New journal addresses human trafficking

The Journal of Human Trafficking, a new scholarly journal taking an interdisciplinary approach to a highly complex human rights issue, is set to launch. The Journal of Human Trafficking enters its first volume year in 2015 under Editor-in-Chief Rochelle L. Dalla, PhD of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

“Human trafficking” has come to represent more than just the transit of its victims, covering instead a wide range of abuses with ties to child welfare, migration, smuggling, prostitution, gender roles, alongside myriad aspects of globalization. As such, human trafficking research has grown incredibly diffuse, a barrier to progress that the Journal of Human Trafficking challenges by providing a centralized scholarly resource for the growing ranks of concerned parties. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

• pre-trafficking circumstances/conditions
• recruitment
• experiences of varied types of exploitation
• resistance
• re-integration
• research methods
• popular representations of human trafficking
• rehabilitation & care for victims
• prevention
• prosecution of traffickers
• public policy
• intervention & rescue

“The idea behind this was born out of the realization that there was a need for a journal that could serve as a central, international and interdisciplinary repository for the most up to date and comprehensive work, research, policy, and issues focused on human trafficking,” says Donna Sabella, PhD, RN, Director of Global Studies & the Office of Human Trafficking at Drexel University and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Human Trafficking. “Having such a resource is invaluable to those wanting to learn more, to those working in the field, and to those who have information to share.”

The Journal of Human Trafficking is seeking submissions from academics, researchers, and practitioners covering a wide variety of subject areas, such as anthropology, criminology, family studies, social work, sociology, international relations, law, medicine, psychology, gender studies, political science, and public policy, among others. While the journal is research-focused, it carries the potential to open up much-needed lines of dialogue between academics and practitioners as a unified venue for perspectives on theory, applied research, and practical understanding.