Rachel Lovell, PhD, is sociologist and methodologist who studies gender-based violence and victimization, in particular sexual assault, human sex trafficking and sex work, and intimate partner violence. Her current research involves examining the unsubmitted (“backlogged”) sexual assault kits in Cuyahoga County, Ohio and specialized dockets for human sex trafficking victims.  She is a Senior Research Associate at the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Lovell received her Ph.D. in sociology from The Ohio State University in 2007. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology from Baylor University in Waco, Texas.