ABSTRACT
The emergence of human trafficking as an international, national, and local crime prompted interest among criminology researchers in human trafficking and its intersections with the criminal justice system. This chapter aims to underscore research strategies employed by criminology researchers to gain greater understanding of sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Over the past decade, researchers have conducted community and criminal justice assessments, interviewed hundreds of street youth entangled in criminal environments, and reviewed case records in order to expose the nature of the problem. Advancing beyond descriptive typologies, criminology researchers have employed multivariate analyses to investigate correlates and causes of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Unique contributions of criminology research include challenging societal illusions of the “ideal victim” and exposing complicated victim–offender dynamics that often impede police intervention and hinder prosecutions. Although considered a new subfield, criminology research on sexual exploitation and trafficking has produced research that has informed prevention, legislation, and policy.
