This opinion paper provides recommendations for human trafficking agencies regarding data collection, as well as storage and analysis, based on insights gathered from working in partnership with community-based human trafficking service provider agencies.
The authors are a team of university-based researchers who have decades of experience collaborating with multiple community-based human trafficking (HT), domestic violence, and sexual violence programs on research projects. In this paper, they provide recommendations for HT agencies on routine data collection, storage, and use based on their insights from working closely with multiple community-based HT service provider agencies. In this opinion piece, the authors consider important questions that HT programs face related to data. They present their recommendations as they pertain to three main challenges: (1) Which data to collect, and how; (2) How to store data; and (3) How to analyze data. The authors include a list of nine routine data elements that HT service providers may prioritize for data collection, a table with eight actionable recommendations, and a short glossary of program monitoring and evaluation terms. The article makes a pragmatic contribution to best practices in HT provider operations and therefore has implications for administrators of HT programs, data personnel at HT programs, and policies related to data, information, technology, and safety for HT program service provision. (Published Abstract Provided)