Human Trafficking Research Lab @Millikin

  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

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

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!

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

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.   

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

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

I channeled my inner Emily Gilmore and gave a talk about human trafficking as a result of Russia's war in Ukraine at the Stephan Decatur Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution as part of Women's History Month and International Women's Day! It was interesting to learn more about the local chapter and the process for admission to the chapter and I am always thankful for the opportunity to talk about issues in Ukraine with a captive audience.

In January, I was able to present our research project on human trafficking recruitment during Russia's war in Ukraine to the Оперативнa групa з протидії торгівлі людьми (Operational Group for Anti-Trafficking). I presented in Ukrainian and English and talked with stakeholders working on the ground in Ukraine. Now I get to attend the monthly meetings which is wonderful so I can stay up to date on key issues and anti-trafficking work in Ukraine. Also one thing that is nice about studying countries over many years is that you get to see them grow and change. I have written many things on Ukraine's lack of a human trafficking task force or group but attending their meetings has been a dream come true for me as an anti-trafficking researcher because they have one now!

The Human Trafficking Research Lab at Millikin traveled to Washington D.C. to present our research on human trafficking adjudication in central Illinois at the Pi Sigma Alpha National Student Research Conference. Here are some thoughts from the research assistants in the lab on their experience. Going to Washington D.C. was a great experience, and it felt like as a Political Science student I had been missing out greatly by not visiting our nation's capital. Presenting our research in a room full of people intently listening to what we say was nice as well. All in all, between seeing the landmarks and presenting our human trafficking research, Washington D.C. was certainly an experience I will not forget. My favorite part of DC was visiting the National Gallery of Art. While I don't have a very technical understanding of art, I can appreciate the aesthetically pleasing aspect of it. I could have spent countless hours at that museum had time allowed it.  Rhys Deiter Jadon Cox Vi

  I was invited to speak about human trafficking with Foreign Service Institute officers at the US State Department today that are going to be posted in Latvia and Lithuania. I shared trends in the region and things we are seeing due to Russia's war from the increased vulnerability with labor trafficking of Ukrainian refugees and the influx of migrants on the Belarusian and Russian borders. Some of the students will be working on the Trafficking in Persons Report for Latvia and Lithuania so it was a great opportunity to share my recommendations for improvement with the rankings and report.

The Human Trafficking Research Lab at Millikin traveled to Washington D.C. last week to present our research on human trafficking adjudication in central Illinois at the Pi Sigma Alpha National Student Research Conference. Pi Sigma Alpha is the political science honor and this is the first time I have taken students but we will definitely be back with the support of Millikin's undergraduate conference funding. None of my research assistants have been here before so it was fun to see places again from their perspective! We visited all three branches of government. We stood outside the White House, toured Congress, and sat in for the quickest session of the Supreme Court.

The last student project as part of Human Trafficking Prevention Month was designed as a social media campaign constituting six different graphics and one video that shows different facts about human trafficking. The students wanted it to start on January 11th and last week but I thought it would more impactful if we spread it out over the whole month. They asked me to include this language with the posts:      January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. As part of human trafficking awareness, Millikin University has decided to take part and #WearBlueDay on the 11th as well as provide              information, and resources about human trafficking. Students have taken part in making an awareness campaign that will be shown all week. This campaign provides information to educate others on        human trafficking. Additional local resources:  Millikin University Human Trafficking Research Lab: https://www.humantraffickingresearchlab.org/ Central Illinois Human Trafficking

  At our Human Trafficking Prevention Month panel on January 30th, I was presented with the opportunity to interview with a local news station WCIA in Champaign Urbana. I answered a handful of questions ranging from what the goal of the panel discussion was and why it was important. Ultimately everything I said got cut down to a 5-second clip, but honestly, I was pleasantly surprised they used anything I said because I was very nervous and rambling a lot. They also got my name spelled right, so it was nice to see they listened when I told them the proper spelling of my name. It was pretty cool though, I had never been on camera before, and I don’t mind talking. More than anything, I knew my colleagues really didn’t want to do the interview so I was happy to do it. All in all, it was a really cool experience and the panel went pretty well. We had survivors of trafficking sharing their stories and while that was pretty hard to hear, I think it really resonated with the people in attend

Another group from my PO 323 Human Trafficking class made flyers and notecards to provide information on different types of human trafficking in the community and display the hotline. One of the flyers is a general human trafficking flyer and then the others focused on child trafficking and sex trafficking more specifically. We will have copies of these flyers to hand out at our panel discussion on the 30th and they will be posted around Millikin University too in order to raise awareness.              

The winter break offered a couple of rewarding and engaging experiences in the local community through work in the lab. First, I was lucky to join Dr. Dean on an interview at WAND News. The segment was focusing on human trafficking awareness day and the lab’s victim’s voices panel that was held in January. The interview also covered some of the basic research that the lab does and some lesser-known facts regarding human trafficking. As a local, it was an extremely rewarding experience to be able to share some research and information regarding human trafficking with my local community on the news station that I have watched throughout my life. I was also able to deliver the proclamation dedicating January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month in Decatur at the Decatur City Council meeting. This was an extremely rewarding experience, as I got the proclamation signed and approved by the mayor of Decatur, and I was an active part in bringing human trafficking awareness to my hometown. It i

One benefit of teaching at a university for eight years is that students graduate and get interesting jobs in the community. One of my recent Millikin graduates produces the 4 pm local news show on WAND in town and asked me and my one of my students to come in and talk for Human Trafficking Prevention Month. We were invited to go live from the studio at WAND and it was my first time doing live news in the studio but it was such a great opportunity to talk about the lab, our research, and our upcoming panel discussion at Millikin. You can watch our segment here on WAND  and below is a behind the scenes look at me and my students past and present! So proud of everything that they achieve and do in our community.

January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day and #WearBlueDay. Through this initiative, the public is invited to raise awareness of human trafficking by taking photos of themselves, friends, family, and colleagues wearing blue clothing and sharing them on social media along with the #WearBlueDay hashtag. So I wore blue and spent the afternoon in Springfield at the Statewide Terrorism Intelligence Center for our Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force January meeting. We heard survivor advocate Khalila Riga speak and learned about how to better serve survivors with our anti-trafficking work. I also worked the room with our flyers encouraging people to come to our panel discussion on January 30th and got lots of compliments on my awareness raising tote bag!

For our seventh annual Human Trafficking Prevention Month panel discussion this year we went with a theme of “Survivor Voices.” The survivor-focused panel discussion will feature survivors of sex and labor trafficking from around Central Illinois. We will discuss the challenges and opportunities of a survivor-led movement and how the anti-trafficking movement can work to include survivor voices in the future. The panel will be on Tuesday, January 30, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. in the Bob and Debi Johnston Banquet Rooms on the third floor of the University Commons on Millikin’s campus. The panel will round out events held around the United States for Human Trafficking Prevention Month 2024.  For the safety of the survivors on this panel, registration is required for this event. Please register here: https://bit.ly/millikinpanel . This event is sponsored by the Division of Student Affairs and the Political Science Department at Millikin University. For additional information, please see the Fa