Dr. Joan Reid, USFSP deploy new weapon in the fight against human trafficking

Dr. Joan Reid wants people to know that human trafficking is happening right in their neighborhoods, and it largely goes undetected.

With the recent opening of the Trafficking in Persons – Risk to Resilience (TIP) Lab at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, she aims to shed more light on these heinous crimes and the people that perpetuate them through scientific research and data.

Reid, a criminology professor at USFSP and director of the lab, has researched human trafficking in Florida since 2007 and has authored two books and over 50 articles on the subject. She has been on a research sabbatical during the 2021-2022 academic year, and her workload assignment “is 100% research-related responsibilities.”

Reid first became concerned with human trafficking while serving as a rape crisis counselor for Family Service Centers in Pinellas County.

“I realized we didn’t have a good understanding of the issue, what the causes were and what the solutions were,” Reid told the Catalyst. “So, I decided to go back and get my Ph.D. at USF to be able to conduct research.”

Reid said she felt methodically researching the problem was her niche, and how she could contribute to finding solutions. “Not everyone is excited about research,” she added.

From that time on, Reid has focused on the sex trafficking of girls in Florida. “Primarily because that’s where the emphasis was, and that’s where I could get data to analyze what’s happening.”

In March of 2020, Reid applied for and received a strategic investment award from USF research to open the TIP lab and get it off the ground. USFSP built a space for the lab, consisting of a conference room, three offices, and a place for students and faculty to conduct research together, along with the necessary equipment.

Reid noticed faculty across all three USF campuses researching human trafficking and called the new lab “one success of consolidation.”

“We’re all working together on this topic, and it has created a lot of synergies to not be researching this in isolation,” said Reid. “We pull from everyone’s strength and skill and work together as a team.”

Reid said one of the first things the TIP team did was conduct a needs assessment. Led by Dr. Shelly Wagers and several other faculty members and graduate students, the group interviewed over 100 anti-human trafficking stakeholders – primarily in Florida and starting in the Tampa Bay area – to ask what their most pressing needs are and how the lab could meet those needs.

“I don’t want to be isolated in an ivory tower just answering questions that are interesting to me,” said Reid. “I want to be a resource to those on the front lines.”

She said the team received a lot of feedback, and the most pressing need data on human trafficking, including incident trends – down to the neighborhoods where the crimes are occurring. Reid added that data is currently not available in Florida.

Reid said another immediate need voiced repeatedly was assistance in getting survivors services in real time. She said there is not a good way to immediately connect them to the services they need and called the process “antiquated.”

“If you can’t provide them (victims) with the services they need, they end up being exploited again,” said Reid.

While those were two of the most pressing needs that the TIP lab began work on immediately, Reid said they are currently conducting 10 other research projects that she called “more classical when you think of research.”

Reid said that partnering with local law enforcement agencies is an important component of their anti-human trafficking efforts. She mentions the St. Pete Police Department’s Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force, and adds the TIP lab has partnered with the Pasco County Sherriff’s Child Protective Unit to create profiles of past offenders, “to see if we can get a better understanding of how traffickers are operating.”

Reid said there are several components to combatting this crime, however. In addition to law enforcement, Reid said it is also critical to partner with other agencies such as the Department of Juvenile Justice and the Department of Children and Families.

When asked how serious the human trafficking problem is in St. Petersburg, Reid first laments the lack of data. She said organizations depend on data from National Human Trafficking Hotline, “and so it’s whoever calls in a human trafficking tip.”

“That’s just limited data because 10 people could call in a tip on one case, or no one calls in on some cases,” said Reid. “It’s a limited view of the scope of the problem in Florida.”

It’s still better than no data, she adds, and Florida is generally ranked third in the country in terms of the scope of the problem. She said the Tampa Bay area and Orlando also have some of the highest prosecution rates for human trafficking in the state.

“We have all the community risk factors,” said Reid. She mentions the influx of visitors, sporting events, large conferences and the reputation of the adult sex industry in the area as contributing factors.

Reid has high hopes for the TIP lab and is working with several legislators to name the facility as the official statewide human trafficking data center. She wants the TIP lab to provide a better picture of what is happening globally, all the way down to district-specific information in the city.

“The whole purpose of this lab is to get more information out there about this crime, so we can more effectively combat it.”