Collection, Storage, and Use of Client Data: Considerations and Recommendations for Human Trafficking Service Providers

Abstract

ABSTRACT We are a team of university-based researchers who have decades of experience collaborating with multiple community-based human trafficking (HT), domestic violence, and sexual violence programs on research projects. In this paper, we provide recommendations for HT agencies on routine data collection, storage, and use based on our insights from working closely with multiple community-based HT service provider agencies. In this opinion piece, we consider important questions that HT programs face related to data. We present our recommendations as they pertain to three main challenges: (1) Which data to collect, and how; (2) How to store data; and (3) How to analyze data. We include a list of nine routine data elements that HT service providers may prioritize for data collection, a table with eight actionable recommendations, and a short glossary of program monitoring and evaluation terms. The article makes a pragmatic contribution to best practices in HT provider operations and therefore has implications for administrators of HT programs, data personnel at HT programs, and policies related to data, information, technology, and safety for HT program service provision.