Research Assumptions Regarding Human Trafficking

¶ … infused my original assumptions with greater specificity over the course of the gathering of my information. At first, I conducted a literature review of my topic (human trafficking) to establish that there is a recorded tendency that women are more likely to be trafficked than men. But after exploring the data collection process further of these research studies, I began to understand that certain factors can affect even statistical evidence, such as the fact that certain forms of trafficking may be more likely to be detected than other forms. For example, women seem to be more apt to be trafficked into the sex industry. Since all forms of prostitution are illegal in most states, this makes it easier to detect than coerced labor in the agricultural and garment industries and in domestic service (Hepburn & Simon 2010). This highlighted that there will likely always be gaps in whatever data that is collected on the subject.

Still, even with this in mind, I felt that all research will always have 'gaps' to some degree and that conducting analysis on human trafficking would still be a beneficial exercise and be worthy of adding to the information on what can be an elusive topic for researchers to study. I felt that it was necessary to add the voices of as many victims of this practice to the academic conversation surrounding the phenomenon of human trafficking. However, in my desire to honor survivors' experiences, I also had to be mindful of constructing a data collection instrument that was ethical and sensitive to any potential concerns which might arise during the process regarding the psychological health of the subjects. When dealing with any research subjects, ensuring anonymity and appropriate confidentiality is essential. This is all the more important when research subjects are volunteering information about sexually sensitive issues.

Furthermore, there is also an issue of discrepancies in terms of class and knowledge between researcher and subject: many of the victims of human trafficking do not have a formal academic education and come from developing world nations. The researcher must strive to inform the subjects in an ethically acceptable manner of how the research will be used so the subjects can understand the concept. This concern does not only arise with persons from developing world nations, of course, but also with children and other subjects who may not fully be a part of the academic conversation with which the researcher is engaging when writing and publishing. A final issue which arises is cultural barriers: trafficked persons do not speak the same first language as most developed world researchers or come from the same cultural context. Their replies must be evaluated within a multicultural framework. The researcher cannot make cultural assumptions.