Abt Global (Abt) conducted a study for the Bureau of Justice Statistics to identify and recommend methods for estimating the prevalence of human trafficking in the United States. This study supports BJS’s mission to collect, analyze, publish, and disseminate information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice. As part of the study, Abt completed an environmental scan and held an Advisory Panel Meeting on Human Trafficking Estimation with BJS that included experts invited to serve on the Advisory Panel.
Findings from the environmental scan and the expert panel meeting were used to develop three recommendations for a pilot study to test the feasibility of estimating the prevalence of human trafficking in the United States. Capture-recapture is the preferred method since it has the strongest capability for estimating the prevalence of hidden populations, including human trafficking. Vincent link-trace sampling is the second recommendation, followed by random sampling.