human trafficking investigations: a practitioner’s guide to making the case

Everything you need to know to seek justice for victims and accountability for traffickers is in this approachable guide written by seasoned anti-trafficking professionals.

Kirsta Leeburg Melton is the Founder and CEO of Institute to Combat Trafficking, an organization dedicated to seeking justice for victims of trafficking and holding traffickers accountable. From 2015-2019, Melton served as the Deputy Criminal Chief of the Human Trafficking and Transnational/Organized Crime Section of the Office of the Texas Attorney General, and from 2000-2014, prosecuted traffickers, abusers, rapists, and perpetrators of family violence in San Antonio, Texas. Melton is responsible for several of the State’s first life sentences for trafficking and served as the lead prosecutor for the State of Texas in the takedown of Backpage.com. She has trained more than 30,000 people in person on human trafficking and been featured in multiple training films utilized nationwide. Over the past decade Melton played a critical role in the restructuring of Texas trafficking law and procedure and has been privileged to build and lead incredible teams seeking and demanding justice for victims and promoting cultural change.

Melton graduated from Cornell University in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts in American Government and received her JD and Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas in Austin in 1998. When she’s not teaching, pondering policy, or prepping for trial Melton loves to read, hike the state and national parks, watch silly shows with her husband and kids and is relearning the classical guitar.