Evaluating Anti-trafficking Interventions: Critical Reflections and Lessons from the Field

Both a practical companion guide to and a critical reflection on the merits and shortcomings of evaluation in anti-trafficking efforts. 

Despite vast investment in anti-trafficking measures worldwide, there is a stark lack of evidence of effective interventions. It is unethical and ineffective to keep throwing money at anti-trafficking efforts without a more nuanced understanding of how they can help and harm. After all, advances in crime prevention and harm reduction both rely heavily on evaluation science. Bringing together contributors from across different perspectives, disciplines, backgrounds, and geographies, Evaluating Anti-Trafficking Interventions focuses on the sharp end of criminal abuses. It offers both practical guidance and critical reflections on the promises and pitfalls of evaluation for anti-trafficking interventions. The book also introduces foundational theory and practice around evaluations (including both qualitative and quantitative evidence), highlights innovative new directions, and draws lessons from real-world case studies. It is designed to function both as a practical companion guide and to stimulate reflection on the tensions and constraints of funding, doing, and assessing evaluations in this domain. 

Ella Cockbain is professor of human trafficking and exploitation at University College London and a visiting research fellow at Leiden University, the Netherlands.
 

Aiden Sidebottom is professor of policing and crime prevention at the Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science at University College London.

Sheldon X. Zhang is professor of criminology and justice studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He is also a senior research fellow at NORC at the University of Chicago.