Estimating the Extent of Sex Trafficking

There is a growing scholarly interest in human trafficking, particularly the trafficking of women and girls for the purposes of coerced sex work. However, the field is hindered by both inconsistent definitions of sex trafficking (some of which categorizes all sex work as trafficking) and unreliable methods for estimating the numbers of people who are trafficked. Further, there is a dearth of empirical data on the different types of exploitation involved in trafficking that would allow for an understanding of how trafficking may be part of a larger system of global labor exploitation. In this article we review the different ways that trafficking has been defined, how researchers have estimated the number of people who are trafficked, and the different underlying dynamics of trafficking identified in both scholarly and policy literatures. Using an epistemological framework from forced migration studies, we then suggest improved methods for defining and estimating sex trafficking.