How it works
How cases are sourced and reviewed
Cases on SlaveryMap come from public reporting and are reviewed by a Not For Sale editor before they publish. Cases carried over from the original 2008–2016 map are labeled as archive cases, and precise locations are never published.
How a case gets published
Found in public reporting
The SlaveryMap team finds a case in credible public reporting: a news article, a court record, a law enforcement press release, or an NGO report.
Written up with its sources
The case is entered with its source material attached, its type of exploitation, and a location generalized to protect survivors.
Reviewed
A Not For Sale editor checks it against the source standard and for survivor safety. Nothing publishes without that review.
Published
The case appears on the map with its own page. Anyone can flag an error or a safety concern with Report a problem.
Coming next: community submissions. Signed-in community members will be able to submit cases with their sources, and each submission will be reviewed by two other members before it publishes. Not For Sale sets the source standard and keeps the right to remove any case.
What counts as a credible source
The same source standard the map has used since 2013, unchanged in substance today.
Credible news outlets
Reporting from established news organizations.
Law enforcement
Records and press releases from police and prosecutors.
Court records
Indictments, judgments, and sentencing records.
NGO reports
Reports from established non-governmental organizations.
The 2008–2016 archive
1,541 cases come from the original SlaveryMap, which ran from 2008 to 2016. They were carried over with their original summaries and are marked “Archive 2008–2016”. Those without a verifiable source on file are labeled “Needs a source” on their page; if you know the original reporting for one, use Report a problem on that page to add it.
Why locations aren’t exact
Precise locations are never published. Cases are generalized to city level by default: not a street corner, not a named business or venue. In the drawings below, the dashed circle is where a case really happened, which the public never sees.
Standard
Generalized to city level: never a street corner, business, or venue.
Sensitive
Coarsened further, to region level, for ongoing situations and cases involving minors.
Hidden
Kept as an internal record only and never shown on the public map.
Anything more specific is used only when the Not For Sale team itself enters a case and determines it’s appropriate, typically a fully resolved historical case where naming the location poses no current risk. Community submissions, once they open, will never carry that exception.
Disputes and bad-faith submissions
Resolved simply, by design. Every new case is reviewed before it publishes, and Not For Sale can remove any published case it determines poses a risk. There is no separate dispute process and no appeal, consistent with the platform’s moderation policy. To flag an error or a safety concern, use Report a problem on the case’s page.
See the FAQ for common questions, the glossary for definitions, or the Data Usage Policy for citing and reusing the data.