Human Trafficking Response Through a Public Health Lens 

December 17, 2025
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Here at Justice U, we work to garner the resources and skills of diverse people, equip them with knowledge, and help them understand the value of a collaborative and thoughtful approach to addressing both human trafficking itself and the conditions that allow it to happen. 

While our work is intersectional, a public health framework remains central to how we understand the problem and shape effective responses.

Public health is focused on disease and injury prevention, protection, and health promotion (Caron, Noel, Reed, Sibel, & Smith, 2023). As it should be, a critical step in public health research is gaining a deep understanding of a problem, by asking questions like:

  • What factors make people more vulnerable? 
  • Which treatments, interventions, and prevention strategies actually work? 
  • How do we measure the scope of the problem and the effectiveness of our responses? 

As we gather this information, we can take a multi-pronged approach by addressing prevention, implementing targeted interventions, and shaping policy and advocacy efforts. This holistic strategy then ensures that solutions are informed, effective, and sustainable. To learn more about public health research priorities in an easy-to-understand way, this editorial from HEAL Trafficking leaders is a great place to start.

Understanding Vulnerabilities Across Ecological Levels

We know that human trafficking vulnerabilities occur at the individual, interpersonal, community, and societal levels. Examples of vulnerabilities at the individual level include substance use or marginalization based on factors such as race, disability, or sexual orientation. Interpersonal vulnerabilities can include experiences of family violence, such as child abuse, or domestic violence. Community factors can include low employment and housing opportunities, while societal factors may include concerns such as immigration status and inadequate social supports (Greenbaum et al., 2025; Salami et al., 2021; World Health Organization [WHO], 2023). To end trafficking, our collective response must not only address it from each of these levels but do so from a public health perspective. 

Why is trafficking a public health issue?

Human trafficking doesn’t solely impact individuals. It’s consequences echo through families, communities, and entire systems.

This impact on populations includes: (Barnert et al., 2022; Murdock et al., 2022; Peck et al., 2020; WHO, 2023; Wood, 2020): 

  • Spread of sexually transmitted infections 
  • Communicable diseases 
  • Substance abuse 
  • Mental health  
  • Child abuse and neglect  
  • Prenatal care 
     

Public Health Strategies for Addressing Trafficking

When addressing trafficking as a public health issue, Greenbaum (2020) offers several overarching key considerations including: 

1. Collecting or Strengthening Data Collection  

Monitoring and collecting data about a population that matters in a public health context can be challenging for several reasons, including creation of and interpretation of legal definitions of crimes and victims; data tracking and sharing amongst governmental, nongovernmental, and health professionals; and the ability of relevant people to identify victims and survivors. However, depending on your professional role, you can advocate for: 

  • Creating comprehensive, survivor-informed legal definitions and responses 
  • Using data collection instruments that are rigorous and trauma-informed 
  • Adopting physical locations and processes that foster trust, identification, and collaboration 

2. Determining and addressing vulnerability and protective factors through research

Strong qualitative and quantitative research is needed to clearly identify risk profiles, assess effectiveness of screening tools and prevention strategies, and evaluate costs associated with human trafficking on public and family systems. 

You may be able to advocate for: 

  • Collecting data on organizational resources spent addressing human trafficking 

3. Creating effective prevention strategies  

To effectively address the complex issue of human trafficking, interventions and programs must work to identify individuals with experience of trafficking or those at increased risk and reduce the factors that contribute to trafficking. 

You may be able to advocate for: 

  • Integrating questions about abuse and trafficking into service provision in medical, academic, criminal legal, substance abuse treatment, and other systems 
  • Using existing research to address issues like homelessness, employment and education barriers, and other unmet needs in order to reduce factors that increase trafficking risk 

4. Scaling effective programs for broad adoption 

Interventions should be evaluated for effectiveness. If they have been shown to be effective, it’s then crucial to disseminate what was learned and how it was done so that others can replicate it or tailor it to new populations or communities.  

You may be able to advocate for: 

  • Building and strengthening partnerships based on your expertise and community connections (One example is developing trauma-informed career training and mentorship programs for vulnerable populations, including human trafficking survivors. Hire Hope and AnnieCannons both do this.) 
  • Sharing lessons learned in community forums and seeking feedback from impacted community members, including trafficking survivors 
  • Publishing methods papers if in a research field 

Moving Toward Collective Solutions

Human trafficking has an impact across many groups and requires coordination of efforts between sectors, professions, and communities. The beauty of a public health lens is that it can lead us to solutions grounded in those same sectors, professions, and communities.

A public health approach offers a unifying framework—one that emphasizes prevention, data, collaboration, and sustainable solutions grounded in community realities.

Importantly, you do not have to be a public health researcher to apply this approach. Whether you work in healthcare, education, social services, law, advocacy, policy, or community leadership, a public health lens can help illuminate the root causes of trafficking and pave the way for solutions that work.

By deepening our understanding of the problem, we can better determine our unique roles in creating change—and move collectively toward a future where trafficking no longer has the conditions it needs to thrive.

References

  • Barnert, E. S., Bath, E., Heard-Garris, N., Lee, J., Guerrero, A., Biely, C., Jackson, N., Chung, P. J., & Dudovitz, R. (2022). Commercial sexual exploitation during adolescence: A US-based national study of adolescent to adult health. Public Health Reports, 137(Supplement 1), 53S–62S. https://doi.org/10.1177/00333549211054082 
  • Caron, R. M., Noel, K., Reed, R. N., Sibel, J., & Smith, H. J. (2023). Health promotion, health protection, and disease prevention: Challenges and opportunities in a dynamic landscape. AJPM Focus, 3(1), 100167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.focus.2023.100167 
  • Greenbaum, J., Burke, T. W., Ravi, A., Smith, C. A., Ahn, R., Barnert, E., Berliner, L., Christian, C. W., Crawford-Jakubiak, J. E., Duffy, J. Y., Hymel, K. P., Kellogg, N., Moles, R. L., Powers, E., Schecter, M., Sells, J. M., & Thackeray, J. D. (2025). Human trafficking and exploitation of children and adolescents: Policy statement. Pediatrics, 156(1), e2025072214. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2025-072214 
  • Murdock, L., Hodge-Williams, C., Hardin, K., & Rood, C. J. (2022). Youth survivor perspectives on healthcare and sex trafficking. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 66, 95–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedn.2022.05.020 
  • Peck, J. L., Meadows-Oliver, M., Hays, S. M., & Maaks, D. G. (2020). White paper: Recognizing child trafficking as a critical emerging health threat. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 35(3), 260–269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedhc.2020.01.005 
  • Salami, T., Gordon, M., Babu, J., Coverdale, J., & Nguyen, P. T. (2021). Treatment considerations for foreign-born victims of human trafficking: Practical applications of an ecological framework. Transcultural Psychiatry, 58(2), 293–306. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461520983950 
  • Wood, L. C. N. (2020). Child modern slavery, trafficking and health: A practical review of factors contributing to children’s vulnerability and the potential impacts of severe exploitation on health. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 105(7), 622–630. https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2019-318278 
  • World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe. (2023). Addressing human trafficking through health systems: A scoping review. World Health Organization. https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/365754