Communications of the ACM
Data Science Students Take Aim at Human Trafficking
Sophie Wagner (left) and Crysta Price (right) in front of their poster on Disrupting Human Trafficking.
Credit: Creighton University
Two Creighton University graduate students in the University's data science program are using their study of computer science, international relations, and "fuzzy math" to combat one of the world's most pernicious problems.
Crysta Price and Sophie Wagner have been using Big Data models to find ways to disrupt the practice of human trafficking, a crime affecting some 27 million people worldwide, including about 6 percent of those victims who end up in the United States. Earlier this year, Price and Wagner presented their research at the Political Networks Conference at McGill University in Montreal.
Along with Terry Clark, director of Creighton's graduate program in international relations, the students have also hosted the FBI and shared some of their painstakingly researched strategies, which place less emphasis on eliminating the kingpins in the criminal structure and put more attention at the margins of the trafficking flow, creating a bottleneck whereby supply can more readily be cut off.
"I think that everybody knows that the kingpin strategy doesn't work," says Price, who holds a bachelor's degree in international relations from Creighton. "But from the academic perspective, there hasn't been a better alternative. What we're suggesting is a new targeting strategy that ensures you make a network more vulnerable."
Price and Wagner are refining their research and making it ready for publication, something they hope will bring more attention to both the field of data science and the humanitarian crisis that is human trafficking.
"This is a human issue," says Wagner, who also has an undergraduate degree from Creighton in international relations. "And I think we saw that it was a human issue that was hard to do. Fighting it happened slowly. There was a real need for automation and this seemed like a really good way to solve a problem that might otherwise seem unsolvable."
Using road maps, trade and migration routes combined with dark network theory, Price and Wagner began to focus on the patterns traffickers use to move victims. Traffickers often pass through multiple nations to obfuscate their activity and stay aloof from international law enforcement efforts to crackdown on trafficking.
In the domestic model, the students keyed on major commercial events towards which human traffickers will often gravitate. Looking at websites which peddle trafficking victims, Price and Wagner noticed that, even during the College World Series in Omaha this summer, there was a spike in activity in the area, suggesting the presence of human trafficking.
While the tactics the students are using might also be employed to go after international terrorists or drug cartels, Price and Wagner say taking aim at human trafficking is an especially positive, compassionate goal to which they remain committed. The two hope to further their research and help more law enforcement agencies fight human trafficking, both at home and abroad. Though their work has those broader implications, both Price and Wagner say they find the service component of their research is the main inspiration for their continued study.
"It's easy to stay committed when you have something like human trafficking to work on," Wagner says. "It's always tied back to reality."
"It's really a great way to do service work," Price says. "When you can really maximize what you get to learn here and apply it in such a way that you can still do service, it's been incredible."
Price and Wagner's project was awarded the "Best Substantive Contribution" poster award at the Political Networks Conference.
The data science program at Creighton is an interdisciplinary program combining faculty and curriculum across the academic departments of mathematics, computer science, political science, and international relations.
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