Women's Funding Network Sex Trafficking Study Is Junk Science

[JonLP24]

(Headline from print edition:How a bogus child sex trafficking study fooled some of the most respected media outlets in the country)

Like with most New Times articles it is really long so I recommend going to the link but I'll post 4 paragraphs from the first page.

<snip>

After all, the numbers are all guesses.

The data are based merely on looking at photos on the Internet. There is no science.

Eric Grodsky, a sociologist at the University of Minnesota who teaches about proper research construction, says that the study is fundamentally flawed.

"The method's not clean," Grodsky says. "You couldn't get this kind of thing into a peer-reviewed journal. There are just too many unanswered questions about their methodology."

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2011-03-24/news/women-s-funding-network-sex-trafficking-study-is-junk-science/

(Here is more on the prostitution during the Super Bowl story that you may have seen posted in this forum)
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2011-01-27/news/the-super-bowl-prostitute-myth-100-000-hookers-won-t-be-showing-up-in-dallas/

[AngryAmish]

1. What? A lobbying group lies? How can that be?

I knew it was bullshit.

[X_Digger]

2. Gah.. she almost admits to defrauding state govt's..

McCullough touts the fundraising benefits of the study whenever she can. Since the Schapiro study was picked up for replication nationwide by the Women's Funding Network, McCullough has acted as a sort of technical consultant for state groups as they debate whether to invest money in the project. Whenever she's asked, McCullough tells the local groups that the money they spend will come back to them with hefty dividends.

"I would say, 'The research costs money, but we've been able to broker—I don't know what it is now, I think it's over $1.3, $1.6 million in funding that we never would have gotten,'" McCullough says.

Just shy of criminal.

[joeybee12]

3. KNR

[Newsjock]

4. Too late for me to R, so K

Just found this elsewhere today and came to check whether DU already had it. Of course, we did!