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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.  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 this mission and provides practical hands-on experience with applied research for our students. Millikin University is a private four-year university located in Decatur, Illinois nationally recognized for its emphasis on
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Human Trafficking Vulnerability Assessment in Central Illinois

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The Human Trafficking Research Lab (HTRL) at Millikin University conducted a Community Assessment of the Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force (CIHTTF) in November 2021 in accordance with the guidelines of the Enhanced Collaborative Model Task Force to Combat Human Trafficking grant from the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs at the United States (US) Department of Justice. Then at the site visit in December 2021 we were asked by the grant monitors to update our assessment with more data on vulnerabilities in our region. Therefore, the goal for this Vulnerability Assessment is to identify areas within Central Illinois where vulnerabilities for trafficking and exploitation can occur.   The CIHTTF will use this assessment to continue to develop outreach strategies and priorities for the task force. The HTRL used a mix of quantitative data and qualitative interviews/correspondence with victim and survivor services organizations, law enforcement, and the states
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The Impact of the Pandemic on Human Trafficking Trainings

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The Human Trafficking Research Lab began tracking human trafficking trainings in Central Illinois in 2019 and we wrote this research brief to update a previous brief from 2020. The pandemic had a large impact on these trainings and this research brief aims to examine how the pandemic impacted human trafficking training in Central Illinois. In 2020, the Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force completed 52 different trainings. This was a 43% decrease from 2019 when 91 trainings were conducted.  We also saw a increase in virtual trainings in 2020 when 75% (39) of the trainings were virtual and only 25% (13) were in-person. A total of 1,134 individuals from a variety of different organizations were trained for a cumulative number of 80.25 hours. In 2021, the Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force completed 60 different trainings, an increased of 15% from 2020. Of these trainings 58% (35) were virtual and 41% (25) were in person, indicating a decrease in virtual trainings from
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Presentations and Research Briefs

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The last month with the Human Trafficking Research Lab have been a busy one. I’ve been sitting in on a lot of meetings and taking notes and have been working on finalizing an updated research brief which we will present at the next Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force (CIHTTF) meeting in May.  One particular meeting I want to talk about was last month when Dr. Dean and I presented our adjudication data to the Illinois Bar Association. So, firstly I want to talk about just how cool it was to be in a Zoom meeting with a bunch of people who work in the field I hope to get into. It was pretty neat to get to meet various lawyers and law professors. Now the actual presentation is a completely different story. To everyone who was in the meeting, the presentation seemingly went off without a hitch. For me, my screen went completely black right before I was to present so I had to wing it. Firstly, I was muted and couldn’t click on the screen to unmute myself, but luckily remembered the
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Analyzing Data from Douglas County Illinois

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As a part of the data collection process for the lab’s analysis of the adjudication of human trafficking in Illinois, I have recently analyzed arrest records for Douglas County, with a specified focus on cases pertinent or possibly relating to human trafficking. When focusing on cases, I had a clear list of relevant arrest types, primarily focusing on domestic violence arrests, sexual violence arrests, and sex crimes in general.  When analyzing Douglas County’s data, it was intriguing to see the particular aspects of data that Douglas County requires when reporting arrests.  Specifically, the race of arrestees was not recorded for the entirety of the records analyzed. This is interesting, as race and gender are particular aspects of the arrest data that we attempt to analyze. Thus, Douglas County’s records are much less thorough than many other counties in Illinois, as the majority require the reporting of the race of the arrestees. In addition to this interesting finding, the Douglas
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Midwest Political Science Association Book Roundtable

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I was asked to be on a roundtable on publishing your first book sponsored by the Women's Caucus at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference to talk about my book Diffusing Human Trafficking Policy in Eurasia . It was a really fun panel to be on with some big names in my field of gender and politics including Nazita Lajevardi, Christina Wolbrecht, and Julia Hellwege and there were many stories told and laughs all around at books coming out during the pandemic. I enjoyed reliving the trials and tribulations of publishing a book at an under-resourced teaching institution and talking about what I am trying to do differently the second time around. It was also useful to find out about more about book conferences and hiring copy editors which I would like to do the second time around with outside funding.  In the future, I hope to return to Ukraine so I can donate the remaining copies of my book that have been sitting in my office since 2020. I plan to donate copies to the li
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Illinois State Bar Association

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My Human Trafficking Research Lab student Rhys and I were invited to present our research on adjudication in Central Illinois to judges and lawyers all over Illinois at the Human and Civil Rights Council of the Illinois State Bar Association this week. The talk was online and we spoke to about 2o people. It's great that so many people are learning about the lab and our work throughout Illinois since we are the only research lab on human trafficking in the state. It was also nice for Rhys to speak to lawyers and judges because he hopes to go to law school after graduation so he was able to receive feedback and field questions from legal experts in his field about charging trafficking related offenses. 
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Kiwanis Club Of Decatur

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I was invited to speak with the Golden K Kiwanis Club of Decatur about the Human Trafficking Research Lab, our student faculty collaborative research, and trafficking due to Russia's war in Ukraine. Their focus is on children and I discussed the different types of trafficking vulnerabilities that we see in child trafficking cases, how US human trafficking law has special caveats for child trafficking, and then the different types of trafficking that are found in Ukraine. It was a lot to cover in 20 mins but the audience asked some interesting questions and I was able to meet a few retired Millikin professors. The speaker each week gets a reserved parking spot and certificate which was nice and a kind member gave me this keychain which supports trafficking survivor services in our community.
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