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These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

This study measures the size and structure of the underground commercial sex economy in eight major US cities: San Diego, Seattle, Dallas, Denver, Washington, DC, Kansas City, Atlanta, and Miami. The goals of this study were to derive a more rigorous estimate of the underground commercial sex economy (UCSE) in eight major US cities and to provide an understanding of the structure of this underground economy.

Researchers relied on a multi-method approach using both qualitative and quantitative data to estimate the size of UCSE including:

1. Collecting official data on crime related to the underground weapons and drugs economies
2. Conducting semi-structured interviews with convicted traffickers, pimps, child pornographers, and sex workers at the federal, state, and local levels
3. Conducting semi-structured interviews with local and federal police investigators and prosecutors to inform our analysis of the interrelationship across different types of underground commercial sex activity.

Recent research has identified numerous challenges facing victims of labor trafficking in the U.S. (Owens, et al., 2014; Brennan, 2014). Most of the research on labor trafficking occurring in the U.S., however, has focused on the experiences of non-citizen and foreign national victims. There are many reasons to suspect that labor trafficking victimization occurs among U.S. citizens, although the identification of this phenomenon has been difficult. For example, the homeless and those with insecure housing, individuals with intellectual and physical disability, low-wage and transitional workers, and those working in illicit economic markets or within sexualized labor services are anticipated to be at higher risk for labor trafficking victimization.

In this exploratory mixed-methods study, the research team answered four main questions to help illuminate the phenomenon of labor trafficking of U.S. citizens.

1. What are the personal, economic, or structural vulnerabilities that put U.S. citizens at risk for labor trafficking?
2. What does labor trafficking looks like for U.S. citizens and where does it fall on a continuum of labor exploitation?
3. How are U.S. citizens recruited into, move to, experience, and escape from labor trafficking victimization?
4. How do U.S. citizen labor trafficking victims seek help or exit exploitative labor situations?

These questions were answered through surveys with individuals at high risk for labor trafficking victimization across four U.S. sites (n=240), individual interviews with a subsample of survey respondents (n=27), and interviews with service providers (n=20). The surveyed population were citizens who were born in the U.S., those who were naturalized citizens at the time of their victimization, and legal permanent residents. The sampling strategy relied on several snowball and purposive sampling techniques and were developed in partnership with social service agencies, government agencies, and community contacts with knowledge of or contact with labor trafficking in each of the sites. As such, the study was not designed to generate prevalence estimation or to claim any representativeness of labor trafficking violations among U.S. citizens.

This collection only includes the quantitative survey data. Qualitative interview data are not available.

This project examined the role of technology use in teen dating violence and abuse, and bullying. The goal of the project was to expand knowledge about the types of abuse experiences youth have, the extent of victimization and perpetration via technology and new media (e.g., social networking sites, texting on cellular phones), and how the experience of such cyber abuse within teen dating relationships or through bullying relates to other life factors.

This project carried out a multi-state study of teen dating violence and abuse, and bullying, the main component of which included a survey of youth from ten schools in five school districts in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, gathering information from 5,647 youth about their experiences. The study employed a cross-sectional, survey research design, collecting data via a paper-pencil survey. The survey targeted all youth who attended school on a single day and achieved an 84 percent response rate.

Although researchers have begun to piece together a picture of the characteristics of vulnerable individuals, participating industries, and exploitative practices that may lead to labor trafficking, few studies have systematically reviewed labor trafficking cases known to victim service providers and law enforcement officials in the United States. As a result, little is known about the phenomenon of labor trafficking and the illicit networks that support it.

For example, it is not known if those networks that facilitate certain types of labor exploitation also facilitate certain types of labor trafficking. This study seeks to address these gaps in knowledge by providing foundational information about labor trafficking victimization and the illicit networks that facilitate it across a range of industries.

This study was guided by three research questions:

1. What is the nature of the labor trafficking victimization experience in the United States?
2. How are domestic and international labor trafficking syndicates operating in the United States organized? Who are the traffickers, and what is their connection to other illicit networks that help facilitate labor trafficking operations?
3. What are the challenges of law enforcement agents investigating labor trafficking cases identified by victim service providers? Why are so few identified labor trafficking cases investigated by law enforcement and prosecuted?