ORCID Identifier(s)

0000-0002-2334-1719

Graduation Semester and Year

2016

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Criminology and Criminal Justice

Department

Criminology and Criminal Justice

First Advisor

Jaya B. Davis

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the training, awareness, and effectiveness of a local law enforcement agency in recognizing victims of human trafficking. The research questions of this study were: are local law enforcement officers able to recognize victims of human trafficking during their beat, and does time in service effect their ability to recognize victims. This research study was conducted as a blind study, and provided a sample of local law enforcement officers with a self-administered survey that evaluated their perceptions of recognizing human trafficking victims. The officers' effectiveness in recognizing the victims was evaluated by whether they were able to determine the person in question as a potential human trafficking victim. The ANOVA analysis was performed in order to evaluate the effect of years of experience in the field on the ability of the officers to recognize human trafficking victims. The results of this study showed that there were no significant statistical differences found in the officers' ability to recognize human trafficking victims based on their years of experience. The findings of this study should be considered in light of this study's limitations.

Keywords

Human trafficking, Law enforcement, Training, Effectiveness, Dallas, Sex trafficking, Labor trafficking, Modern day slavery

Disciplines

Criminology and Criminal Justice | Legal Studies | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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