Emails, Drew Brandewie, press secretary, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, Jan. 28, 2015
12:57 p.m.
- the figure came from the Department of Justice. It can be found here. This is the latest national study available that examines the citizenship status of trafficking victims. It has been used by members on both sides of the aisle including most recently Sen. Feinstein just two weeks ago, as well as anti-trafficking advocacy groups including Georgetown Law’s Center on Poverty and Inequality, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National Center for Victims of Crime, and Rights4Girls.
From: Selby, Gardner (CMG-Austin) [mailto:wgselby@statesman.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2015 3:26 PM
To: Brandewie, Drew (Cornyn)
Subject: Following up
Thanks.
A DOJ spokeswoman, Kara McCarthy, told us by email today the “data should be interpreted with caution because they aren’t nationally representative; they’re only based on task force data from some cities.”
McCarthy also advised: “All prostitutes under the age of 18 are considered sex trafficking victims under federal law (which was the definition we used for that collection).”
g.
3:44 p.m.
Sure, any set of data that forms the basis of a report is a snapshot (this happens to be an especially large, well-regarded one over 2 years in cities across the country however) and should be interpreted with caution. Does that mean a public official should never cite any study or report though? If the data should be interpreted with caution, why make the study public or do it all?
And did DoJ dispute the stat, or provide contrary data to what the Senator said? Have you been able to find a study with a larger sample size that contradicts what he said?
On her 2nd statement about minors, what is the question? I certainly hope that no one is suggesting a child prostitute is not a sex trafficking victim and thus those victims should not be counted in the study. As the father of two daughters, these young victims are one of the reasons Sen. Cornyn has been fighting for his legislation to end human trafficking for years.
Thanks,
Drew
3:56 p.m.
Also, I read the entire report and nowhere in it does the word “caution” appear. In fact, they break down the data into two categories: data garnered by a “High Data Quality Task Forces” and “Low Data Quality Task Forces.” The citizenship data was confirmed by “High Data Quality Task Forces” (P 6, table 5).
4:11 p.m.
Also, I would encourage you to contact Malika Saar at Humans Rights Project for Girls and Faiza Mathon-Mathieu at Ending Child Prostitution and Trafficking about the 80% figure.
Malika@rights4girls.com
5:32 p.m.
And again, I would stress the following:
1) This is the latest study out there
2) The 80% comes from “high data quality” task forces
3) If people shouldn’t use the data, why did DoJ do the study and present the information?
From: Selby, Gardner (CMG-Austin) [mailto:wgselby@statesman.com]
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2015 1:15 PM
To: Brandewie, Drew (Cornyn)
Subject: Update
I am sharing a fresh email from the federal statistician, below.
Separately, we interviewed Carol Smolenski of a Brooklyn advocacy group (focused on child trafficking) who said about the same thing. Generally, she said, there isn’t good data. Also, she said, the 83 percent figure likely overstates the share of U.S. citizens who are victims because international victims living here tend to live in international communities where such activities are less likely to be nabbed by law enforcement.
g.
From: Kyckelhahn, Tracey
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2015 8:30 AM
To: Selby, Gardner (CMG-Austin)
Subject: human trafficking numbers
Mr. Selby:
The raw numbers for the 83% figure are 345 U.S. citizens over 419 total victims with known citizenship status.
These numbers are not national numbers. They’re based only on some task forces.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Tracey Kyckelhahn, Ph.D.
Statistician
Bureau of Justice Statistics
U.S. Department of Justice