Promising Criminal Justice Practices in Human Trafficking Cases: A County-Level Comparitive Overview (2005-2010) With an Emphasis on Cases Involving Children

The aim of the project is to review and analyze other similarly sized counties as Cook County, with large, metropolitan centers across the country, in order to identify best practice, challenges and efforts that have led to successful case outcomes. This research project identifies and synthesizes cases from 2005-2010 that involved human trafficking and developed at county-level law enforcement agencies and task forces across the United States. Where possible, cases involving minors will be high-lighted, in order to address distinct issues facing children who have been victimized by human trafficking. Best practices in victim identification, case investigation, perpetrator prosecution, and service provision were included. During the time period on which this project is focused, Cook County had not yet developed The Cook County Trafficking Task Force. Since 2010, Cook County has made significant strides in addressing the crime of human trafficking. Some of these initiatives will be addressed later in the report. We hope that providing a localized, county-level study will also assist other jurisdictions in their day-to-day anti-trafficking work