The Role of Data and Analysis in Human Trafficking Initiatives - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Role of Data and Analysis in Human Trafficking Initiatives

October 16, 2019 2:00PM – 3:30PM EDT

Sabrina Fernandez Program Manager International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP)

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Overview

Theoretical Approach: The Action Research Model & Strategic Problem-Solving Role of Research Partner Applying to ECM Task Forces

Objectives

This webinar will help ECM task force sites to: Understand various approaches to ongoing assessment of task force efforts Incorporate data collection and analysis early in the project timeline Use promising practices to select a research partner and outline role/responsibilities Identify data sources and strategies for collection and analysis Identify potential challenges to avoid in the evaluation process Understand the practical application of assessment results to enhance task force processes

Getting to Know You

Poll Question! What is your role within your task force? Poll Question! Have you had prior experience working

• n DOJ/BJA grant

initiatives?

Heather Perez

National Training and Technical Coordinator School of Criminal Justice Michigan State University (MSU)

Edmund McGarrell, Ph.D.

Director, Michigan State Statistics Center Professor, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University (MSU)

Action Research Model

• Active, ongoing partnership between

researchers and practitioner agencies

• Use research process to help solve local

problems

• Data collection to identify and understand problems
• Strategic analysis to develop targeted interventions
• Program monitoring and feedback for refinement
• Assessment of impact

Strategic Problem‐Solving Model

Problem Analysis Strategy Implementation Assessment & Feedback

Human Trafficking Initiative

The Value of Researcher Practitioner Partnerships

• Researchers, working with their Criminal

Justice & Community partners, can help:

• Assess the problem
• Identify evidence-based strategies
• Assure implementation fidelity
• Evaluate program outcomes and impacts
• Taken together, these four features support

sustainability of program innovations

Strategic Problem Solving & Planning

Poll Question! Where are you in the process

• f data and analysis in your

task force?

Strategic Problem Solving & Planning

Sustainability

Research Partner = Added value

Problem analysis Identification

• f evidence-

based strategies Ongoing monitoring and feedback Evaluation

Problem Analysis

• Nature of the human

trafficking problem in our community

• Who, what, where?
• Often includes

assessment of services (assets, gaps)

Identification

• f Evidence‐

Based Practices

• Evidence-based practices
• Evidence-informed

innovation

• With an eye toward

building the evidence-base

• f strategies for

addressing human trafficking

Ongoing Assessment & Feedback

• Is our task force making

progress in the community? Proceeding as intended?

• Assess in light of our logic

model

• Periodic updates

Evaluation

• Process (formative)

evaluation – have we done what we said we would do? Were we faithful to our model (“fidelity”)? Did we implement with adequate intensity to have an impact (“dosage”)?

• Outcome (summative)

evaluation – have we had

• ur intended impact?

Traditional Research Model

• Researchers were outsiders in the problem-

solving process

• Not involved in problem identification
• Observers, not participants, in program

development and implementation

• Involved only as independent evaluators of
• utcomes and impacts

Action Research Model

• Active, ongoing partnership between

researchers and practitioners

• Use the research process to help solve local

problems

• Data collection to identify and understand problems
• Strategic analysis to develop targeted, evidence-

based interventions

• Program monitoring and feedback for refinement
• Assessment of impact

Evolution of Research Partnerships

Boston Ceasefire Specialized Courts, Community Prosecution, Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiative (SACSI) Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Drug Market Initiative (DMI) Smart Policing and Intelligence-Led Policing Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Smart Suite Programs Innovations Suite Programs

10/16/2019

Research Partner Responsibilities

• Answer questions raised by the

department or agency

• Analyze problems in a way that is
• perationally relevant, pointing

toward something that we can do

• Ask key questions that move the

team toward data-informed analysis

• Support the development of

strategic interventions

• Monitoring performance and

provide feedback

Research Partner Skills

• Knowledge of the criminal justice

system

• Ability to communicate, advise, and

be present

• Commitment to project success and

to creative problem-solving

• Familiarity with a broad array or

research methodologies - qualitative and quantitative

• Willingness to work with criminal

justice data and non-traditional research methodologies

• Ability to meet short timelines

Obstacles to Collaboration

• Lack of time for strategic planning,

data collection & analysis, and reporting of results

• Funding levels and timelines
• Difficulty in measuring outcomes

directly related to criminal justice

• Personnel turnover
• Capacity of agencies to provide

needed data

Dominique Roe-Sepowitz Director, Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research (STIR), Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Arizona State University (ASU)

Evaluation

• f HT Task

Forces

• Southern Nevada Human

Trafficking Task Force

• CAUSE Human Trafficking

Task Force (Maricopa County, Arizona).

Research with Human Trafficking Task Forces

• Consider previous

experiences of task force members with evaluation and research teams.

• Consider the culture

regarding case data and criminal justice materials combined with HIPAA rules safeguarding victim information.

• Ask clearly what decisions

need to be made and how data can support those decisions.

• Decide what data could be

collected in a timely manner and what was not available.

Research with Human Trafficking Task Forces

• Determine what data is being

collected.

• Decide what data you need

to be collected to make data- driven decisions.

• Us the collaboration between

the task force members to collect the data.

• Ask about data collection

plans.

• Design data collection plans

to answer your questions.

Research Ideas with Human Trafficking Task Forces

• Explore the relationships between

the task force members.

• Explore the gaps in services (do a

needs assessment).

• Explore trends in cases (foreign

nationals, labor trafficking, violence, persons from a specific area).

• Explore challenges
• Less than 50% missing child

forms completed for rescued children.

• Arrest of victims.
• Failure to prosecute traffickers

Research Ideas with Human Trafficking Task Forces

• Use old cases to generate

new cases (are traffickers continuing to exploit once they are not arrested/convicted).

• Use cases to illustrate

successes and challenges of the community infrastructure for human trafficking victims.

• Always conduct mortality

reviews of cases that didn’t go the way they could have/should have and plan for the future.

Data Challenges with HT Task Forces

• Everyone collects what they

need to do their work (not to evaluate or conduct action research).

• Social service data and law

enforcement data rarely match.

• Are there strategic data

collection plans.

• Realize that data share

agreements can take months/years.

• Accept that some data may

be aggregated for reporting.

Research Outcomes from Task Force Evaluation

• Identifying that missing persons reports are not

being completed for children as required by law.

• A trend of sex traffickers coming from a specific

area (in one case, gang members from Oakland).

• Identification of how victims are being sex

trafficked and build this information in prevention and training programs (i.e. tictoc, Instagram).

• Explore how victims are being brought into the

area or are they local. Work with local transportation venues (bus stations, UBER, Lyft) to be aware and have a response plan if a victim is identified.

• Find important trends in the data to help direct the

task force efforts.

• Evaluate the impact of training activities (use

validated pre-post surveys to make sure your impact is strong).

Q & A

For more information on human trafficking training and technical assistance, contact:

IACP humantrafficking@theiacp.org 1-800-THE-IACP x336 http://www.theiacp.org/humantrafficking OVC TTAC humantrafficking@ovcttac.org 1–866–OVCTTAC www.ovcttac.gov/humantrafficking

Please click on the link below to complete the online evaluation. https://forms.gle/A8DqniAmuYb8tuob9 Thank you!

This project is supported by Grant No. 2015‐VT‐BX‐KOO1 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the SMART Office. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the

• fficial position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.