Introduction
The 2016—2021 evaluation of the National Human Trafficking Hotline (NHTH) was conducted by RTI International through a contract from the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in collaboration with ACF’s Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP).
This brief provides detailed information on help seeking behavior from individuals accessing the NHTH, including what types of help they seek, what help they receive, and how NHTH staff interact with contactors.
Purpose and Research Questions
The overall purpose of this project was to develop and execute an evaluation of the NHTH, with the following specific objectives of the evaluation:
Describe the activities, procedures, and organization of the NHTH, including staff training, staff capacity, and service delivery.
Describe the customer service of the NHTH.
Describe the immediate outcomes of the NHTH, specifically regarding experiences of contactors.
Key Findings and Highlights
The NHTH processes a variety of contacts, only some of which are related to specific incidents of sex and/or labor trafficking. Potential victims of trafficking are more likely than other groups to contact the NHTH about a specific incident of trafficking. Additional contacts may be specific incidents deemed high risk for trafficking or a related crime, general requests related to trafficking, or general requests not related to trafficking. The NHTH may seek to learn how other, similar hotlines process out-of-scope contacts, to more efficiently move such contacts out of their queue. The NHTH may also consider adapting their public facing material (e.g., flyers) to clearly identify scope of service.
The NHTH offers a variety of responses to individuals who contact the hotline, including 1) referrals, 2) warm handoffs, or 3) reporting to law enforcement. NHTH Hotline Advocates consistently provide empathetic, emotionally appropriate responses to contactors. However, NHTH Hotline Advocates’ provision of referrals and connections to law enforcement are perceived to be less dependable. The NHTH may consider ways to further set expectations with contactors in regards to these topics. For example, Hotline Advocates may seek to consistently explain how the NHTH has no influence on whether law enforcement take additional action on the tips the NHTH provides.
To reduce the inefficiencies of referrals and reports, the NHTH may consider ways to continue to develop personalized relationships with their partnering agencies and referrals sources, including law enforcement. This may be done by having dedicated liaisons for key partners or stakeholder groups.
Methods
All evaluation data were collected by or in collaboration with the NHTH from 2016 through 2021. Eight data collection methods were used to inform the findings of the evaluation. Data collection methods, presented in the order in which they were collected, include:
- Review of NHTH database records
- Interviews with NHTH staff
- Interviews and focus groups with key NHTH partners
- Observational listening of NHTH contacts
- Case study interviews with law enforcement agencies receiving tips from the NHTH
- Assessment of the NHTH’s referral directory
- Case study of other similar national hotlines
- Follow-up survey with individuals contacting the NHTH
The primary data sources for this brief include exports from the NHTH’s case-level database for all contacts processed by the hotline from 2013 through 2018 (N = 253,326 contacts), NHTH staff interviews (n = 2 leaders, 13 staff), focus groups with service providers (n = 8) and survivors (n = 8), and data collected through observational listening conducted in May 2019 during site visits to the NHTH office (N = 301 calls observed). This brief is also supplemented by case-level data for all contacts processed by the hotline between June 2020 and January 2021 (N = 54,328 contacts).
Citation
Feeney, Hannah, Charm, Samantha, Hardison-Walters, Jennifer, and Kathleen Krieger (2023). Evaluation of the National Human Trafficking Hotline: Contactor Help Seeking and Hotline Response Brief. OPRE Brief # 2023-316. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Glossary
- NHTH:
- National Human Trafficking Hotline
- Individuals who have experienced trafficking/survivor:
- These phrases will be used interchangeably to refer to individuals who are experiencing or have experienced human trafficking. At the time of data collection, the NHTH used the term “potential victim of trafficking” and thus, this phrasing may be present throughout the reports and briefs.
- Contactors:
- Individuals who have accessed the NHTH via phone, text, webchat, or email. Contactors may or may not be survivors of human trafficking. At times, when specifying contactors who connected with the NHTH via phone, the word “callers” may be used. The NHTH refers to contactors as signalers but endorsed the use of contactors for the purposes of this brief for increased clarity.
- Contacts:
- Contacts are the individual level calls, texts, webchats, or emails received by the NHTH.
- Cases:
- Contacts are stored at the case level, whereby a case represents all calls, texts, webchats, and emails received regarding a particular circumstance of sex or labor trafficking. For example, if two independent community members contact the NHTH with two separate tips regarding the same potential victim, both contacts will be placed in the same case.