Colleen Owens

Research Associate I

Colleen Owens is a Research Associate with the Urban Institute's Justice Policy Center where she directs several national and international research projects on human trafficking -- spanning eight countries and five continents. She currently serves as co-Principal Investigator leading a National Institute of Justice-funded study to examine the organization, operation and victimization of labor trafficking in the United States. She is also Co-Principal Investigator for three U.S. Department of State-funded projects including an impact evaluation of a trafficking victim service provision program in Cambodia, a process evaluation of an anti-trafficking awareness raising initiative in Brazil, and a project identifying promising practices in anti-trafficking prosecution, prevention, protection, and partnership in Italy, Colombia and Taiwan. Ms. Owens served as Urban Institute Project Director for a National Institute of Justice (NIJ)-funded study with Northeastern University to examine challenges in the investigation and prosecution of state and local cases of human trafficking in twelve counties in the United States. She serves as the Urban Institute Project Director of the national Human Trafficking Reporting System (HTRS), a joint project with Northeastern University, to design and operate the first national data collection and reporting system on human trafficking victims and offenders in the United States. Ms. Owens is also involved in an NIJ-funded study to estimate the size of the unlawful commercial sex economy in the United States. She served as lead analyst of G/TIP-funded evaluability assessment of anti-trafficking programs in Africa and Asia, and conducted research on changes in federally prosecuted cases of the commercial sexual exploitation of children in the United States since the passage of the TVPA. She has been invited to speak about human trafficking before various national and international audiences.

Areas of expertise

human trafficking, trafficking in persons, labor trafficking, sex trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), juvenile justice, qualitative and quantitative research, legal analysis, impact evaluation, process evaluation, evaluability assessment.

Selected Publications from Colleen Owens

Publications by topic:
Crime and Justice

See all publications by Colleen Owens

Media Quotes and Appearances:

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/2011/05/13/302223/US-lauds.htm

To contact this expert, call the Office of Public Affairs (202) 261-5709 or e-mail publicaffairs AT urban.org