The Public Health Response to Human Trafficking: A Look Back and a Step Forward

Public Health Reports in 2022: Impact Factor Increase; COVID-19 Coverage; Authorship by State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Agencies; and New Department on Public Health Ethics

“…It aimed to build the evidence base for human trafficking prevention and intervention and to elevate the importance of strong public health response to commercialized forms of violence. 25 Its highlights included a commentary that applied the theory of public health critical race praxis to the problem of sex trafficking of minors 26 and a literature review that found limited evidence on the effectiveness of screening tools, calling for more research on screening tools to identify human trafficking victims in health care. 27 The guest editorial for the supplement, 25 the article on critical race praxis, 26 and several other articles from the supplement were among this year's top viewed or downloaded articles.…”

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“…Such an approach widens research inquiries to a population level, thus enabling researchers to capture a wider range of lived experiences, including emotional trauma, signs and symptoms beyond disease classification. Furthermore, a population approach will amplify voices from those communities at the margins of their societies at large 13 . A TIP-specific public health approach should also reduce the level of stigma experienced by trafficked people 14 when their experiences are conceptualized as a public health problem, and not as an individual pathological or criminal behavior.…”

Interpol's strategy in enhancing the regional network to combat human trafficking in West Africa

“…Minors, easily manipulated and unaware of their victimization, often feel protected by their exploitative "employers". Globally, nearly 20% of trafficking victims are children, contributing to the ongoing challenge of labor exploitation and modern-day slavery, particularly in the African region (Clark, 2020;Ford, 2015;Gill & McKinnon, 2021;Handrahan, 2022;Hounmenou & O'Grady, 2021;Maluleke et al, 2022;Mutasa, 2021;Sprang et al, 2022;UNODC, 2022;Yingwana et al, 2019).…”

“…In 2019, the number of recorded victims was 118,932, while in 2021, it reached 450,000 victims and 300,000 suspects, with perpetrators detected throughout the country. Over 23% of global human trafficking occurs in Africa (Sprang et al, 2022;Yansaneh, 2020).…”