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Measuring Anti‐Trafficking Policy—Integrating Text and Statistical Analyses
Author(s) -
Cho SeoYoung
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/ssqu.12153
Subject(s) - balanced scorecard , ranking (information retrieval) , index (typography) , empirical research , quality (philosophy) , computer science , correlation , econometrics , statistics , economics , business , information retrieval , process management , mathematics , philosophy , geometry , epistemology , world wide web
Objectives The objectives of this article are to review existing indices on anti‐trafficking policy and to propose a way to improve the policy indices. Methods The four existing indices—the 3P Index, the GRETA‐based Scorecard, the EuroStat, and the U.S. Tier‐Ranking—were compared regarding their contents, quantification methods, and the coverage of the data. In particular, the validity of the first two indices coded from qualitative information was examined through tests for linear correlation, and the content of the EuroStat was evaluated by multicovariate regression analyses. Results Empirical results show that the evaluation outcomes of the 3P Index and the Scorecard are considerably different, arguably because of the noncomprehensive selection of policy requirments and subjective judgments in interpreting qualitative texts. On the other hand, EuroStat seems to measure the quality of anti‐trafficking policy and therefore these statistics can be used as relevant indicators of policy evaluation. Conclusion The empirical investigation of this article suggests that integrating textual and statistical information can be a way to improve the quality of an index evaluating anti‐trafficking policy.