Our Work
Our Impact
The Human Trafficking Institute combats trafficking at its source by empowering justice systems to stop traffickers. When justice systems have the tools and training to effectively stop traffickers, they protect the vulnerable and prevent potential victims from being trafficked in the first place.
In our Partner Countries, we played a critical role last year by helping:
- Protect 918 victims who can now receive proper services and care to rebuild their lives
- Arrest 633 suspected traffickers, preventing them from exploiting more people
- Train 1,085 officials who will take their skills into their communities to stop traffickers
Learn more about our impact in our Annual Report.
Our Approach
We implement a proven 3-part model designed to decimate trafficking at its source by stopping traffickers and preventing them from exploiting more victims. Our model helps justice systems more effectively prosecute traffickers, allowing cases to run more smoothly through the pipeline from investigation to trial. Our programs provide prosecutors, law enforcement officers, and social workers with the tools and expertise to decimate trafficking in their home country.
Our model includes:
Specialized Teams
We help our Partner Countries build specialized anti-trafficking teams of police, prosecutors, and victim specialists. We train these teams on specialized investigative and prosecutorial techniques to arrest and charge suspected traffickers. We work with our Partner Countries to fast-track trafficking cases through the courts to prevent excessive backlogs.
Targeted Trainings
Members of the specialized anti-trafficking teams complete a robust training program, comprised of our intensive Human Trafficking Academy and targeted trainings, designed to improve investigative techniques centered on victim needs. Our experts, law enforcement specialists, and victim service professionals provide hands-on training and real-time guidance as they investigate and prosecute cases in the field. Each training program is crafted with input from agencies that handle trafficking cases so as to properly address each Partner Country’s needs and challenges.
Embedded Experts
In cooperation with our Partner Countries, we place enforcement experts inside prosecutors’ offices and police departments. These experts are accomplished prosecutors and law enforcement officers with extensive experience working on human trafficking cases in the United States and abroad. Our experts help support prosecutors and investigators as they pursue trafficking cases, from the identification of victims to the end of a trial. They work side by side with the specialized teams to build skills, solve trafficking case-related challenges, and provide accountability to prevent corruption long after we are gone.
Our Programs
We implement our model in collaboration with the justice system agencies in our Partner Countries.
Together, we create long-term solutions to trafficking that they can sustain for years to come.
Uganda
We provide experts on the ground in Uganda to work alongside police and prosecutors as they properly charge suspected traffickers, prepare for trials, and ensure they are handling each case in a victim-centered way.
Belize
We partner with justice system agencies in Belize to ensure investigators, prosecutors, and social service workers are prepared to move human trafficking cases through the court system efficiently.
United States
In the United States, we work to provide the necessary tools to improve the U.S. justice system’s response to human trafficking and train the next generation of anti-trafficking leaders. Our U.S.-based programs act as a model for other countries of the value of comprehensive data collection and investing in rising leaders.
Federal Human
Trafficking Report
The Federal Human Trafficking Report is an annual publication of the Human Trafficking Institute that provides comprehensive data from every federal criminal and civil human trafficking case that United States courts handle each year.
Douglass Fellowship
Inspired by Frederick Douglass’s commitment to freedom, education, and advocacy, we provide an opportunity for law students chosen through a competitive process to participate in a nine-month fellowship program focused on developing future leaders in the anti-human trafficking movement and providing resources to those currently combating human trafficking around the globe.