"Human trafficking, often called “modern-day slavery,” occurs on a massive scale, trapping thousands of victims in lives of incredible suffering with seemingly no way to escape. It does not necessarily involve transporting people across borders, but it does involve victimization and serious crimes committed within the U.S. Responding to this scourge requires knowing who and where victims are. To this end, the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) completed a two-year study, Improving Trafficking Victim Identification. The study created, field tested, and validated the first-ever screening tool that can reliably identify adult and minor victims of sex and labor trafficking, both U.S. and foreign-born. The tool is a statistically validated 30-topic questionnaire designed to elicit evidence of trafficking victimization. Vera also researched the best way to conduct interviews with potential victims in order to facilitate trust between interviewers and respondents. With national dissemination, this screening tool should lead to better identification of trafficking victims and improved responses to victims by law enforcement, other legal professionals, and service providers in various types of agencies and settings." At this website, one can get: the Research Summary; the technical report "Improving Human Trafficking Victim Identification- Validation and Dissemination of a Screening Tool-Final Report"; "Guidelines for Administering the Trafficking Victim Identification Tool (TVIT)"-Long and Short Versions; and TVIT Long and Short Versions in Spanish.
