The Domino Effect: Explaining the Start and Growth of Institutionalized Response to Human Trafficking as a Social Problem in the United States

Elizabeth Trudeau, University of Notre Dame

Work which examines how public concern becomes translated into social and governmental institutional change has long been reliant on the theoretical concept of the “social problems cycle.” However while observed historical patterns often appear to follow the general pattern of- public and media concern, calls for action, and policy response- observing and actually measuring the causal mechanisms at play has proven difficult. As a result, our understanding of how the cycle of social problems operates has remained theoretical, general, and sometimes vague. In this project, I begin to address questions posed by this sociological “black box” by empirically modelling both potential causal factors and outcomes during a twenty year period in which the United States experienced a cycle of social problem attention and response regarding human trafficking. I use a novel data set combining census information, news articles from the Access News Database, and government and internet records about anti-human trafficking organizations in the U.S. By empirically testing three hypothesized factors about what influences institutional responses to social problems in the case of human trafficking responses, I demonstrate the benefit of quantitatively measuring and testing social problems cycles by detangling and describing the relationship between media, politics, and environment and the institutionalization of human trafficking as a social problem in the form of human trafficking task forces around the country.

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 Presented in Session 195. Production of Social Problems