Evaluating Anti-Trafficking Interventions

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. There are also particular idiosyncrasies and challenges for evaluation in this domain, since human trafficking is such a complex and contested phenomenon.

Evaluating Anti-Trafficking Interventions focuses on the sharp end of criminal abuses and brings together contributors from across different perspectives, disciplines, backgrounds and geographies. 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. Combining an accessible style, an applied focus and academic rigour, this book has much to offer practitioners, policymakers, students, academics and others working in different settings worldwide.