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The Human Trafficking Research Lab (HTRL) at Millikin University was established in 2018 to transform undergraduate performance learning projects into cutting edge human trafficking research. The HTRL team at Millikin University conducts policy relevant research on human trafficking within the United States and internationally. We are the only undergraduate research lab focused on human trafficking in the state of Illinois and one of a handful in the entire United States, making this applied research experience truly unique for Millikin students. Through the  Human Trafficking Research Lab,  we formulate human trafficking research at Millikin by training students to collect, analyze, and write up data results and disseminate these findings to the academic and local community. At Millikin University, our mission is to prepare students for professional success, democratic citizenship in a global environment, and a personal life of meaning and value and the HTRL@Millikin builds on t
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CIHTTF Final Survey Assessment

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  As part of our final grant requirements with the Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force we are working on our final report documenting task force efforts. The final assessment will examine the performance of the taskforce over the grant period and our impact on Central Illinois in compliance with ECM goals. We will discuss the characteristics of human trafficking in Central Illinois and determine how we can use these data to strengthen and combat these trends through the task force in our region. We will investigate questions about task force needs; key geographic, demographic, and industry-specific vulnerabilities; effective prosecution tactics; and effective organizational strategies. In doing this we would like to assess the performance of the taskforce, identify potential areas of the community where sex and labor trafficking may be occurring, and areas for task force improvements.  Then we will supplement this survey data with the CIHTTF Facebook engagement data, CIHTTF w
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Talks around Town

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After getting back from Ukraine I had about a week break to recuperate before I was out giving talks online in my home state of Minnesota talking to a colleagues class at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University about my recent trip to Ukraine, human trafficking, and conducting research during war. The students gathered a list of almost 40 questions for me based on an article I wrote on human trafficking and Russia's war in Ukraine. It was a great opportunity to talk about my trip and share my experiences good and bad about conducting research during war. Then on Wednesday one of my students and I went to give a talk about the Millikin Alumni House to our local PEO Chapter. The P.E.O. Sisterhood is a U.S.-based international women's organization with a primary focus on providing educational opportunities for female students. I spoke about human trafficking in Central Illinois and my student learned more about how I give talks about the lab. It was interesti
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More Research Assistants in the Lab

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Recently, there has been a lot of interest in working in the lab as a research assistant which is great but sadly I can't take everyone! Now we have five research assistants working on three different projects (you can read their bios in our team members section here ). So, I decided that it would be good to track the different tasks how I track other tasks on my to do list with post-it notes. So I bought giant ones to go on the chalk board in the lab to help keep track of all the things we are working on and chart our progress during lab meetings. We will see how well it works when we are all gone for the summer but now every student has a giant post-it and we check things off when they complete them! Looking forward to charting so much productivity!
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Revising our Social Construction Article

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The most gratifying moments in the research process occur when submitting a paper, knowing the tremendous effort it took to accomplish. However, the most nerve-wracking part comes when you receive the reviews back from editors. Comments are typically specific, but occasionally they can be general, necessitating changes in sentence structure or underlying ideas. Personally, the most challenging aspect of working on revise and resubmit was sharing and accepting changes regarding the statements made in the research, as I believe they represent findings encountered through the thought process. After receiving comments from editors, Dr. Dean and I had to revisit the paper to ensure all comments were addressed. We met to map out revisions for our social construction article and created a 34 point revision to do list based on reviewer comments so we can track our progress. However, I find that once you release the initial tension, it becomes easier to work through the comments, and some of th
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WSOY Byers & Co Interview about Trip to Ukraine

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I spent my spring break in Ukraine this year conducting interviews with anti-trafficking organizations for our NSF funded project. I was really surprised at how often the air raid sirens sounded in every city I was in and the complete deluge of Russian bombs that fell on Ukraine every single day. The only thing that protected me and Ukrainians were air defense systems that are in low supply due to political games in Washington D.C. This is why when I was asked to go on the WSOY radio Now Decatur to talk about my trip and research I jumped at the opportunity. In the interview posted below I discuss my experience traveling to Ukraine and our research project exploring human trafficking recruitment dynamics during Russia's war on Ukraine.   
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Fieldwork in Ukraine

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I spent the last two weeks in Ukraine conducting interviews around Ukraine with anti-trafficking organizations as part of our NSF funded project on human trafficking recruitment during war. I was thankful for the opportunity to go but was astonished at just how frequent the air raid sirens sounded, often disrupting my daily activities and a good nights sleep. I was in Ukraine for 16 days and every day it was a constant deluge of Russian missiles across Ukraine, the extent to which is not covered in the US media. The only thing that protected us were air defense systems that shot down many but not all incoming missiles and civilians still died every day across Ukraine due to Russian bombs. One of the most anxiety producing elements of it was a channel on telegram where you could see what was being fired at you, things like MiGs, shahed drones, iskander missiles etc. When I was in Kyiv we had a massive attack one night with over 30 missiles taken down by Ukrainian air defense including c
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Human Trafficking Related Arrests in Danville

The Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) Trafficking Enforcement Bureau of Illinois State Police have been conducting sting operations throughout Central Illinois focused on identifying individuals seeking to engage in commercial sex acts. On February 28th, 2024,  they conducted one in the Danville region and My #HumanTrafficking Research Lab assistants and I  were asked to go on our local WAND News to talk about it and relate it to our research. The segment was called "Researchers at Millikin explain how human trafficking is a local issue" and you can watch it  here. The five people arrested were charged with Indecent Solicitation/Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse of a Child, which is a Class 3 Felony, and Traveling to Meet a Child, alongside Solicitation to Meet a Child, listed as a Class 4 Felony. We have been combing through this type of arrest data to see how human trafficking has been charged in Central Illinois since 2010 and it was really interesting to learn how t
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