ARTICLE SUMMARY HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Human Trafficking and the Child Welfare Population in Florida Gibbs, D. A., Henninger, A. M., Tueller, S. J., & Kluckman, M. N. (2018). Human trafficking and the child welfare population in Florida. Children and Youth Services Review, 88, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.02.045
Issue
Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act.1 Every year, millions of men, women, and children are trafficked worldwide—including right here in the United States. It can happen in any community and victims can be any age, race, gender, or nationality. If the victim is less than 18 years of age, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 specifies that force, fraud, or coercion are not required to establish sex trafficking. Human trafficking is a largely hidden crime that has in the last 20 years gained the attention of law enforcement, human rights advocates, and policymakers. Research in the field continues to evolve and has focused almost exclusively on the victims. Reliable data are needed, especially about the characteristics and circumstances of victims that increase their vulnerability to being trafficked. Research on the risk factors for minor sex trafficking victimization has been restricted due to the heavy concentration on sex trafficking; retrospective data collection; use of small samples; and inconsistent definitions of trafficking, child maltreatment, and child welfare involvement. Choi (2015)2 found that child maltreatment is identified as the foremost risk factor for sex trafficking victimization. Several studies have found sexual abuse in particular to be a predictor for exploitation in the commercial sex industry (e.g. Lavoie et al).3
Findings
Using available data from the Florida Safe Families Network (FSFN), the authors examined allegations of maltreatment with a victim aged 10 years or older that occurred between the 2011 and 2015 calendar years (N = 296,167 unique children). There were 4,413 trafficking allegations investigated during that time period, which were coded as sex (58.3%), labor (5.7%), or unspecified trafficking (40.5%).4 Over one-fifth of allegations were for children in out-of-home care (21.2%, n = 936) and, of those, over one-third were missing from care (37.1%, n = 347). Ultimately, 22.4% of human trafficking allegations were verified, 23.2% were not substantiated, and 54.4% were not indicated for human trafficking. In comparing all children in the sample, those with human trafficking investigations—compared to those without human trafficking investigations—were more likely to be older (i.e., age 16 or 17); female; Black or other race (compared to White); non-Hispanic; have previous child welfare involvement; and have been adjudicated as delinquents. When looking specifically at those children who had prior child welfare involvement, those with a human trafficking allegation were more likely to have been investigated for physical and sexual abuse; have had a maltreatment allegation before age 8; have experienced out-of-home care; and have had periods of missingness from their placement. While only 2% of children with prior child welfare involvement had allegations of sexual abuse only, those with trafficking allegations were less likely to have experienced investigation of sexual abuse alone. Conversely, they were five times more likely to have prior allegations of sexual and other forms of maltreatment. Only one-quarter of children with a first human trafficking allegation had no prior maltreatment allegations or removals. These youth were more likely to be older (i.e., age 16 or 17); male; Black or other race (compared to White); Hispanic; and from the Southern and Southeast regions.
Implications
The authors noted several important limitations to their study (e.g., possible under-identification of victims, administrative data constraints) and suggest the use of validated measures, thorough training for human trafficking screeners, and applying assessment protocols with fidelity to garner better data to inform funding and legislative decisions. In addition, they propose stronger partnerships between juvenile justice and child welfare systems to focus on collaborative prevention efforts and identification of male victims. Training for foster care provider agencies and foster parents is warranted as this study found that one-fifth of the children with trafficking allegations were in out-of-home care at the time. Implementing universal and targeted trafficking prevention programs in congregate care facilities is also a recommendation.
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Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-386) Choi, K.R. (2015). Risk factors for domestic minor sex trafficking in the United States: A literature review. Journal of Forensic Nursing, 11(2), 66-76, https://doi.org/10.1097/jfn.0000000000000072. Lavoie, F., Thibodeau, C., Gagne, M.H., & Hebert, M. (2010). Buying and selling sex in Quebec adolescents: A study of risk and protective factors. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39(5), 1147-1160. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-010-9605-4. Unspecified trafficking type was coded as such because, prior to 2013, DCF used one allegation type, which did not differentiate sex and labor trafficking.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING: Human trafficking includes the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain labor or commercial sex.