Sex Trafficking: Exploring Agency

Research: Childhood

Numerous studies have noted that child sexual abuse victims are vulnerable to later sexual revictimization (Arata, 2002). Data from post-trafficking assistance organizations suggest that trafficked women and children are particularly likely to have a history of abuse. For example, over half (59%) of women in post-trafficking service centers reported experiences of physical or sexual abuse, with 15% reporting sexual abuse before the age of 15 (Zimmerman et al., 2011). Not only have the majority of minors entrapped in child sex trafficking have been sexually abused; some have even been abandoned by their families (Estes & Weiner, 2001, 2005; Farley, Lynne, & Cotton, 2005; FACJJ, 2007; Hanna, 2002). Runaway minors are highly susceptible to the entrapment tactics employed by sex traffickers (Estes & Weiner, 2001; TVPRA, 2005).
 
Arata, C. M. (2002). Child sexual abuse and sexual revictimization. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 9, 135-164.

Estes, J. R., &  Weiner,  N.  A. (2001). The commercial sexual exploitation of children in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work. 
 
Estes, J. R., & Weiner, N. A. (2005). The commercial sexual exploitation of children in The United States. In S.W. Cooper, R.J. Estes, A .P. Giardino ,N. D. Kellogg, & V .I Vieth (Eds.), Medical, legal, and social science aspects of child sexual exploitation: A comprehensive review of child pornography, child prostitution, and Internet crimes against children (pp. 95–128). St. Louis, MO: GW Medical Publishing.
 
Farley, M., Lynne, J., & Cotton, A. J. (2005). Prostitution in Vancouver: Violence and the colonization of first nations women. Transcultural Psychiatry, 42 (2), 242–271.
 
Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice. (2007). Annual report.
 
Hanna, C. (2002). Somebody's daughter: Domestic trafficking of girls for the commercial sex industry and the power of love. William and Mary Journal of Women and Law, 9,1-29

Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109–164, 119 Stat. 3558 (2006), (current version at 22 U.S.C. §§7101-7106 [2008]).
 
Zimmerman, C., Hossain, M., & Watts, C. (2011). Human trafficking and health: A conceptual model to inform policy, intervention and research. Social Science & Medicine, 73(2), 327-335.

This page has paths: