Modern slavery, or human trafficking, is multifaceted and requires a range of research-based methods to measure its reach and remove and rehabilitate its victims, according to a panel of experts at a Feb. 18 news briefing at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Austin.

Statisticians are increasingly applying their mathematical skills to estimate the prevalence of human trafficking in the United States and a pair of them presented several potential techniques to improve how data is collected and analyzed during a presentation at AAAS on 16 March.