Human trafficking and the child welfare population in Florida

The Prevalence and Correlates of Labor and Sex Trafficking in a Community Sample of Youth Experiencing Homelessness in Metro-Atlanta

“…Our findings suggest that trafficking is a remarkably common occurrence among young people experiencing homeless in the metro-Atlanta area, with approximately half of the homeless youth we encountered reporting some form of exploitation in their lifetime and approximately four out of 10 participants indicating they had been exploited immediately before or while they were homeless. While our estimates are generally similar with other studies that call attention to the problem of trafficking among RHY (Countryman-Roswurm and Bolin 2014; Dank et al 2015;Gibbs et al 2018;Middleton et al 2018;Dank et al 2017), the occurrence of trafficking is on parr or slightly higher than studies conducted in other parts of the country, offering some support of claims that metro-Atlanta is a major hub for human trafficking in the United States (Bailey and Wade 2014;Ellis 2020;Parker 2018). The extraordinary levels of income inequality in the city (Bloomberg.Com 2018;Berube 2018), stratification in the local labor market (Kligman and Limoncelli 2005), and being a known as the "Black gay mecca" of the South (Bartone 2015;Marini 2018;Schwarz and Britton 2015) may contribute both to the large numbers of runaway and homeless young people and the number of youth who are trafficked.…”

“…At the most general level, our multivariate analyses reinforce prior studies that have sought to identify risk factors for trafficking among young people. Similar to others, we found that young cisgender women, transgender, and sexual minority youth are at greater risk of experiencing trafficking (Gibbs et al 2018;Greeson et al 2019;Murphy 2016;Schilling Wolfe et al 2018). In line with other studies (Bender et al 2015;Forge et al 2018;Gibbs et al 2018;Dank et al 2017), our results underscore the particular vulnerabilities of youth who are currently or have been involved in child-serving systems such as foster care, child welfare, or juvenile legal system.…”

Searching for Sex Trafficking Victims: Using a Novel Link-Tracing Method Among Commercial Sex Workers in Muzaffarpur, India

“…For instance, official records offer an excellent data source for estimating the prevalence of trafficking violations among children who have come to the attention of child welfare agencies. Gibbs et al (2018) conducted a large study to compare children caught up in human trafficking allegations to other children in the child welfare system. They used state administrative data to examine 4,413 allegations of sex and labor trafficking involving 3,420 children and found that they were more than twice as likely as others to have experienced prior maltreatment, twice as likely to have experienced out-of-home placements, more than 5 times as likely to have experienced group home care, and more than 10 times as likely to have run away from group homes.…”

Evaluation of a Multi-Session Group Designed to Prevent Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Minors: The “My Life My Choice” Curriculum

“…While exchanging sex for drugs or something else of value may not have qualified as CSE in every U.S. state prior to 2016, a change to federal law in 2016 means that all commercial sex transactions involving minors are considered instances of sex trafficking victimization (“Justice for Victims of Human Trafficking,” 2015). Risk factors for child victims of CSE include experiencing child neglect and abuse, involvement with the child welfare system, substance use, poor family support, limited education and employment opportunities, and running away (Fedina, Williamson, & Perdue, 2016; Gibbs, Henninger, Tueller, & Kluckman, 2018; Moynihan et al, 2018; Reid, Baglivio, Piquero, Greenwald, & Epps, 2017). Being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender and homeless (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender [LGBT]) is also a risk factor for CSE of children.…”