Human Trafficking
“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea." - Mark 9:42
Human Trafficking is one of the greater horrors that affect the entirety of the United States. But travel routes throughout Appalachia, along with various other factors, make this region a hotbed for trafficking. We aim to combat this with one of the greatest weapons of all – information. Each county is evaluated on six different factors that have been derived from scholarly research to help assess the human trafficking threat. These include:
Homeless Population
Murphy, L. T. (2016). Labor and sex trafficking among homeless youth. New Orleans: Loyola University Modern Slavery Research Project.
Poverty Rate
ARONOWITZ, A. A. (2015). The social etiology of human trafficking: how poverty and cultural practices facilitate trafficking. Human trafficking: Issues beyond criminalization, 17, 99.
High School Graduation Rate
Olivieri, S. S., Diamond-Caravella, M. L., & Etcher, L. N. (2024). Closing the Educational Gap on Human Trafficking: There’s No Better Time Than Now!. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 50(4), 551-566.
Violent Crime Rate (Per 100k)
Decker, S. H. (2015). Human trafficking: contexts and connections to conventional crime. Journal of crime and justice, 38(3), 291-296.
Kerodal, A. G., Freilich, J. D., & Galietta, M. (2015). The efficacy of sex crime and human trafficking legislations: Introducing the special issue. International journal of comparative and applied criminal justice, 39(2), 93-97.
Sex Offender Population (Per 100K)
Traffic/Transportation (# of Hwy Intersections)
Sokat, K. Y., Chi, M., & Hudlow, J. (2024). Transit monitoring capacity expansion: analytics for combating human trafficking. Transportation research interdisciplinary perspectives, 24, 101032.
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Overall Threat Color Key
Blue = Very Low
Green = Low
Yellow = Moderate
Orange = High
Red = Very High
Purple = Extreme
Black = Extreme +
Total Counties Analyzed: 21 (out of 423)