DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) — Human trafficking is a serious issue affecting millions of people worldwide, including right here in central Illinois.
Millikin University is home to the only undergraduate research lab focusing on human trafficking in the state of Illinois.
Research assistant Rhys Deiter told WAND News, “A lot of people aren’t aware that human trafficking does happen here. It isn’t an issue in only big cities or internationally, instead it is something that could be happening next door and it is always something to look out for."
The Human Trafficking Research Lab hopes to educate those in the community about human trafficking.
Human trafficking typically involves force, fraud, or coercion. The result for victims is exploitation according to the experts at the lab.
Researchers focus on identifying cases that could be charged as human trafficking. “One of the things that we actually do is we research arrest data in central Illinois, and we file through whatever counties approved our requests for arrest records and we check those arrest records for anything that could indicate it could have been human trafficking, but may not have been charged as that,” explained research assistant Jadon Cox.
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Dr. Laura A. Dean, the director of the lab explained how they comb through data. “Every county collects arrest data differently and then we are basically going through it and finding cases that could have been charged as trafficking and weren’t — so cases that had elements of trafficking like those that were charged in the Danville case — and then we try to see how prevalent that is.”
Earlier this week, five men were charged with a slew of human trafficking charges in the Danville area, encouraging the lab to further explore the impact of this crime while educating others in the community.
If you believe you are a victim of human trafficking or may have information about a potential trafficking situation, contact the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline or Center for Prevention of Abuse line. If there is immediate danger, call 911.
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