Human Trafficking: Motivation to Prevent, Protect, and Prosecute
April 2027 | City Campus Union | Registration is Free & Open to the Public
Organized by Richard Wiener & Rochelle Dalla
In 2025, the U.S. Department of State and the International Labor Organization (ILO) calculated that there were approximately 27.6 million trafficking victims worldwide at any given time. One reason for the high rate of trafficking is the challenge that law enforcement and prosecutors face in bringing cases against traffickers, in part, because of their difficulty in obtaining the cooperation of trafficking survivors (Hogan, 2018). One proposed solution to this problem of a lack of victim cooperation is a victim-centered approach, which supports offering services to trafficking victims and then seeking their assistance in investigating, arresting, and prosecuting trafficking. Such an approach prioritizes victims’ needs to minimize the trauma that victims suffer and secure the assistance of survivors in investigations, arrests, and prosecutions. This symposium will examine the problem of human trafficking from social science and legal perspectives to understand better ways to prevent trafficking, protect survivors, and prosecute traffickers.
Poster Submissions: We welcome submissions that address various aspects of human trafficking, including but not limited to psychological and social factors that drive human trafficking, analyses of how motivations to protect survivors and prosecute traffickers are expressed within different institutions, and investigations on ways to prevent trafficking. More general studies of factors related to sexual and labor abuse posters will also be considered for inclusion in the Nebraska Symposium poster session.
If you are interested in submitting an abstract, please use the link provided below to complete the registration materials. You’ll be asked to provide identifying information and an abstract (100-300 words). We will accept abstracts on a rolling basis. The deadline to submit a poster presentation is March 18, 2027.
Pease spread the word on the call for posters to graduate students, law students, and undergraduate students. And… we hope to see you at the Nebraska Symposium on Motivation this April!
We are excited to welcome our distinguished keynote speakers for 2027!
Anna Brewer
Nebraska Attorney General's Office & Retired FBI Special Agent
"Realizing, Recognizing, and Responding to Human Trafficking"
Dr. Temilola Salami
Prairie View A&M University
"The Recognition-Response Gap: From Human Trafficking Identification to Hospital-Based Case Management and Care"
Dr. Teresa Kulig
University of Nebraska - Omaha
"Using Surveys of the General Population to Measure Sex Trafficking Victimization"
Dr. Meridith Dank
New York University, Marron Institute
"How to Identify and Address Vicarious Trauma when working with highly Vulnerable Populations"
Dr. Tom Lyon
The University of Southern California, Gould School of Law
"Barriers to prosecution of child sexual abuse and child sex trafficking"
Dr. Jodi Quas
The University of California Davis
"Understanding the Changing Ecology of Child Sexual Exploitation: Implications for Identification and Intervention"
Dr. Laura Dryjanska
University of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński Institute of Psychology (Poland)
"Why People Act—and Why Systems Must Listen: Motivation, Social Context, and Lived Experience in Trafficking Response"
Nancy Sidun (PsyD, ABPP, ATR)
Honolulu County, Private Practice
"Human Trafficking: From Understanding to Action—Advancing Research, Practice, and Prevention"
Meet the Symposium Organizers
Dr. Richard Wiener
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Department of Psychology & College of Law
