha

Committee Member/Third Reader

Aloia, Lindsey

Abstract

This paper examines the occurrence of different types of physical and non-physical force factors with two distinct human trafficking industries: sex trafficking and labor trafficking. This research’s main goal is to identify if there are specific uses of force that are more likely to be used in either sex or labor trafficking. The Human Trafficking Study, a database housed at the University of Arkansas, is used as a sample for this study. Two-sided, two sample proportion tests were conducted to establish if there is a statistical significance between the amount of physical force used in sex trafficking and the amount of physical force used in labor trafficking. The same test was conducted for non-physical force. Then, two-sided, two sample proportion tests were run on each individual type of physical and non-physical force factors to see if there are variables that are more likely to occur in a specific industry of human trafficking.

It was found that out of the total 808 sex trafficking cases within the database, 50.37% of the cases included some sort of physical force. Out of the 126 labor trafficking cases, 43.65% of cases had an act of physical force occur. Several variables where a significant difference was found between sex and labor trafficking cases were the occurrence of Beating/Assault/Physical Abuse, Forced Sex, Physical abuse of a family member, and Sexual assault, Torture, and others. Overall, the findings of this study can have many great implications for the future of human trafficking detection and intervention by helping aid law enforcement, health professionals, and individuals within society in discovering victims.

Keywords

human trafficking; sex trafficking; labor trafficking; physical force; non-physical force

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