{"pk":65606,"title":"Human Trafficking as a Community Issue: Prevalence and Reporting in the San Joaquin Valley","subtitle":null,"abstract":"<p>Human trafficking in the United States has seen an increase in prevalence every year for the past ten years since 2025. Still, not much research has been conducted in rural communities and the specific needs of these communities. Individuals residing in regions that are less developed have greater barriers to seeking help and education regarding human trafficking, such as longer distances compared to urban areas, a lack of community resources, and preexisting social stigmas surrounding smaller and rural communities. In this report, data have been collected from internet searches, non-profit organizations, and resources through the University of California databases to determine the disparities between the prevalence of human trafficking in the San Joaquin Valley and more developed, urban regions. Contrary to what a majority of community members assume, human trafficking is a major issue in the San Joaquin Valley; a majority of which are much higher than state and national averages. Implications from this research have also denoted a lack of funding and professional development for community members to combat human trafficking. Findings from this research suggest that the San Joaquin Valley has a lack of community- and education-based resources in addition to a lack of adequate identification and reporting for victims of human trafficking in all settings.</p>","language":"eng","license":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial  4.0","short_name":"CC BY-NC 4.0","text":"Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\n\nNonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.\n\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0"},"keywords":[],"section":"Articles","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1fz7x74n","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Grace","middle_name":"","last_name":"Grinder","name_suffix":"","institution":"","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2026-05-07T19:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/ucm_mwp_ucmurj/article/65606/galley/50235/download/"}]}