Combatting Human Trafficking With Information
“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 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)