Kyleigh Feehs, Associate Legal Counsel at The Human Trafficking Institute, was interviewed on WSLS 10 News (Roanoke, Virginia) about The Federal Human Trafficking Report. The report, which is the first of its kind, gives a snapshot of the federal human trafficking cases across the country and Virginia over the past decade.

The report also shows which states are most actively combating human trafficking crimes and how the commonwealth measures up. A team of 12 attorneys and 8 law school students reviewed every human trafficking case in the federal court system in 2017.

Feehs, who was responsible for composing the report, says that she and the rest of the team hope that the data can be used as a policy tool:

“What we are realizing is that traffickers are currently acting with impunity and there is a need for accountability in this pace. As part of that process we wanted to publish this report to look at what we are doing here within the United States to increase those efforts to hold those traffickers accountable.”

Feehs explained that the report does not reflect the prevalence of the crime, but instead shows how aggressively law enforcement is pursuing the perpetrators.

“We really want these numbers to fuel conversation of what we can do to increase the amount of time that the defendant is ordered to pay restitution to his or her victim,” Feehs said.

Read the full story here.