Sex Trafficking

Sex trafficking is an increasingly recognized global health crisis affecting every country and region in the world. By definition, sex trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act in exchange for anything of value, by means of threat, force, fraud, or coercion. Survivors include adults, adolescents, and children. The International Labor Organization estimates that 2.5 million adults and children are at risk for trafficking worldwide.

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is sex trafficking of children and is defined as the engagement of minors (<18 years of age) in sexual acts for items of value (eg, food, shelter, drugs, money). The identification of minors as victims does not require evidence of threat, force, fraud, or coercion. Within this definition, sexual acts are broadly defined to include street-based and Internet-based sex, escorting, stripping, pornography, or any act completed for sexual purposes in any venue.

CSEC occurs both internationally (international sex trafficking) and domestically (domestic minor sex trafficking [DMST]). These adolescents can be trafficked across national borders (transnational trafficking), or within a country, a state, or even within a single neighborhood. Until recently, human trafficking and CSEC have been perceived to be problems that occur in other countries, or involving the trafficking of international minors when it occurs within the United States. However, over the last several years there has been increasing recognition of a previously unidentified population of children who are US citizens or residents living in and sex trafficked within the United States; this is known as DMST.

Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking

As a subset of CSEC, DMST specifically involves US citizens or legal residents victimized within US borders. It is conservatively estimated that approximately 150,000 to 300,000 US children are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation each year. These minors have not been brought from other countries for the purpose of commercial sex acts, and are therefore not survivors of international sex trafficking. This distinction is important as survivors of domestic sex trafficking differ significantly from survivors of international sex trafficking, including a higher association with poorer health outcomes (physical injuries, sexually transmitted infections [STIs]), histories of child physical and/or sexual abuse, alcohol/drug addiction, and reported suicidal ideations for domestic survivors. This article focuses on issues related to DMST within the United States.

Minors involved in the commercial sex trade may erroneously be referred to as child prostitutes. The use of this terminology frames youth as criminals instead of correctly identifying them as vulnerable youth in need of support and services. With greater awareness of this issue, there will continue to be an appropriate shift away from the disparaging paradigm of juvenile delinquent behavior to a conception of involved youth as survivors of child sexual abuse.

Sex Trafficking

Sex trafficking is an increasingly recognized global health crisis affecting every country and region in the world. By definition, sex trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act in exchange for anything of value, by means of threat, force, fraud, or coercion. Survivors include adults, adolescents, and children. The International Labor Organization estimates that 2.5 million adults and children are at risk for trafficking worldwide.

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is sex trafficking of children and is defined as the engagement of minors (<18 years of age) in sexual acts for items of value (eg, food, shelter, drugs, money). The identification of minors as victims does not require evidence of threat, force, fraud, or coercion. Within this definition, sexual acts are broadly defined to include street-based and Internet-based sex, escorting, stripping, pornography, or any act completed for sexual purposes in any venue.

CSEC occurs both internationally (international sex trafficking) and domestically (domestic minor sex trafficking [DMST]). These adolescents can be trafficked across national borders (transnational trafficking), or within a country, a state, or even within a single neighborhood. Until recently, human trafficking and CSEC have been perceived to be problems that occur in other countries, or involving the trafficking of international minors when it occurs within the United States. However, over the last several years there has been increasing recognition of a previously unidentified population of children who are US citizens or residents living in and sex trafficked within the United States; this is known as DMST.

Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking

As a subset of CSEC, DMST specifically involves US citizens or legal residents victimized within US borders. It is conservatively estimated that approximately 150,000 to 300,000 US children are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation each year. These minors have not been brought from other countries for the purpose of commercial sex acts, and are therefore not survivors of international sex trafficking. This distinction is important as survivors of domestic sex trafficking differ significantly from survivors of international sex trafficking, including a higher association with poorer health outcomes (physical injuries, sexually transmitted infections [STIs]), histories of child physical and/or sexual abuse, alcohol/drug addiction, and reported suicidal ideations for domestic survivors. This article focuses on issues related to DMST within the United States.

Minors involved in the commercial sex trade may erroneously be referred to as child prostitutes. The use of this terminology frames youth as criminals instead of correctly identifying them as vulnerable youth in need of support and services. With greater awareness of this issue, there will continue to be an appropriate shift away from the disparaging paradigm of juvenile delinquent behavior to a conception of involved youth as survivors of child sexual abuse.

Epidemiology

Obtaining accurate figures for the prevalence and incidence of sex trafficking has been challenging given the hidden nature of these crimes, survivors denying involvement, lack of collaboration across multiple disciplines, and the application of different definitions and laws. The incidence of DMST is thought to be underreported, similar to cases of child sex abuse, and in particular there is a paucity of reporting by male survivors. Accurate identification may improve with a uniform approach to this problem across the country, including more frequent screening, especially in high-risk populations.

In general, all adolescents are at risk of attempted recruitment because the average age of entry into the commercial sex industry is reported to be 12 to 16 years.

Normative Adolescent Psychosocial Development

Normal adolescent development involves the progression of independence from parents; peer relationships; sexual experimentation; intellectual advancement from concrete to abstract thinking; in combination with impulsivity, risk-taking behaviors, and a sense of invulnerability. Traffickers prey on these normal adolescent vulnerabilities, thereby placing all adolescents at risk for DMST recruitment and subsequent involvement.

Risk Factors

Although all adolescents are at risk, some children are at heightened risk because of individual, family, and community factors. According to the Institute of Medicine, children with a history of maltreatment, particularly sexual abuse, are at especially high risk of exploitation, as are youth who come from dysfunctional families (eg, parental substance abuse, domestic violence). Histories of child protective services involvement, alcohol and substance use, and/or mental health disorders may play a role in a minor’s involvement. Runaway, homeless, and group home youth are also at high risk because they often come from environments with caregiver abandonment or impaired supervision, poverty, neglect, and abuse. Children with these aforementioned risk factors are targeted by exploiters because of their emotional, physical, and financial vulnerabilities, and subsequent susceptibility to engage in risk-taking behaviors.

Grooming

In child sexual abuse, the process by which a child molester overcomes a child’s resistance to sex and elicits cooperation in a progressive manner is referred to as grooming. In building this relationship, the molester may offer love and/or items to gain the trust of the child. Moreover, the act of grooming develops a relationship bonding perpetrators and youth. The act of grooming is often used in the recruitment process for DMST. Traffickers may use manipulative strategies to seduce minors with promises of money, better lives, and/or love and security. Commonly, the trafficker establishes a relationship with the adolescent similar to a romantic partner or friend. Subsequent techniques, such as fear and coercion, are used to keep the involved youth from leaving. Notably, minors are not often physically restrained but are psychologically manipulated by their exploiters to continue their involvement. Same-age peers may act as recruiters, attempting to normalize these acts to other adolescents as a potential positive financial strategy.

Survivor-Exploiter Dynamics

The relationship that develops between the minor and exploiter in DMST is similar to that seen in cases of intimate partner violence (IPV). The Power and Control Wheel developed by Pence and Paymar for IPV is often used with minimal changes to show the similarities in the dynamics of establishing and maintaining relationships of survivors with perpetrators in DMST. These tactics eventually undermine the adolescent’s ability to act autonomously, keeping involved youth under the control of their exploiters.

In addition, a recruitment tactic of exploiters may be the provision of alcohol and/or illicit substances to minors. Over time, dependencies on substances are used by exploiters to maintain power and ensure the minor’s continued involvement.

Social Media

Social media plays an integral role in the complex dynamics of adolescent, recruitment and the solicitation of sex buyers/clients. Recruitment through social media is underscored by the role of peer recruiters. Individuals whom involved youth consider friends may work as surrogate recruiters for traffickers by modeling this behavior and normalizing participation in sex trafficking. Social media is often the means through which recruiters prey on vulnerable youth by establishing a friendship or romantic relationship.

The initial interaction between recruiter and involved youth may occur face to face, but social media sites are often used in the grooming process and, ultimately, to keep reinforcing the prospect of trafficking; this makes exiting from DMST an even greater challenge because several survivors may remain connected online.

Furthermore, the use of Internet sites, and specifically social media, is a well-documented method for the solicitation of clients. Classified advertisement Web sites, such as Backpage.com , have been used to advertise sex services with minors. Involved youth and/or exploiters are contacted by sex buyers and encounters are subsequently arranged.