Integrating Human Trafficking Data: A Case Study of Conceptual and Operational Variation in Ohio

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper describes the process and methods of integrating human trafficking data across agency record sources. This study focuses on the process of collecting and integrating comprehensive human trafficking data for research purposes. Using a case study framework for the state of Ohio, we first explore the variation in human trafficking definitions used across agencies and the implications for integrating data sources. Second, we describe how these disparate sources of data were integrated with the goal of estimating the prevalence of human trafficking. Third, we describe the need for conceptual and operational clarification in how agencies define and measure human trafficking victimization as we identified a lack of uniformity in definitions and variability in the types of measured items. In conducting this statewide prevalence study, we identified challenges to integrating agency record data across sources based on variation in definitions and variable inclusion which led to conceptual ambiguity. We offer three practical recommendations to improving conceptual and operational approaches to human trafficking measurement. In particular, attending carefully to the process of data collection can improve measurement to promote change in practice that facilitates more effective intervention.