Amy Farrell
Director and Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice; Co-Director of the Violence and Justice Research Lab
Professor Amy Farrell’s research is aimed at understanding and describing how the criminal justice system administers justice. Over the past decade she has focused much of her scholarly attention on understanding how the criminal justice system responds to the newly prioritized crimes such as human trafficking. Although not a new phenomenon, human trafficking was criminalized by the federal government in 2000. Since that time all fifty states have passed laws outlawing the practice of human trafficking and devoting resources to its identification and eradication. In support of this research, she has studied and published research about how local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies identify, investigate, and prosecute human trafficking cases.
Additionally, she has completed research projects examining labor trafficking victimization of both U.S. citizens and foreign nationals residing in the U.S. She also has conducted numerous studies examining how changes in state and federal human trafficking laws impact the identification and prosecution of human trafficking offenders. As part of this body of work, Professor Farrell has sought to understand how the public views the problem of human trafficking and what responses they expect from state and federal governments to address the problem. She testified about police identification of human trafficking before the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee. She was also appointed to the Massachusetts Attorneys General Human Trafficking Policy Task Force and currently serves on the Governors Working Group on Human Trafficking in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
In addition to studying criminal justice system responses to human trafficking victimization, Professor Farrell has examined how variable levels of racial group and gender representation among court workgroups relate differences in charging, adjudication, and sentencing.
- Understanding the Physical and Psychological Health and Wellness Needs of Minor Sex Trafficking Victims (January, 2021-December 31, 2023), Principal Investigator, National Institute of Justice, Grant # 2020-VT-BX-0111 ($955,786)
- Understanding the Trafficking of Children for the Purpose of Labor in the United States (January 1, 2020 – December 31, 2022), Principal Investigator, National Institute of Justice, Grant # 2019-VT-BX-0038 ($664,690).
- De Vries, Ieke and Amy Farrell (2022) Explaining the use of traditional law enforcement responses to human trafficking concerns in illicit massage businesses. Justice Quarterly. doi: 10.1080/07418825.2022.2051587
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07418825.2022.2051587
- Lockwood, Sarah*, Amy Farrell, Carlos Cuevas and Jesenia Robles.* (2022) Bias crime and victimization among Latinx adults: Formal and informal help seeking. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. doi: 10.1177/08862605211072175. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/08862605211072175
- Kafafian, Matthew, Ieke de Vries, Amy Farrell, Susan Goldfarb, Elizabeth Bouchard. 2021. Understanding factors associated with re-referral of youth for commercial sexual exploitation. Child Abuse and Neglect, 117. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0145213421001654
- Cuevas, Carlos, Amy Farrell, Jack McDevitt, Jesenia Robles, Sarah Lockwood, Isabel Geisler, Julie Van Westendorp, Jeff Temple, and Sheldon Zhang. 2021. Hate crime and bias victimization of Latinx adults: Rates from a multisite community sample. Psychology of Violence. 11(6): 529–538. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2021-68487-001
- de Vries, Ieke, Amy Farrell, Vanessa Bouche, Dana Wolfe. 2020. Crime frames and gender differences in the activation of crime concern and crime responses. Journal of Criminal Justice, 66. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047235219303460
- Farrell, Amy, Meredith Dank, Ieke de Vries*, Matthew Kafafian*, Andrea Hughes and Sarah Lockwood*. 2019. Failing victims: The police response to human trafficking. Criminology and Public Policy, 18(3): 649-673.
- Pennington, Liana* and Amy Farrell. 2019. The role of voice in the legal process. Criminology, 57(2): 343-368.
- Mentor of the Year Award, American Society Criminology, 2014
- W.E.B. DuBois Fellowship on crime, justice and culture, co-recipient, National Institute of Justice, 2006
- Graduate Research Fellowship, National Institute of Justice, 1999
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Education
PhD, Law, Policy and Society, Northeastern University, 2001
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Contact
617.373.7439 am.farrell@northeastern.edu -
Address
204 Churchill Hall
360 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
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Human Trafficking
CRIM 1400
Offers an overview of human trafficking in its various forms. Emphasizes understanding the experiences and needs of trafficking victims and the methods of operations of traffickers and their networks across various cultural contexts. The trafficking of persons for sex or labor through force, fraud, or coercion has become an increasingly serious problem in modern society. Federal, state, and local criminal justice authorities have been tasked with the responsibility of identifying and rescuing trafficking victims and prosecuting their perpetrators. Offers students an opportunity to critically evaluate the social and cultural practices that give rise to and support human trafficking in the United States and around the globe.
