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Limitations of the research
Some of the findings of this study should be treated with caution. Firstly, the findings are based on analysis of the available data relating to incidents and cases which had come to the attention of statutory and non-statutory agencies. The research did not attempt to estimate the extent of unreported incidents or experiences, of which there may be many. Given that this is a relatively new area of policing and victim care 6 and a very new area of empirical research, making such estimates would not be methodologically advisable. Any previous estimates made in the UK (for example, Kelly and Regan 2000) have been wide ranging and largely unsupported by empirical evidence. Secondly, although every effort was made to conduct systematic analysis of the data, the various data sources were incomplete in some areas. Each organisation tended to collect data at different levels of detail and many collected data as it became available, rather than in accordance with specific criteria. Thirdly, as documented in the key findings section, victims of trafficking are often difficult to identify. For the purposes of this research individuals were counted as 'victims' of human trafficking if they identified themselves as such, and if the relevant organisation interviewed had reasonable grounds to consider that one or more elements of the Palermo Protocol definition applied to them. Individuals were counted as 'suspected victims' if they identified themselves as such, or if the organisation interviewed considered that one or more elements of the Protocol definition was relevant. For ease of reference, all 'victims' and 'suspected victims' are referred to as 'victims' in this report. Fourthly, the requirement of anonymity, especially relating to the characteristics of individual victims produces limitations, including gaps and possible duplication. In some cases two or more agencies may have encountered the same individual. Although efforts were made to avoid 'double counting' some of these may not have been successful due to the difficulty in identifying individual victims.
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