Identifying and Mitigating Human Trafficking Risk through the Use of Financial Institutions

Abstract

The crime of human trafficking is a crime that directly impacts the individuals it victimizes. The crime presents human and social consequences from the mental and physical abuse of the victims during every stage in the trafficking process. The life-long impact is destructive and unacceptable. Human trafficking continues to be a growing problem. Past and current detection and prevention practices of human trafficking continue to present challenges to law enforcement and prosecutors. International guidelines have influenced the United States to develop human trafficking legislation, and to also expand current legislation to include human trafficking scenarios. Technology plays an instrumental role during each stage of human trafficking, where technology enables the traffickers to network and expand swiftly and effectively. In contrast, this paper addresses the use of technology to counter human trafficking efforts. Research includes an analysis of the current detection methods used by financial institutions, as well as an analysis of advanced data analytics based on new human trafficking indicators. The summary of findings discusses the practice of enhancing data analytics based on case research and human trafficking indicators to better detect and prosecute traffickers involved in this heinous crime.