Analysis Of Measuring Human Trafficking By Ronald Weitzer

The one thing I have learned throughout school is to understand a situation better is to do research and collect data on that subject, understanding how something works can help you understand what something consists of. Trying to understand human trafficking is no different except for human trafficking is a hard topic to analyze and collect data on. Throughout reading the book Measuring Human Trafficking by Ernesto U. Savona and the journal New Directions in Research on Human Trafficking by Ronald Weitzer I began to see the real struggle on why there is little data on the subject of human trafficking. This lead me to the question to analysis in more depth, Is the differencing of the definition of what human trafficking is affecting the outcome

In the article, New Directions in Research on Human Trafficking, Weitzer brings up interesting points on why studying human trafficking is becoming an issue, especially when there has been growing coverage in the media and more and more activist groups are showing up. Many articles and resources don’t have accurate data within, Weiter says “a review of one hundred academic articles found that few contained original data and most treated as “sources” or “evidence” the assertions of government agencies and international organizations, consistently failing to reveal their sources.”(Weitzer, 7) Many celebrities have been claiming to becoming an expert on trafficking, however many pronounce their activism in hopes on enhancing their careers and reputations, not caring if there information they are talking about is correct(Weitzer, 7). The number one reason why studying trafficking is so difficult is the fact that “definitional problems plague both scholarly and policy discussions of human trafficking. Critiques of the literature often point to the lack of consents on the definition of trafficking” (Weitzer,8). Along with the fact that there isn’t a consist definition of trafficking, also statics that are out there have no evidence to support the findings. It is crucial to analyze and examine the quality of data sources and the procedures that these data sources are using (Weitzer, 9). Another main issue that Weizer brings up is the fact that there are huge differences in numbers of those being trafficked because of victims being identified and the numbers the authorities are prosecuting, this is because of the fact the differencing government systems (Weizer, 10). Weizer ends the with the thought “it is impossible to satisfactorily count the number of persons involved in or the magnitude of profits within an illicit,