Innovative Methods for Estimating the Prevalence of Labor Trafficking: A Comparison of Time-Location and Network Sampling Studies on a Construction Worker Population

Abstract

The authors tested an experimental methodology based on time-location and network sampling designs to assess their utility in studying labor trafficking victimization among the construction worker population in the city of Houston, USA. The time-location design commenced with a selection of registered sites followed by a search within proximity to find additional sites. We seeded the network sampling design with these respondents and day laborers recruited at other venues; we observed 903 and 262 individuals respectively. Labor-trafficking prevalence estimates were moderately discrepant between site types in the time-location strategy, and markedly different across the time-location and network strategies. We concluded that the methodology could provide efficient estimates for certain domains, and a hybrid methodology should be considered in future studies.