D-ISN: TRACK 1: Modeling Effective Network Disruptions for Human Trafficking

这一破坏非法供应网络业务(D-ISN)项目将通过提供有关如何最好地破坏和瓦解而不是简单地取代非法性贩运网络的新知识，促进国家健康、繁荣和福利。性贩卖是一种侵犯人权的行为，使用高度剥削性的、往往是暴力的手段来控制受害者。这些非法网络得到了复杂和灵活的犯罪企业的支持，这些企业强迫受害者进行其他犯罪活动，如盗窃或销售非法毒品，以提高企业的商业生存能力。预计该项目将有助于深入了解这些网络是如何运作的，以及它们如何对干预措施作出动态反应，以确保(1)干预措施真正扰乱和瓦解运作，(2)干预措施针对的是运营商，而不是网络的受害者。该项目结合了半结构化混合方法定性研究和行动研究，特别是网络阻断模型，以及以幸存者为中心的咨询小组和人口贩运调查工作队的投入，以模拟有效的人口贩运网络中断。这些非学术团体的专业知识将有助于确保我们的研究捕捉到有针对性的干预对性交易经营者和受害者造成的后果，包括有意和无意的后果，以便了解什么是有效的干扰。该项目将基于从调查案件档案中收集的定性数据以及咨询小组的意见建立新的网络阻断模型，该咨询小组的成员第一手了解贩运网络如何应对各种破坏策略。网络阻断模型的结果将通过与知识渊博的利益攸关方(例如幸存者、执法部门、贩运者和倡导者)进行定性研究来验证。这项研究将有助于我们了解性贩运网络，了解它们如何应对潜在的干扰，以及性贩运受害者如何被迫进行其他非法活动。它将通过研究贩运者(S饰)在运营网络之前对中断做出反应的问题，为网络拦截文学做出贡献。该项目还将调查金融流动和通信的关键基础设施如何支持性贩运网络涉及的不同犯罪活动。研究结果将传达给为性交易受害者服务的组织和明尼苏达州刑事逮捕局人口贩运调查员特别工作组。这项研究的政策影响将有助于识别性交易中断策略的意想不到的后果，以及从多个利益相关者的角度有效的策略。该奖项反映了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 Disrupting Operations of Illicit Supply Networks (D-ISN) project will enhance national health, prosperity and welfare by contributing new knowledge on how to best disrupt and dismantle, rather than simply displace, illicit sex trafficking networks. Sex trafficking is a human rights abuse and uses highly exploitative and often violent means to control victims. These illicit networks are supported by complex and agile criminal enterprises that coerce victims to perform other criminal activities, such as committing theft or selling illegal drugs, to enhance the commercial viability of the enterprise. The project is expected to support insight into both how these networks operate and how they dynamically react to interventions in order to ensure that (i) interventions truly disrupt and dismantle the operations and (ii) interventions target the operators and not the victims of the network. This project combines semi-structured mixed methods qualitative research and operations research, specifically network interdiction models, with input from a survivor-centered advisory group and a human trafficking investigative task force in order to model effective network disruptions for human trafficking. The expertise of these non-academic groups will help ensure that our research captures the consequences, both intended and unintended, that targeted interventions have on sex trafficking operators and victims in order to understand what constitutes an effective disruption.This project will build new network interdiction models based on qualitative data gleaned from investigative case files as well as input from an advisory group whose members have first-hand knowledge of how trafficking networks respond to various disruption tactics. The results of the network interdiction models will be validated through qualitative research with knowledgeable stakeholders (e.g. survivors, law enforcement, traffickers, and advocates). This research will contribute to our knowledge about sex trafficking networks by understanding how they react to potential disruptions and how sex trafficking victims are forced to conduct other illicit activities. It will contribute to the network interdiction literature by examining problems where the trafficker(s) react to disruptions prior to operating their network. The project will also investigate how critical infrastructure for financial flows and communications supports different criminal activities involved in sex trafficking networks. The results of the research will be communicated to organizations serving sex trafficking victims and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Human Trafficking Investigators Task Force. The policy implications of this research will help identify unintended consequences of various sex trafficking disruption tactics as well as the tactics that are effective from multiple stakeholder perspectives.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.