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2. Executive summarythe functioning of the strategies used to combat them, and when applied in severalcountries, they should provide reliable and comparable information. This wouldyield thorough understanding of the phenomenon and would enable determinationof the most effective domestic and international policies with which to address theproblem. The need for reliable data does not only concern quantitative information,however, although this is often meagre at both national and international level, butconcerns qualitative data as well.Against this background, and with particular regard to the Italian situation, theresearch project entitled Trafficking in Persons for the Purpose of Exploitation andthe Smuggling of Migrants set out to monitor the activities of public prosecutor’soffices in regard to human trafficking and smuggling in order to answer a series ofquestions concerning these phenomena and the actors involved, judicial activity inthis sector, and the relationships between the judicial system and nongovernmentalorganisations in assisting victims.To this end, the research moved through the following phases:- Phase I. Definition of the criminal offences that constitute “trafficking inpersons” and “smuggling of migrants” under Italian law;- Phase II. Collection of documentation on the subjects examined by the research;- Phase III. Preparation of the survey instrument used to identify the most activeprosecutor’s offices and to collect quantitative information on the “trafficking ofpersons for the purpose of exploitation” and the “smuggling of migrants”;- Phase IV. Mapping of ongoing legal proceedings at the 164 Italian prosecutor’soffices by administering the survey instrument and creating a database on legalproceedings brought against human traffickers and smugglers;- Phase V. Identification of the Italian prosecutor’s offices most active incombating the trafficking of persons and the smuggling of migrants;- Phase VI. Drafting the interview outline to be used with the most activeprosecutor’s offices and administration of the interviews;- Phase VII. Writing and correcting the interview transcriptions;- Phase VIII. Analysis of all the data and information acquired and their summaryin this final report.The phases specifically concerned with legal proceedings in regard to humantrafficking and smuggling were IV, V and VI.During phase IV, the DNA drew up a survey instrument which was then sent to theprosecutor’s offices in order to determine the existence and characteristics ofongoing legal proceedings concerning “trafficking in persons” and “the smugglingof migrants” (Annex A to this final report). By the expression “ongoing legalproceedings” is meant legal proceedings concerning human trafficking/smugglingduring the investigation or committal for trial phases, or proceedings wheresentence had already been passed, in the period from June 1996 to June 2001. Thesurvey asked for quantitative information regarding the charges brought, theperpetrators, and the victims. Each prosecutor’s office, for each ongoing legalproceeding, completed the survey instrument and then returned it to the DNA,where the Legal Proceedings on the Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling ofMigrants Database was set up. When Transcrime received the database, it validatedit and then processed and analysed the information contained therein.12