Speakers
Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, Arizona State University, USA
Jorge Sefair, University of Florida, USA
Tony Grubesic, University of California – Riverside, USA
Arunabha Sen, Arizona State University, USA
Abstract
In this talk, we discuss a holistic approach to the discovery, modeling, and interdiction of human trafficking networks. The trafficking of humans and illicit drugs are pervasive problems in the United States with an immeasurable negative impact. Unfortunately, the business of selling illicit drugs and forced sex is growing, almost quadrupling its transaction volume over the last decade. Law enforcement agencies and advocacy groups face enormous challenges when attempting to disrupt these activities because of the adaptability of both the market and traffickers. We present the preliminary results of our transdisciplinary approach that integrates academia with domain experts, and law enforcement agencies to deepen our understanding of sex trafficking networks, detect their patterns, and develop tools for their disruption. We focus on our findings at the intersection of field work with detectives and survivors, and expertise from social sciences, operations research, computer science, and information science. We also discuss some of the advantages and challenges of conducting transdisciplinary research.
Biographical Notes
Dominique Roe-Sepowitz is an associate professor in the School of Social Work at Arizona State University and she is the director of the ASU Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research. Roe-Sepowitz has her master’s degree and doctorate in social work and is a researcher, professor and a forensic social work practitioner. Dominique teaches in the clinical track of the Masters of Social Work program as well as provides clinical intervention groups focused on abuse and trauma in the community to women and men exiting prostitution. Dominique’s research focus is on women and violence with a focus on prostitution and the therapeutic needs for exiting. Her expertise includes sex trafficker profiles, establishing a prevalence of sex buyers, and sex trafficking victim prevention and intervention design. Dominique works very closely with community groups including the Phoenix Police Department, the Phoenix Prosecutor’s Office and Catholic Charities DIGNITY programs. Her research work spans the prevention, detection, identification and trauma-focused treatment of sex trafficking victims. Recent projects include estimations of online sex buying demand, estimating the prevalence of sex trafficking victims within the juvenile delinquency and adult probation systems in Arizona, surveying Arizona’s homeless young adults about their sex trafficking experiences (Youth Experiences Survey), studying patterns within arrest cases of traffickers, exploring sex ads and demand response around the Super Bowl in 2014 and 2015, and evaluating interventions for sex trafficking victims. Community partnerships for developing new knowledge about sex trafficking include the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the Phoenix Police Department, and the Tucson Police Departments. Dominique has conducted research with partners including Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children, Shared Hope International, and Demand Abolition.
Jorge A. Sefair is an Associate Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida. His research interests include network optimization, multistage optimization, and integer programming. His research has been interdisciplinary, having published academic works with colleagues from a variety of fields, including civil engineering, public health, ecology, biology, and economics.
Tony Grubesic is a professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of California at Riverside, where he also serves as the Director of the Center for Geospatial Sciences. Grubesic is an FAA certified commercial drone pilot.
Arunabha Sen is a professor who joined ASU in 1987. Sen’s teaching focuses on networks and algorithms. His research looks at resource optimization problems in telecommunication networks. He also works on physical design of VLSI circuits, hardware-software co-design and network security. His research interests include resource optimization in optical, wireless and sensor networks, video transmission over mobile ad-hoc networks, network processors, system/network on chip design, combinatorial optimization, algorithm design and analysis.
Keywords
human trafficking, sex trafficking networks, sex trafficking interdiction
Citation: Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, Jorge Sefair, Tony Grubesic and Arunabha Sen, 11 November 2022, “Discovery, Modeling and Interdiction of Human Trafficking Networks” in Kathleen Vogel et al., Securitization for Sustainability of People and Place: A Call to Transdisciplinarity, The 15th Social Implications of National Security Workshop, IEEE STS Technical Committee together with SPEC of Arizona State University.
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