“We consider USF’s St. Petersburg campus faculty to be leaders in the field of criminal justice,” said Ken Killian, director of Pasco’s Child Protective Investigations. “We value their partnership and unwavering commitment to conducting research that has the real possibility of improving the health and well-being of the people in our communities.” Reid has been working to combat human trafficking since the early 2000s. She has published more than 30 journal articles on the topic and her research was presented before the U.S. Congress in 2008 as part of a national report on domestic minor sex trafficking.
With a better understanding of their tactics, we can do a better job of helping prevent this from happening in our communities.
The TIP Lab was supported by a $92,000 USF Strategic Investment Award. Criminology Professors Shelly Wagers (USF’s St. Petersburg campus), Bryanna Fox (USF’s Tampa campus) and Fawn Ngo (USF’s Sarasota-Manatee campus) will serve as co-principal investigators.
USF ST. PETERSBURG CAMPUS
The lab’s custom logo was selected through a design challenge in Professor Jennifer Yucus’s graphic arts course. Winning student designers Abril Mojica Cabrera and Myhanh Le stated, “The design represents the network of resources and support between organizations such as the TIP Lab and the victims they serve.” In future projects, Reid hopes to broaden the lab’s approach to research on all forms of human trafficking and to work with partners in other states and countries to build and share knowledge to stop the spread of human trafficking.
“Right now, there’s a vacuum of information about the crimes and perpetrator tactics,” Reid said. “There’s not much known about how sex traffickers operate. Because of that, it’s hard to determine best practices for protection and prevention. This knowledge can be used in our own community, nation-wide and even globally to better understand how traffickers work.”
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