Research & Action

Research with the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking

We’re contributing data-driven insights to the broader anti-trafficking movement to advance a comprehensive response.

Using community-based, collaborative methods, we are working toward systemic solutions for long-lasting change.

An introduction to our work

Since 2005, we have been a leader in the movement to end human trafficking. Together with partners we advance progress through trainings, community-based research, the operation of Colorado’s 24/7 Human Trafficking Hotline, and the development of future human rights leaders.

Our approach to research

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Community Based

LCHT utilizes a Participatory Action Research approach to foster community action. This recognized form of research focuses on the effect of the researcher’s direct action of practice within a participatory community with the goal of improving the performance quality of the community or an area of concern.

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Collaborative

LCHT promotes diverse research participation among academics, activists, community service providers, law enforcement, survivors, and volunteers. We also integrate the expertise of coalitions, organizations, and individuals working on the ground in the anti-trafficking movement and related fields, as they are the most appropriate to inform promising practices.

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Toward a Solution

Where solutions to human rights issues often tend to be short-term, band-aid fixes, LCHT’s research instead seeks to create systemic solutions that accelerate long-lasting change by developing a clearer understanding of what is working in the field. We seek to identify promising practices in anti-trafficking and share them with our partners.

Our research projects

The Colorado Project 2019

In 2019, the second iteration of The Colorado Project was released and helped uncover what human trafficking looks like in Colorado, what has been done in the past to address it, and what we can do in the future to end it.

The Colorado Project 2013

The Colorado Project is a community-based, research-focused approach to ending human trafficking in Colorado that started in 2010 and first published in 2013.

Who Pays?

The goal of this study was to highlight potential points of intersection between prostitution and sex trafficking, in addition to the role of the criminal justice system in investigating and prosecuting buyers of commercial sex.

Research with the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking

We’re contributing data-driven insights to the broader anti-trafficking movement to advance a comprehensive response.

“It is not enough to know what efforts are out there. We have to begin to ask, what are the demonstrated outcomes in reducing human trafficking?”

Megan Morris

LCHT