Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking

The domestic sex trafficking of minors is a problem of growing concern yet little critical attention. This book analyzes the forces behind the sex-trafficking industry in the United States and provides a much-needed reference for practitioners. It adopts a holistic approach, pursuing a nuanced exploration of these young people's experiences, their treatment, and outside efforts to combat sex trafficking. The book features interviews with service providers and experts, and incorporates recent research, thereby mapping the complex factors associated with young people's involvement in trading sex and the social connections that facilitate their behavior. It considers the experiences of both those who "choose" sex work and those who are forced into it by circumstances or third parties, and it discusses the networks of friends and close acquaintances who introduce newcomers to the trade. In addition, it takes a hard look at how local and federal responses to trafficking increase young people's vulnerability to trading sex. Urging policymakers and practitioners to move beyond the simple framework of "rescuing" victims and "punishing" villains, this book calls for policies and programs that focus on the failure of social and cultural systems and respond better to the young people caught in this web.

Analyzes the forces behind the sex-trafficking industry in the United States and provides a much-needed reference for practitioners.

Every day in the United States, children and adolescents are victims of commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. Despite the serious and long-term consequences for victims as well as their families, communities, and society, efforts to prevent, identify, and respond to these crimes are largely under supported, inefficient, uncoordinated, and unevaluated. Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States examines commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents of the United States under age 18. According to this report, efforts to prevent, identify, and respond to these crimes require better collaborative approaches that build upon the capabilities of people and entities from a range of sectors. In addition, such efforts need to confront demand and the individuals who commit and benefit from these crimes. The report recommends increased awareness and understanding, strengthening of the law's response, strengthening of research to advance understanding and to support the development of prevention and intervention strategies, support for multi-sector and interagency collaboration, and creation of a digital information-sharing platform. A nation that is unaware of these problems or disengaged from solutions unwittingly contributes to the ongoing abuse of minors. If acted upon in a coordinated and comprehensive manner, the recommendations of Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States can help advance and strengthen the nation's emerging efforts to prevent, identify, and respond to commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of minors in the United States.

Human trafficking is a thriving business around the world. Although attention had been focused initially on those who were trafficked over international borders for sexual exploitation, awareness has slowly increased of the trafficking of US citizens within its own borders, including its children. However, due to the still-evolving research on this issue, and the subsequent reliance on mass media, there is a lack of accurate knowledge about this crime that this book seeks to address. Pulling together scholarly information from diverse fields including social work, psychology, and biology, Susan Mapp explores the particular risk factors (such as poverty, child maltreatment, and being a sexual minority) that place children at higher risk for being trafficked. The different methods of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST)--pimp-controlled, gang-controlled, familial, and survival - are explained, including how children come to be involved in them and the mechanisms by which they occur. Assisting those being trafficked to leave the life is a difficult process, and this book explains why. It is important for everyone to act on what can be done to fight this crime; suggestions for professionals, as well as "everyday citizens," are offered, together with a list of resources.

"The Legacy of Racism for Children: Psychology, Law, and Public Policy is the first volume to review the intersecting implications of psychology, public policy, and law with the goal of understanding and ending the challenges facing racial minority youth in America today. Proceeding roughly from causes to consequences - from early life experiences to adolescent and teen experiences - each chapter focuses on a different domain, explains the laws and policies that create or exacerbate racial disparity in that domain, reviews relevant psychological research and its implications for those laws or policies, and calls for next steps. Chapter authors examine how race and ethnicity intersect with child maltreatment (including child sex trafficking, corporal punishment, and memory for and disclosures of abuse), child dependency court decisions, custody and adoption, familial incarceration, the "school to prison pipeline," police/youth interactions, jurors' perceptions of child and adolescent victims and defendants, and U.S. immigration law and policy"--

Domestic minor sex trafficking: hearing before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, One Hundred Eleventh Congress, second session, September 15, 2010.

Domestic minor sex trafficking: hearing before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, One Hundred Eleventh Congress, second session, September 15, 2010.