What We Do

At the CJR we leverage research, advocacy and innovation, dedicated to justice and reconciliation, to transform our community through social change.

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Research

The CJR maintains an action-research agenda, studying sex and labor trafficking in San Diego.

The groundbreaking study, led by Dr. Jamie Gates, "Measuring the Nature and Extent of Gang Involvement in Sex Trafficking in San Diego," focused narrowly on one of the most understudied aspects of human trafficking in the United States: the relationship of street gangs as facilitators of sex trafficking. Researchers gathered and analyzed data from hundreds of current and former gang-affiliated individuals, schools, law enforcement agencies, and victim service providers.

Data was collected from 1,205 individuals, making it one of the largest, most comprehensive human trafficking case studies in the U.S. to date. This included 156 gang-affiliated persons and/or traffickers, 702 first-time prostitution offenders, 189 survivors from eight victim services programs, and 140 county school administrators and staff. The study is a large-scale model of collaborative research to affect policy and practice, and serves as a national model for future research on human trafficking more broadly. View the full executive summary.

HT-RADAR
In early 2016, the CJR was awarded a County of San Diego contract to manage a regional human trafficking collaborative research effort in the San Diego/Tijuana region. The Human Trafficking Research and Data Advisory Roundtable (HT-RADAR) facilitates collaboration among researchers, identifies research funding, shares data, and affects decision-making in the region with quality research. Learn more about HT-RADAR and get involved!
 

Innovation

kNOw MORE! Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention Curriculum
The CJR has developed a curriculum to tackle the challenge of preventing the recruitment of San Diego’s high school students into sex trafficking by targeting the most vulnerable students. Thanks to the support of donors and collaboration with our partners, including the San Diego Unified School District, the County Office of Education, Child Welfare Services, survivor leaders, law enforcement, and others, the curriculum launched in fall 2016. It is now a part of the San Diego Prevention Collective, a community project to bring trafficking prevention curricula to youth across our region. 

Beauty for Ashes Scholarship Fund
The Beauty for Ashes Scholarship has supported full-time students at PLNU, with our first three graduates earning their diplomas in December 2018 and May 2019. This scholarship for survivors of human trafficking is providing hope for a better life for victims all over the country. We believe it is stepping into what we do best — providing a college education in the nurturing environment of PLNU — and standing behind and caring for the most vulnerable.

OnRamps Collaborative
Survivors of human trafficking face an uncertain future, and vocational skills or an education can help them navigate to financial stability and permanently stay out of a life of exploitation. The OnRamps Collaborative is a community impact project, led by PLNU, that is opening up vocational and educational opportunities for survivors. Centered around the holistic health needs of survivors, OnRamps is coordinated by the CJR, in partnership with educational institutions and other organizations.

Advocacy

Student Movement
PLNU students have been at the heart of the global movement to end modern slavery. The student movement against human trafficking on PLNU’s campus, led by CJR student staff, is affecting the movement in our region and well beyond. Wear Justice is a student-designed campus movement to rethink consumerism through community, and features an annual week-long focus on more conscious and ethical consumer habits.

Churches Against Trafficking
The CJR supports the work of Churches Against Trafficking (CAT), a network of local churches that are collaborating to educate and engage the Christian community in the anti-trafficking work in the region.

Local Advocacy
Staff of the CJR are involved in a variety of local advocacy efforts. In 2020, CJR Director Kim Berry Jones was asked to help advise the San Diego Police Department as they implemented new rules to better regulate illicit massage establishments, a major source of both labor and sex trafficking in San Diego. CJR staff have testified on behalf of local and state legislation.

CJR in the News

The work of the CJR frequently appears in local and national news.

Human Trafficking Research
The Department of Justice funded a groundbreaking research project studying the connection between gangs and trafficking in the San Diego region. Led by the University of San Diego and PLNU, the preliminary results of the research were released in 2015 and point toward increased collaboration in the region. The media has responded with increased attention toward human trafficking in our region.

Beauty for Ashes Scholarship Fund
The Beauty for Ashes Scholarship Fund was launched in October 2014. This scholarship provides assistance with PLNU tuition expenses for survivors of human trafficking who meet admission requirements for the university. As we grow the Beauty for Ashes Fund at PLNU, we are thankful and excited to see national coverage for the scholarship.

The following are publications that have featured the Beauty for Ashes Fund and PLNU: