The Public Health Approach to Human Trafficking Prevention

Author: Greenbaum, Jordan

Abstract: Sex and labor trafficking of adults and children are global public health issues that demand a public health approach to eradication. Rigorous scientific research is needed to create an evidence base that drives multi-sector collaborative prevention efforts addressing trafficking at all levels of the socioecological model. Programs need to be evaluated carefully and modified accordingly, then scaled up to disseminate critical information to the large body of people at risk of exploitation. Legal professionals have an important role to play in combatting human trafficking by educating themselves, their colleagues and clients, and the public, as well as advocating for legislative and policy changes to prevent trafficking and protect exploited persons. Working with clients at a high risk of exploitation and with businesses at risk for enabling or directly supporting labor trafficking, the legal practitioner can directly and indirectly change the lives of vulnerable persons in their own communities and throughout the world.

Keywords: human trafficking, sex trafficking, labor trafficking, public health, prevention