EAGER: ISN: Modeling Operations of Human Trafficking Networks for Effective Interdiction

这一探索性研究早期概念补助金(AGER)将通过促进我们对非法性贩运网络运作的理解和能力来促进国家的健康、繁荣和福利。美国境内的性交易是一个复杂的社会和犯罪活动，交织在为了性交易的非法劳动力市场中，涉及高度剥削性的、往往是暴力的获取利润的手段。由于贩运是隐蔽的、非法的和危险的，因此很难收集所需的数据，以便制定有效的贩运网络及其对干预措施的反应的量化业务模式。为了应对这一挑战，该项目将建立一个由社会科学家、运筹学研究人员、执法人员和性交易幸存者组成的协作团队，以分析执法数据以进行网络建模。该奖项将支持识别性交易网络的独特方面，这些方面将为数学模型提供信息，从而支持做出有效的决策来破坏这些网络。该项目将产生性交易网络数据，可用作测试此类模型的基础。性贩运受害者不成比例地来自我们最脆弱的社区，包括那些生活在贫困中并曾经历过性侵犯、家庭暴力、流离失所、无家可归和其他创伤经历的人。该项目预计将对这些人群的健康、繁荣和福利产生特殊影响。这项研究将应用对执法案件文件和利益相关者访谈的定性分析，以确认性交易网络最重要的特征，包括它们的组成，它们如何适应禁令，以及它们的物理网络和网络网络之间的依赖关系。研究小组将确定这些案件中性贩运网络的基本结构和关键特征，构建数据的节点弧形网络表示，并确定对现有网络拦截模式的关键变化，以确保在扰乱性贩运行动方面的适用性。该项目将开始填补封锁文献中限制其适用于破坏人口贩运网络的最重大空白。最终的网络数据将公之于众，研究小组将详细说明复制网络生成过程的方法，以开发更多的人口贩运网络数据集，包括劳工人口贩运网络。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) will enhance the national health, prosperity, and welfare by contributing to our understanding of and ability to disrupt the operations of illicit sex trafficking networks. Sex trafficking within the United States is a complex social and criminal enterprise interwoven within the illegal labor market for sex, and entails highly exploitative, often violent, means to extract profit. Because trafficking is hidden, illegal and dangerous it is difficult to gather the data needed to develop effective quantitative operational models of trafficking networks and their response to interventions. To tackle this challenge, the project will build a collaborative team of social scientists, operations researchers, law enforcement personnel, and sex trafficking survivors to analyze law enforcement data for network modeling. This award will support identification of unique aspects of sex trafficking networks that will inform mathematical models that can support effective decisions to disrupt these networks. The project will produce sex trafficking network data that can be used as a basis for testing such models. Sex trafficking victims disproportionally come from our most vulnerable communities, including those who live in poverty and have had prior experiences of sexual assault, family violence, out of home placement, homelessness, and other traumatic experiences. This project is expected to have a particular impact on the health, prosperity, and welfare of these populations.This research will apply qualitative analysis of law enforcement case files and stakeholder interviews to identify the most important features of sex trafficking networks, including their composition, how they adapt to interdictions, and the dependencies between their physical and cyber networks. The research team will identify the underlying structure and key features of sex trafficking networks in these cases, construct node-arc network representations of the data, and identify key changes to current network interdiction models to ensure applicability in disrupting sex trafficking operations. The project will begin to fill the most significant gaps in the interdiction literature that limits its applicability to disrupting human trafficking networks. The resulting network data will be made publicly available and the study team will detail methods for replicating the network generation process to develop additional trafficking network datasets, including labor trafficking networks.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.