In the summer of 2014, Forum News Service set out to shed light on what we saw as a growing problem in North Dakota: human trafficking. It wasn’t until we began reporting that we realized truly what a serious issue the state had on its hands. Not only because of the depravity of the crimes taking place, but also because of the difficulties in detecting trafficking victims and given the unique nature of the Oil Patch, where the high ratio of men to women has created an issue of supply and demand.
We immediately got to work.
We set two newspaper reporters and one TV reporter loose for six months to investigate the issues surrounding trafficking. We conducted more than 100 interviews and reviewed even more documents in an effort to understand the problems facing the Bakken region and beyond. We traveled from Williston to Minneapolis to Washington, D.C. in pursuit of the story. And while our reporting found the state beginning to take a closer, more serious look at trafficking, we also found there is much work to do in order to handle the emerging crisis.
Read our full report here: http://www.traffickedreport.com/
