Every Data Point Is a Judgment Call

Since 2003, states have enacted 772 anti-trafficking policies. As Government Affairs Lead at Allies Against Slavery, I work alongside Dr. Vanessa Bouché and our research team to know what each of those laws does and where every state still has gaps.

I came to this work after studying transnational human trafficking with Dr. Bouché in India, then researching federal prosecutions with her back home in Texas. Reading federal human trafficking cases from Fort Worth, where exploitation took place a 10-minute drive from my college apartment, made it impossible to see trafficking as a faraway problem. At Allies, I get to help close the gaps in state law that shape how communities like that one respond.

Allies’ 2026 State Human Trafficking Report tracked 25 policies in all 50 states over a 21-year window. That came to 33,600 data points. Each one is a judgment about what a statute actually does, and whether it meets the standard we hold every state to.

This summer, I started working with Claude, Anthropic's AI model, as a research partner on that analysis. Then I tested its work against our own verified record of state policy going back to 2003. What I found changed how our team works.

State Law Shapes the Response, and It Changes Every Session

State law decides a great deal about what happens when someone is trafficked. It decides whether a young person in the child welfare system gets screened, whether a survivor can clear a record created by their exploitation, and whether buying sex is a felony. Those laws vary widely from one state to the next, and they change every session.

Our 2026 State Human Trafficking Report found that states have adopted prosecution policies fastest, followed by protection policies. Prevention policies still lag behind. State laws also remain heavily focused on sex trafficking, with far less attention to labor trafficking.

Advocates and legislators need this picture to be current and precise. A law that passed last spring but is missing from the data is a gap nobody can act on. For a small team, keeping 50 states current has always meant trading depth for coverage.

How I Work With Claude: It Reads, and We Decide

Allies Against Slavery uses Claude alongside our own coding protocol and more than two decades of verified policy data to analyze state anti-trafficking laws. I review every policy Claude finds before we record anything in Lighthouse Data, our national data platform.

The tool is powerful, but what makes it useful is everything it builds on. Our coding protocol has been refined through years of research and review. Our historical dataset gives us a trusted record to test against. And deciding what a change in the law means for the people it affects still takes someone who knows this field.

For example, a law can include an exception broad enough to swallow the rule, or a protection can rest on an executive order the next governor can undo. Claude can surface those details, but deciding what they mean for the people the law is meant to protect still takes someone who knows this field.

When I back-tested the Claude-assisted process against prior years, it matched or exceeded the accuracy of our manual coding and gave us an additional layer of quality control on top of human double-checks. That saves hundreds of hours each coding cycle.

Claude lets our team work at the scale of a research institute. It handles the tedious analysis of state anti-trafficking laws at a level of detail that was previously impossible for us, which frees us to focus on making the data actionable.

What Changes for the States We Serve

States tell us they want insight more than they want software. With the reading going faster, I spend more time building relationships with the stakeholders who use our data and understanding what they need to advance anti-trafficking efforts in their states.

Much of that time goes into gap analyses, which show a state where its laws fall short of model policy, and into recommendations local advocates can take to their legislators. Not every version of a policy is equally strong. Two states can both have the same law on the books, yet one version protects far more people than the other. We now give states a menu of possible improvements, so stakeholders can choose the reforms that fit their priorities and point to peer states that have already passed them for evidence and connections.

We hold one rule throughout. AI assists, a person reviews everything, and nothing runs unattended. We started with state policy because statutes are public and contain no survivor information, and our team applies a higher bar to anything more sensitive.

Anthropic Featured Our Work in Its Claude for Nonprofits Launch

On October 26, Anthropic expanded its Claude for Nonprofits program with a new plugin of skills and connectors built alongside about 30 nonprofit partners. Allies Against Slavery is featured on both the announcement post and Anthropic's nonprofit solutions page, with a quote from our President and CEO:

"We think of Claude as a research fellow who never gets tired. With its help, our one-person government affairs team has turned our analysis of more than 750 state anti-trafficking policies into recommendations local advocates can take to their legislators to close gaps that leave people vulnerable." John Nehme, President and CEO, Allies Against Slavery

For our team, it was a reminder that small organizations can do work at a scale that matters.

The credit is shared. It belongs to years of careful research by our policy team, our research partners, and the state advocates who put this data to work every day.

What Comes Next: Expertise That Goes Further

We are building toward state policy data that keeps pace with every legislative session, so our partners see changes sooner and get clear recommendations faster. A person will review every step. The next edition of our State Human Trafficking Report arrives early 2027.

My advice to other small teams is to start with data you already know well. Test the tool against a record you trust before you rely on it, and keep a person reviewing every result. That’s how you learn where it helps and where it still needs you.

The tool is powerful, but its value comes from the expertise directing it. More than 15 years of subject knowledge at Allies tells Claude what to look for, and it tells us what the findings mean. Together with our state partners and advocates, we intend to use that capacity to close the gaps that leave people vulnerable.

If you work on anti-trafficking policy, explore your state's profile in Lighthouse Data or request a legislative briefing from our Policy team. If you fund data infrastructure for the anti-trafficking field, we would welcome a conversation about what comes next.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Allies Against Slavery use AI to track state anti-trafficking laws?

Allies Against Slavery uses Claude alongside its own coding protocol and more than two decades of verified data to analyze state laws on 25 anti-trafficking policies in all 50 states. Our Government Affairs Lead reviews every change Claude flags before it enters Lighthouse Data.

Does AI replace human review of the policy data?

No. Claude speeds up the reading, and a policy expert confirms or rejects every change it flags. In back-testing against prior years, this human-plus-AI process matched or exceeded the accuracy of our manual coding and added another layer of quality control.

Which data does Allies use AI on?

We started with state policy because statutes are public and contain no survivor information. More sensitive datasets face a higher bar and more testing before any AI use.

How many anti-trafficking policies have states passed?

According to the 2026 State Human Trafficking Report from Allies Against Slavery, states have enacted 772 anti-trafficking policies since 2003. The report tracks 25 policies across prevention, protection, and prosecution.

Why did Anthropic feature Allies Against Slavery?

Anthropic featured Allies in its October 26, 2026 Claude for Nonprofits launch because of how our team uses Claude to analyze state anti-trafficking law. The feature describes how a one-person government affairs team turned its analysis of more than 750 state policies into recommendations for local advocates.