Stanford Human Trafficking Data Lab

A map of Brazil with many red dots marked — This map illustrates the locations of identified charcoal sites in the state of Maranhao, Brazil (red dots). The charcoal sites are scattered across the entire state, with clusters in the center and northwest regions. The background illustrates historical deforestation data from Prodes (2000-2023).

Each year, approximately 50 million people are trafficked into forced labor or sexual exploitation, generating billions of dollars in illicit profits for individual and corporate wrongdoers. Globally, policymakers are eager to find solutions to combat the problem, but they are hampered by a lack of data.

The Stanford Human Trafficking Data Lab was formed in 2019 to support anti-trafficking efforts globally through multidisciplinary research; close partnerships with frontline stakeholders; and large-scale, research-driven policy interventions. The lab’s flagship project is a first-of-its-kind data repository combining information about known human trafficking cases with administrative records on demographic context, social program coverage, geospatial patterns, environmental nexus, policy changes, and enforcement practices.

The lab has also received funding from the U.S. Department of State, Innovations for Poverty Action, the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery, the University of Georgia’s Center on Human Trafficking Research & Outreach, as well as several internal Stanford grants. To date, the lab’s efforts have been focused on Brazil, a regional powerhouse where trafficking is prevalent – as is government commitment to combating it – and where well-established transparency and record-keeping laws make data collection easier. The lab began its work on forced labor, but plans to expand its inquiries to sex trafficking in the near future. Projects are ongoing and include an analysis of the effects of a cash transfer program on survivors and their families, studying whether more intensive social support such as peer counseling can improve health and employment outcomes for survivors, and research on the impact of Brazil’s so-called Dirty List, which publicly identifies individuals and companies found to have participated in – and fined for participating in – trafficking schemes.

Two impact-focused tools the lab developed with local partners are already in use in Brazil. One uses artificial intelligence and satellite imagery to predict where illegal deforestation and forced labor likely converge in the Brazilian Amazon. A second tool, created in collaboration with anti-trafficking officials, is a decision-support solution designed to help law enforcement agencies focus their efforts on the highest-risk tips among the tens of thousands they receive each year.

Visit the lab website