Funded by IPA’s Human Trafficking Research Initiative and in collaboration with IPA Mexico, the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and its Specialized Prosecutor for Human Trafficking, and the Mexico City Ministry of Citizen Security, researchers are conducting an exploratory study to assess whether an inter-agency coordination model can improve the identification, investigation, and prosecution of human trafficking cases. Results will be available in 2027.

The Challenge

Human trafficking is among the most underreported and underprosecuted crimes in low- and middle-income countries. These challenges are present in Mexico, where more than 90 percent of trafficking victims have not been identified by legal systems and just 731 investigations resulted from 2,219 hotline reports in 2023.¹ Common challenges include fragmented intelligence across agencies, a reliance on victim-initiated complaints, and low institutional trust. Given these constraints, there is a significant need for authorities to develop more robust trafficking identification and enforcement strategies that can in turn help more victims obtain justice.

One potential approach to improve trafficking prosecution is focused deterrence, a law enforcement strategy that uses intensive, inter-agency task forces to identify the highest-risk offenders and their networks, enabling targeted, coordinated responses across agencies. The approach has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing group-involved violence and drug market activity in different contexts, including a prior homicide reduction initiative in Mexico City. The principles of focused deterrence have been shown to travel well to other crimes, but they have not been rigorously evaluated in the context of human trafficking. There is an opportunity to test whether the approach can be adapted to address the specific institutional barriers that impede trafficking prosecution in Mexico City.

The Research

In collaboration with IPA Mexico, the Mexico City AGO, and the Mexico City Ministry of Citizen Security, researchers are assessing whether a focused deterrence inter-agency task force can improve the identification, investigation, and prosecution of human trafficking cases. The main goals of this exploratory phase are strengthening implementer buy-in and engagement, documenting organizational adaptations required for sustained inter-agency collaboration, and generating preliminary evidence on task force effectiveness.

The task force will integrate the Mexico City AGO’s human trafficking specialized prosecutor, the Mexico City police and its intelligence division, and eventually supporting agencies including labor courts, business licensing and administrative verification offices, health services, and civil society organizations. Core activities of this phase include:

• Formulate a learning agenda for this proof-of-concept together with the AGO and specialized prosecutor for human trafficking.
• Collaborate with the AGO and specialized prosecutor to map the complete process of criminal case assignment, including: Process of victims to report a crime; sources of case origination (e.g., complaints, referrals, ongoing investigations); institutional actors responsible for case intake and registration; existing classification and flagging protocols for potential human trafficking cases.
• Together with the specialized prosecutor and Mexico City police force, formulate guidelines for inter-agency information sharing and identify additional task force participants from relevant government agencies.
• Coordinate a detailed problem analysis with task force participants to identify challenges in case identification and case file integration, and complementarities in each agency’s information.
• Define expected short- and medium-term outcomes with the specialized prosecutor and Mexico City police.
• Assess the completeness and reliability of administrative data to determine its suitability for tracking outcomes.
• Secure authorization from the participating agencies to continue working with the task force after the conclusion of this exploratory phase.

To measure how actively agencies are engaging in the task force, researchers will monitor attendance at meetings, how often agencies share or request case file information across agencies, and participant feedback through debriefs. To measure early results, researchers will track whether the task force leads to more victims, cases, and perpetrators being identified.

Results will inform whether the task force model is suitable for a future pilot and randomized evaluation.

Results

Results will be available in 2027.

Sources

^1. Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad y Justicia Ciudad de México. (2024). Un Modelo Único Contra La Trata. Reporte Anual 2023-2024 de la Línea y Chat Nacional Contra la Trata de Personas. https://consejociudadanomx.org/contenido/cuarto-reporte-de-trata-66a11ac3039ea

Implementing Partners