Human Trafficking Research Lab @Millikin

The Human Trafficking Research Lab at Millikin invited to be a member of the Human Trafficking Working Group sponsored by the Illinois Human Services Department in 2024. This group was tasked with working on legislation SB2323 Illinois Statewide Trauma-Informed Response to Human Trafficking Act. We lobbied and filled out witness slips for the house and senate bills and the Governor will sign this bill into law in summer 2025. We were proud to serve on the statewide working group that wrote this legislation and our research is featured in this WAND News story ! Great news for survivors seeking justice in Illinois!

As I finish my Criminal Justice practicum in the Human Trafficking Research Lab, I have come to realize that human trafficking labs have a big impact on crime research and development. I realized from analyzing in Champaign County the data is that it can be complicated to identify possible trafficking cases however there where cases from 2017 of different forms of exploitation and solicitation. I also had to make possible conclusions of certain cases of possible trafficking, where these cases had a child unlawfully restrained and sexual abuse in these cases. This demonstrated that children are possible being restrained for exploitation which could be considered human trafficking. I am thankful for the opportunity to do research in the lab this semester. Devin Top

This semester in the Human Trafficking Research Lab has been busy. Earlier in the year, I attended a panel discussion on human trafficking and how police tackle the challenges and developments that they come across. I was representing the lab and informing people about the work that we do at Millikin. There were several police officers present as well as FBI agents who answered questions from Dr. Dean and students who came to watch. They talked about the implications of the new policies put into place by the Trump administration, and spoke on their experiences with fighting human trafficking.  Throughout the semester, we met in the human trafficking lab to discuss our work that we have done with data collection. We also learned from Dr. Dean about students who came before us, and the work that they did with the lab. The meetings were productive, and they taught me more about who supports the work we do. We met once every two weeks, and the meetings were small in size so that we cou...

I was at Cambridge University for the Conference on Baltic Studies in Europe las week and was able to visit a the Fitzwilliam Museum and their special exhibit Rise Up: Resistance, Revolution, and Abolition. The exhibit was really well done and I learned about slavery from the context of the United Kingdom especially in their colonies in the Caribbean and Africa. I also learned about abolitionist Olaudah Equiano who seemed similar to Fedrick Douglas from the American context as a formally enslaved person who write and spoke about their experiences. The exhibit also talked about the museum's connections to slavery which I felt was very appropriate in coming to terms with their colonial past.  I plan to use some of what I learned in my fall Human Trafficking class and am thankful for the opportunity to learn new things about the international abolition movement.

This semester I have been completing my criminal justice practicum at the Human Trafficking Research Lab examining cases from Champaign county in 2018 and 2017 in the court case database Clericus Magnus and in the local media. During my research I have found several cases of grooming which can meet the definition of human trafficking. In 2018 there was a case of a man convicted of both sexual offenses and grooming which means that alleged trafficker was attempting to persuade someone to do things against their will. Groomers commonly use social media and technology. Another case from 2018 that I located I found that the perpetrator was found guilty of soliciting a sexual act, as well as harassment through electronic communication and disorderly conduct. These actions can be classified as grooming and even stalking and have elements of human trafficking but were not charged as trafficking. In this research it is clear that parents need to monitor their children's online activities a...

Dr. Dean, Akeila, and I attended the Liberator Awards in Columbus, Ohio the last weekend in March. The Lab was a finalist in the student organization category. At the ceremony, we were seated next to two survivors and a woman who ran the resource housing for survivors for the HerSong organization. The survivors were very enthusiastic to share some of their stories with us. Currently, they are both pursuing degrees in social work. We asked about their opinion of criminalization of sex work. They both agreed that their arrests and time spent in jail and prison was the leading factor in getting them away from their traffickers. Additionally, there is a program specifically in Ohio that serves in rehabilitation and services for individuals with substance abuse disorder and may be facing trafficking. More information on the program can be found here .  Maggie Schrage

Our new Human Trafficking Research Lab Impact Report for 2025 is here! We updated a lot of the information with over 55,000 visits to our blog (as of today), lots of trainings with local community members, and more money raised to support my students' salaries. We added a section on our research awards and then updated findings from our current research projects. I always enjoy compiling these numbers and updates because it shows just how much we do every year and with small incremental changes it is often difficult to see all of our accomplishments. Thanks to everyone for their support of the HTRL over the years, we couldn't do it without you!