Understanding and Pursuing Labor Trafficking Cases Collaboratively

Abstract

The disparity between sex and labor federal prosecutions in the United States underscores the significant degree to which labor trafficking investigations and prosecutions have been marginalized since the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) was enacted in 2000 in the United States. This article focuses on the issue of labor trafficking and considers the importance of collaborating with multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional organizations to successfully pursue labor trafficking cases. Labor trafficking in the United States is defined, the importance of executive leadership support is reviewed, and suggestions for stakeholders to proactively identify potential foreign national and domestic labor trafficking cases are explored using the barrier model. A discussion of the trauma experienced by labor trafficking victims is made to further underscore the importance of including service providers in anti-labor trafficking collaborations.