Expertise
Transnational Organized Crime, Human Trafficking, Offender Re-entry and Rehabilitation, Program Evaluation.
Research Interests
Criminal networks, transnational illicit enterprises, human trafficking, evaluation of community corrections and re-entry programs.
Education
- Ph D: Sociology, University of Southern California - Los Angeles, CA
- MA: Print Journalism, University of Southern California - Los Angeles, CA
- BA: English Literature, Sichuan University - Chengdu, China
Biosketch
Sheldon Zhang has been active in research on transnational human smuggling and trafficking activities for more than two decades. He has extensive expertise in measurement and survey instrument development. He has also gained much national and international prominence in applying innovative sampling strategies to estimate the prevalence of human trafficking violations in various labor sectors both home and abroad. His projects have been funded by government agencies and private foundations in the U.S. and abroad. He has written and lectured extensively on issues related to trafficking and smuggling activities in journals such as Criminology, British Journal of Criminology, and Crime, Law and Social Change. He has been twice invited to the White House to participate in national gatherings of policy-makers/advocacy groups/researchers on combatting human trafficking, and led in planning and participation in a forum by the National Academy of Sciences on latest methodologies for estimating the prevalence of modern slavery. He has authored/co-authored 14 books and edited volumes, and more than 120 scholarly journal articles, book chapters and technical reports.
Research Currently in Progress
- PI in a project to (1) estimate the prevalence of forced labor among domestic workers; (2) test/develop strategies to reduce domestic servitude in the City. currently leading a study in the city of Tunis, Tunisia, to estimate the prevalence of forced labor among domestic workers in the city.
- Co-PI with PI Meredith Dank (NYU) to (1) estimate the prevalence of forced labor among returned migrant workers in Dar es Salaam/Zanzibar; and (2) test/develop strategies to reduce TIP vulnerability among the target population.
- Co-PI with PI Meredith Dank (NYU) to (1) estimate the prevalence of forced labor among the fishing industry in Costa Rica; and (2) test/develop strategies to reduce forced labor in CR's fishing industry.
- Co-PI with PIs Kareem Kysia/Cathy Zimmerman to develop/evaluate strategies strategies to reduce forced labor in the cattle industry in the State of Para, Brazil.. 5. Co-PI with PIs Kareem Kysia/Cathy Zimmerman to develop/evaluate strategies to reduce forced labor in the mining industry in the State of Para, Brazil.