Human Trafficking: A Comparative Analysis Of The Perceptions Of College Students And Police Officers

The purpose of this study is to examine the perception and knowledge of human trafficking in the United States. Specifically, the perception of college students at the University of Texas at Arlington and officers at the Arlington Police Department will be examined by survey. The scope of human trafficking varies depending on the degree of influence it has to a specific situation at a particular time (Seligson, 2005, p.59). Research addressing the deterrence of human trafficking and the response from various agencies will be reviewed (“UN Face Sheet”, 2006). Human trafficking will be reviewed from an international perspective to the more specific local level. quantitative empirical approach will be used to measure whether college students' and police officers' perceptions of human trafficking are based on the type of training received, what they have observed in the media (i.e. periodicals, journals, television, internet, books, etc.) and/or their knowledge gain from their surroundings (i.e. peers, community, school, etc). A non-experimental, cross-sectional survey design consisting of a single observation between college students and police officers will be conducted. A nonprobability convenience sample (n=100) will be utilized for each group. The overall outcome of the survey, “Human Trafficking,” indicates a similarity between both college students and police officers. The responses to the survey questions specify that both college students and police officers agree that human trafficking is a problem in the general public. Thus, making it a concern in the future. As trafficking in humans increases, the majority of respondents agree that that this matter is best handled by law enforcement and the federal government. Findings indicate that a prompt for policy reform is a result of human trafficking becoming a world wide crisis that afflicts women and children. Accordingly, results identify that policy refrom will then yield the apprehension of traffickers and potentially increase social services for trafficked victims. The results also point out that trafficking of humans occurs in other forms other than illegal migration, which may involve other countries other than the United States. As a whole, college students’ and police officers’ responses were similar to each other. However, there were a couple of differences in responses between college students and police officers. Differences may suggest that college students are more likely to understand complex issues surrounding human trafficking. Possibly because they are influenced by ever changing themes in and around campus. In contrast, police officers focus on their everyday responsiblities may prevent them from centering their attention on human trafficking. Overall, responses for both college students and police officers were in synchrony with knowledge influencing perception.