Research is an integral vehicle for enhancing the U.S. Government’s understanding of the multifaceted nature of human trafficking or modern slavery, and for guiding its countertrafficking policies and programs. Research has also led the anti-trafficking community to rethink existing assumptions about human trafficking and examine new countertrafficking approaches.
The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons supports evidence-based research that suggests effective strategies for combating the crime and highlighting successes among countertrafficking strategies. In an effort to be transparent and share the growing body of research on human trafficking, the Office has compiled information on research funded across the U.S. Government.
Over the last decade, the U.S. Government has funded research focused on labor and sex trafficking, and in every global area. There has been research on a myriad of topics related to human trafficking, including victim services delivery, law enforcement actions, and prevention methods. There have also been significant research evaluation studies to measure program effectiveness, impact, and potential for replication. Research has begun to make inroads and close knowledge gaps. For example, Department of Justice funded research has begun to track trafficking within the United States and uncovered the most effective techniques for finding victims and improving law enforcement responses to these victims. The Department of State, for example, has funded IOM’s Global Database on Human Trafficking leading to greater analysis of evolving trends such as growing recognition of trafficking of men, greater identification of an older victim population, and increased forced labor cases.
The U.S. Government continues to fund individuals and organizations through grants to conduct research. See a chart of all U.S. Government funded research. To find out more information on a specific research report, please see the research links found in the chart or contact the authors directly.
U.S. Government agencies periodically seek proposals from qualified U.S. organizations, researchers, and academic institutions to conduct research on modern slavery. Grants.gov has the latest information on any request for grant proposals, including research proposals, and information on the grant application process.
