Human Trafficking Research Lab @Millikin

Everything is coming together for our eighth annual panel discussion for Human Trafficking Prevention Month titled “Policing Human Trafficking: Development and Challenges.” The panel will be on Wednesday, January 29, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. in Ballroom A/B of the University Commons at Millikin University and will round out events held around the United States for Human Trafficking Prevention Month 2025. This panel discussion will feature law enforcement entities on the federal and state levels from around Central Illinois and will discuss the challenges and opportunities law enforcement faces in policing sex and labor trafficking and the implications of this policing on survivors and victims in our region. Panel members will include:  • Eric V. Bowers, Resident Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations • Christopher JS Johnson, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation • Lt. Brandon Grzechowiak, Division of Criminal Investigation–Investigative Support Command, Tra...

In review of the Fall 2024 semester, my focus was on composing data briefs in order to show the work of the Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force over the recent years. First, I created the “Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force Training Survey Results: 2022” that included the total number of trainings, number of individuals trained, hours of training, the dispersion of who hosted the trainings, what group of people that the trainings were marketed for, and the distribution of where the trainings occurred throughout the entire year. Additionally, I created the “Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force Training Survey Results: 2023” that included the same breakdown of statistics as the 2022 brief. Following this, I used the “Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force Training Results” from 2020 to 2023 to create the summary brief known as the “Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force Training Survey Results: 2020-2023” in order to show how much work has been...

As the semester, along with my time at Millikin, comes to a close, I am able to reflect upon my internship in the Human Trafficking Research Lab. I have been fortunate to experience many different endeavors which have helped with both personal and professional development.  My favorite part of interning in the lab has been working on presentations within the community. I have learned a lot about trafficking while co-presenting with Dr. Dean. We have presented for the P.E.O. Chapter at Millikin University, to Decatur Public School District 61 high school leaders, to Millikin nursing students, to Growing Strong Sexual Assault Center, and to Decatur Public School District 61 security staff. I hope to continue presentations after I graduate and to collaborate with the research lab. I reached all of my presentation goals set at the beginning of the semester, aside from connecting with the Decatur Police Department, which I hope to have the opportunity to do down the line. I have also ha...

Today, I was afforded the opportunity to engage in an educational presentation on human trafficking to Growing Strong Sexual Assault Center in Decatur, IL. When I began my internship, I was asked to think of some places I would like to train. Growing Strong was an organization I had in mind and a high priority, as I support their causes and know they are likely serving individuals who are being or who have been trafficked. It is common that social service organizations are serving victims/survivors of human trafficking and do not know how to fully recognize the signs. I reached out to the director and was pleased that she was immediately interested in scheduling a time to present. We decided to invite Jessica Spelman with the Center for Prevention of Abuse in Peoria, Illinois, as she is the Director of Human Trafficking Services and knows a great deal on educating in the realm of service provision. It was great to hear her presentation, and for Jessica, Dr. Dean, and I to work as a tea...

This afternoon, Dr. Dean and I gave a presentation to security staff of Decatur Public School District 61. We tailored this presentation in a way that individuals could both recognize signs of trafficking and could also discuss topics like grooming and prevention with students. The employees seemed to be interested in the presentation and engaged with our content. I am thankful I was able to present to those working with minors, as research indicates that approximately 50% of trafficked individuals are children and that exploitation begins at ages 12 to 14. It is a future goal of mine to be able to present to educators, as they form close relationships with the children they teach and have a rare opportunity to spot signs of trafficking. I am reminded through these presentations that while I may only be reaching a few individuals at a time, I am doing my part, and over time, these people will share what they have learned with others. It is important to me to do my part in the fight aga...

Over the past few months, I have been working on reviewing arrest records from Champaign County for years spanning 2010 to 2020. As a Human Services lab intern, I put in 360 hours for my internship. A great deal of this has involved looking over arrest records. I was surprised, after completing my review, that I had counted over 40,000 records. I made approximately 6,000 manual entries into a spreadsheet, of cases that could have been charged differently, but that might indicate human trafficking. I was additionally shocked to find only one actual Human Trafficking charge. I saw a great deal of charges for Criminal Sexual Abuse, Sexual Assault, Indecent Solicitation of a Child, Child Pornography, Domestic Violence (in conjunction with weapons and/or drug charges), and Solicitation of a Minor. In conjunction with prior research completed in other counties before I began working in the lab, these charges line up with data showing potential trafficking cases that were charged as lesser of...

The Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force Final Community Assessment is completed and available to read here . We plan to hold a listening session in December with CIHTTF members to offer feedback and provide space for revisions and edits. The Human Trafficking Research Lab at Millikin would like to thank all the Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force members who took time to fill out this survey and provide a valuable evaluation for the future of the task force. We would especially like to thank Lucinda McArthur and Kevin Nowlan who provided feedback in the pretest versions of the final community assessment survey. The survey was administered in SurveyMonkey. The statistical analyses were performed in Stata12, the network analysis was constructed with NodeXL, the maps were formulated in Tableau 2023, and the frequency analysis and qualitative coding were constructed MAXQDA 2020. Respondent answers were anonymized and slightly altered for anonymity and punctuation/gramma...