Our research question is “What level of knowledge does the average Miami University first-year student have on the subject of human trafficking and how can the University better provide resources to increase awareness?”. The general research area of our project is social sciences with a focus on social justice. We began to research this topic by conducting a literature review to get needed background information on our topic and what questions might be relevant to ask students in our survey. Then, we created a survey with five questions pertaining to our topic and sent it to first year undergraduate students at Miami University through social media posts. After compiling data from the surveys, we invited students to a focus group in order to get more detailed qualitative data on their knowledge. Ohio is known as one of the biggest human trafficking hospots of the United States, particulary in Columbus. College students especially, are susceptible to certain recruitment tactics. One major finding that we found is that most of the college students that took our survey rated their knowledge on human trafficking as somewhat knowledgable. We also found that most college students got a majority of their knowledge of human trafficking from social media, but 56% of the students said that they would be interested in taking a course on human trafficking as an elective if Miami University offered it. Moving forward, there needs to be more sources of knowledge on human trafficking being offered to college students so that they have a better understanding of human trafficking and feel more prepared to combat the issue. Despite our group being composed of different majors, this project has been relevant to each of our career paths. For those of us who won’t conduct research as a part of our careers, the group setting has been important in forming a foundation for working with a diverse group of people from different backgrounds, something that is inevitable in not only our future careers but our lives in general.
Authors: Nathan Spence, Allison Dixon, Destinee Henderson, Valentina Santiago, Grace Stewart
Advisors: Joyce Fernandes, Undergraduate Research / Carolyn Craig, College of Arts and Sciences / Abigail Morgan, University Libraries / Katie Gibson, University Libraries
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