Episode 257 | Just Estimating Labor Trafficking in Houston

Episode Citation

Charm, S., Barrick, K., Pfeffer, R., & Aranguren, N. (2023, August 25). Just Science. Just Estimating Labor Trafficking in Houston. [Audio podcast episode]. RTI International. https://forensicrti.org/just-science-episode-257/ 

Related Resources

• Human Trafficking Policy and Research Analyses Project

Guest Biography

Kelle Barrick is an expert on human trafficking and has led research on both sex and labor trafficking with federal and state funding for more than 10 years. She has also participated in expert working groups on trafficking research convened by the National Science Foundation and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, among others. Her current efforts include estimating the prevalence of sex and labor trafficking; identifying successful strategies for the identification, investigation, and prosecution of labor trafficking cases; increasing our understanding of opportunities to disrupt sex trafficking recruitment and network operations; and conducting a formative evaluation of a law enforcement-based victim services program. Dr. Barrick also has extensive experience with program evaluation in a broad variety of areas, including prisoner reentry, criminal justice reform, crime and violence reduction, community corrections, crime laboratory efficiency, homeland security, and responses to domestic violence. In 2009, Dr. Barrick received the American Society of Criminology’s Outstanding Article Award for a paper on the impact of felony labeling on recidivism. 

Rebecca Pfeffer is a research criminologist in RTI International’s Victimization and Resilience Program. With over 15 years of experience, she is an expert on human trafficking. Dr. Pfeffer is currently leading or co-leading several studies for the National Institute of Justice focused on topics including innovations in the identification and response to labor trafficking cases, understanding differences in recruitment and labor trafficking victimization experiences across different labor sectors, understanding the health impacts and health services utilization among minor victims of sex trafficking, and understanding the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on victim service providers. Additionally, she serves as the Project Director for the Administration for Children and Families’ Human Trafficking Policy and Research Analyses Project, which aims to advance the scope of knowledge and data around human trafficking by identifying priority areas for learning and conducting a series of studies that can immediately impact practice. She is an expert in qualitative data collection and analysis, survey development and implementation, and program evaluation. Prior to joining RTI, Dr. Pfeffer worked as an associate professor of criminal justice and as the graduate program director at the University of Houston – Downtown. She is a member of the American Society of Criminology and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and has been published in peer-reviewed journals on topics ranging from the law enforcement response to human trafficking, labor trafficking victimization, the prevalence of human trafficking, gendered disparities in criminal justice processes, and the victimization of children with disabilities. 

Natasha Aranguren is a Research Survey Scientist in the Child, Youth, and Family Well-Being program within the Behavioral Health Data Center at RTI International. Natasha serves in leadership and supporting roles on various nationwide, multi-mode studies. Natasha spent the majority of her time at RTI working on the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW). The NSCAW, funded by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), is the only source of nationally representative data on the well-being of children and families in the child welfare system. This will be the first national study that examines child and family well-being outcomes in detail and seeks to relate those outcomes to their experience with the child welfare system and to family characteristics, community environment, and other factors. Natasha then led the Survey of Youth Transitioning from Foster Care (SYTFC), implemented as part of the Domestic Human Trafficking and the Child Welfare Population project.