Detecting, Investigating, and Prosecuting Traffickers

Research conducted by NIJ grantees has uncovered several key findings:

• Trafficking victims often have contact with local law enforcement authorities, but because local law enforcement agents lack sufficient training, they fail to notice the victims or take appropriate action to bring them to safety (Bales and Lize, 2005).
• When authorities have had success arresting traffickers, nongovernmental organizations have provided intelligence to help. In addition, these organizations helped stablize victims so that they could cooperate with law enforcement (Bales and Lize, 2005).