Polaris Data Analysis Report

Polaris is a non-profit organization dedicated to the global fight against modern slavery. Since 2007, it has operated the National Human Trafficking Hotline with funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In November 2018, researchers from the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) received a grant from the Center for Investigations and Network Analysis at George Mason University (a DHS-funded Center of Excellence) to analyze the Polaris hotline data for patterns and trends that might inform DHS efforts to investigate and prosecute individuals and organizations engaged in human trafficking and to improve services provided to victims of trafficking. This report details the results of an analysis conducted by the UTSA research team of approximately six and half years of data - January 2012 through July 2018 - collected by Polaris through the National Hotline. These data represent 241,085 signals received by the hotline arrayed across 147,819 cases. Cases may include multiple signals, victims, or exploiters and may or may not meet Polaris criteria for inclusion as a human trafficking case. A case is identified in the data as trafficking-related if it involves commercial sex or labor combined with elements of force, fraud, or coercion, or potential commercial sex involving a minor. Approximately 29 percent of the cases represented in the Polaris data involved human trafficking while most (64%) did not. Another six percent involved labor exploitation that did not rise to the level of trafficking. Read more...