The Nature and Extent of Gang Involvement in Sex Trafficking in San Diego County, California, 2003-2015

This three-year study used quantitative and qualitative data collected between 2003 and 2015 to assess the scale and nature of gang involvement in sex trafficking in San Diego, California. At the time of study, San Diego was ranked as one of the United States' highest areas of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC). This mixed-methods study has generated the following datasets:

Survivor Services Dataset (DS1 and DS2): A composite of intake surveys conducted by the prostitution diversion program Freedom From Exploitation (FFE) (DS1) and eight organizations that provide direct services to sex trafficking victims/survivors (DS2)
Law Enforcement Reporting Dataset (DS3 and DS4): Booking records provided by the San Diego Sheriff's Department (DS3), and arrest records provided by the Automated Regional Justice Information System (ARJIS) (DS4)
Schools Dataset (DS5): Summaries of focus group interviews of staff employed by San Diego County school districts (due to disclosure concerns, full transcripts were not released)
Facilitator Interview Dataset (DS6): Summaries of interviews of incarcerated and community members with knowledge of trafficking (due to disclosure concerns, full transcripts were not released)
Social Media Analytics Dataset (DS7): Search criteria and schema of relevant data fields for social network analysis conducted using Twitter data (due to disclosure concerns and dataset size, the social media data themselves were not released)
Survivor services, law enforcement, schools, and facilitator interview data were all collected and analyzed as part of the main NIJ award. The social media analytics data were collected and analyzed under a subaward by the SecDev Cyber Group.