FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. –According to the United Nations, 2.5 million people are victims of human trafficking around the world; the U.S. government estimates that between 14,000 and 18,000 people are victims of human trafficking in the United States.

The University of Arkansas and Let’s Bring Them Home, a national nonprofit providing safety education and services for families with missing loved ones, are partnering to offer a free conference, “Human Trafficking: Modern-Day Slavery in the United States and Around the World” from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, Sept. 4, in the E.J. Ball Courtroom at the School of Law.

Conference organizers hope to raise awareness about the problem of human trafficking, a form of modern-day slavery in which people are coerced into working in factories, agriculture and prostitution, for example. Solving the problem of human trafficking requires increasing knowledge and awareness among law enforcement, attorneys, the news media and members of the general public.

"We are looking forward to bringing this conference to the University of Arkansas campus. Human trafficking is a growing national and international problem,” said James Lampinen, professor of psychology in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and one of the conference organizers. “The U.S. State Department estimates that it is the third-most profitable criminal enterprise in the world. According to the Department of Justice, one of the most important things that can be done to address the problem of human trafficking is to increase knowledge and awareness among law enforcement, service providers, the media and the public at large. We hope to contribute to that goal with this conference.”

“Simply put, human trafficking is slavery under a new name,” said Uche Ewelukwa, associate professor of law and one of the conference organizers. “Just as trans-Atlantic slavery required a global response, human trafficking requires a concerted global response, genuine collaboration between origin-countries’ governments and destination-countries’ governments, collaboration between the private sector and the public sector, and the active involvement of civil society groups. The victims of human trafficking deserve no less. I hope that this conference will put a human face to this wicked practice and shed light on the local as well as global dimensions of the practice. No country, rich or poor, developed or developing, is immune from human trafficking.

Speakers at the conference will include:

Mary Crawford (University of Connecticut): Crawford is professor of psychology and former director of the Women’s Studies Program at the University of Connecticut. As a Fulbright Senior Scholar in 2004-05, she lived and worked in Kathmandu, Nepal, where she investigated the trafficking of young girls into forced prostitution. Her forthcoming book, Sex Trafficking in South Asia: Telling Maya’s Story, is a memoir about the experience of doing research with women in Nepal and a critical analysis of the social representation of sex trafficking in South Asia.

Special Agent Dixon A. Land (Federal Bureau of Investigation):Land, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for 20 years, is currently the coordinator of the FBI’s civil rights division for Arkansas. Land will be speaking about law enforcement responses to human trafficking.

Kim A. McCabe (Lynchburg College):McCabe is a professor of criminology and dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Lynchburg College, Virginia. Her research interests include police policy, victimization and human trafficking. She is the author of more than 30 publications, including three books. She has secured approximately $700,000 in funding over the last decade to explore and evaluate various social issues and she has served on many advisory boards. In addition, she guest lectures to many public and private organizations on the topics of victimization and criminal justice procedures.

Kara Franker (Shared Hope International):Franker is a Legal Fellow with Shared Hope International and she published a written research assessment on domestic minor sex trafficking in south Florida. Franker was a recipient of a 2008 Public Service Fellowship awarded by the Florida Bar Foundation for her research on the commercial sexual exploitation of children in Miami, Fla. 

Please register in advance for the conference. Register online at http://comp.uark.edu/~lampinen/HTConference.htm.

The conference is sponsored by Let’s Bring Them Home, the Department of Psychology in Fulbright College and the School of Law at the University of Arkansas.