413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

sex workers, and child pornographers who operated in an urban setting could potentially run operations
in non-urban settings. Third, since it was never our intention to estimate the size of the underground
commercial sex economy for the entire United States, we decided to select six major cities (later increased
to eight) 17 with the goal of providing a replicable estimation model that could be used to estimate the size
of the UCSE in other cities. Therefore, we selected eight major cities in the United States in which we
interviewed appropriate local and federal law enforcement and prosecutors.
We began with a considerably larger pool of possible sites to select the cities of interest. Starting with a list
of the 100 largest metro statistical areas (MSAs) by population as defined by the Census Bureau, we
narrowed the options down to a list of 17 potential sites based on the following factors (listed in no
particular order):
1. Number of convictions in the Federal Justice Statistics Resource Center (FJSRC) data for UCSErelated
offenses (at least 20)
2. Recommendations from UCSE subject experts
3. Existence of a federally-funded human trafficking task force
4. Willingness of local law enforcement to work with researchers on this issue
5. Availability of gun and drug data to be used as proxies
6. Geographic location
7. Where the city falls within known “pimp circuits” in the United States
For the first factor, we looked at sections within Title 18 of the US penal code related to crimes that fall
under the UCSE in the FJSRC data, which include 18 §1590 (Trafficking with respect to peonage, slavery,
involuntary servitude or forced labor), 18 § 1591 (sex trafficking of children or by force, fraud or coercion),
and 18 § 2252A (certain activities relating to material constituting or containing child pornography). 18 For
the second factor, we gathered information from national experts on underground commercial sex
activities, including individuals from Polaris Project, the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children (NCMEC), United States Department of State, and the National Institute of Justice. We
consulted these national experts regarding potential sites.
After identifying 17 potential study sites, the primary local law enforcement agency in each site was sent
an introductory email that described the purpose of our study and asked permission to speak to the
appropriate law enforcement officers that worked on human trafficking, child pornography, and
prostitution investigations. The introductory email explained that the purpose of the screening call was to
determine whether their jurisdiction met the criteria threshold for the study and whether they were
interested in participating in the project. They were also informed that the information obtained during
the screening would not be used for research purposes (see appendix A for the introductory email and
appendix B for the screening guide).
We conducted screening interviews with law enforcement personnel in 12 sites during April and May
2011. Not all jurisdictions were cooperative or responsive, and many of the responsive jurisdictions were
unable to participate due to bureaucratic challenges. The screening interviews collected data on the
number and types of human trafficking cases that were investigated (and to their knowledge prosecuted)
in their jurisdiction, common UCSE offender characteristics, and any changes to the underground
commercial sex market in the last five to ten years. In all, we conducted 19 separate interviews with over
35 law enforcement agents from 17 agencies in 12 different metropolitan areas.
Following the screening interviews, we determined which sites would be the strongest candidates for the
study. We took into account the cooperativeness of the interviewees and agencies, the size of the reported
underground commercial sex economy problem, the number of convictions for underground commercial
sex in each jurisdiction, geographical diversity, and the cooperation of surrounding jurisdictions in the
same MSA. Based on what we had learned to date, we decided to include a seventh site. Although the
17 We had originally proposed six cities, but after further consideration, decided it was in our best interest to expand the number of
cities to eight since it would provide us with a larger sample pool and help us to better understand how the UCSE operates in more
cities.
18 For a full list of title section and codes used for the purposes of site selection, please see appendix C.
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