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17 Police Q. 3 (2014)

handle is hein.journals/policqurt17 and id is 1 raw text is: Article Police Quarterly 2014, Vol. 17(1) 3-29 Environmental and ©2013 SAGE Publications Reprints and permissions: Institutional Influences on sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1 177/1098611113495050 Police Agency Responses to pqx.sagepub.corn Human Trafficking *AGE Amy Farrell' Abstract In response to domestic and international concern about individuals being exploited for labor or commercial sex, the U.S. Government passed legislation in 2000, creating a new crime of human trafficking and devoting resources to the identification of victims and prosecution of perpetrators. Since that time, all 50 states have passed legislation criminalizing trafficking of persons, yet law enforcement responses to these new legal mandates have been uneven. Recent research suggests police agencies are generally unprepared to identify and respond to human trafficking incidents in local communities and, as a result, relatively few cases have been identified. Using data from medium-to-large municipal police agencies in the United States, this research examines competing explanations for the adoption of responses in the wake of new human trafficking laws. The findings suggest the importance of institutional explanations including organizational experience with change. Keywords human trafficking, legal change, innovation When social problems are defined as criminal threats, government officials commonly seek remedy in the creation of new criminal offenses. Studies of this process in vagrancy (Chambliss, 1964), alcohol prohibition (Gusfield, 1963), computer crime (Hollinger & Lanza-Kaduce, 1988) and hate crime (Jenness & Grattet, 1996, 2001) 'Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA Corresponding Author: Amy Farrell, School of Criminology and Criminal justice, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Email: am.farrell@neu.edu

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