The commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) and domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) occur across the United States, violating the rights and health of far too many children and youth. Adequate prevention efforts should seek to understand the factors that make minors vulnerable to sexual exploitation in order to properly design programs to prevent victimization. This review presents the identified risk factors collected via a systematic literature review. Following full-text review, 15 studies were selected for inclusion by meeting the following criteria: original quantitative or qualitative research studies published in English from January 2010 to September 2017 with titles or abstracts that indicated a focus on the risk factors, vulnerabilities, or statistics of CSEC/DMST and a domestic focus on CSEC/DMST (for U.S.-based journals) with findings that did not combine associations between minors and adults in the study. Relevant risk factors and vulnerabilities found in this review include child abuse and maltreatment, caregiver strain, running away or being thrown away, substance use, peer influence, witnessing family violence or criminality, poverty or material need, difficulty in school, conflict with parents, poor mental health or view of self, involvement in child protective services, involvement in juvenile detention or delinquency, early substance use, and prior rape or adolescent sexual victimization. Keywords domestic minor sex trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation of children, gender-based violence, risk factors, vulnerabilities, prevention Purpose of This Review This review seeks to clearly discuss risk factors for CSEC/ DMST in the United States as found through original quantitative or qualitative research. Thus, the purposes of this review are to (1) clearly define the background and scope relevant to the issue of CSEC/DMST and (2) present and discuss significant risk factors in the reviewed publications.

Topic: This scoping review investigated research regarding the magnitude of minor sex trafficking (domestic minor sex trafficking and/or commercial sexual exploitation of children) in the United States, summarizing estimates, methodologies, and strengths and weaknesses of the studies. Method: Using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, peer-reviewed articles and the gray literature were accessed via databases searches, reference harvesting, and expert advice. Articles were included if they provided a count or prevalence proportion estimate of trafficked or at-risk minors across or within a region of the United States. Six empirical studies, published from 1999 to 2017, were included in the review. Results: Included studies produced count estimates ( n = 3) or prevalence proportion estimates ( n = 3) for youth at risk of minor sex trafficking ( n = 2) or reporting victimization ( n = 5). Studies examined sex trafficking risk and victimization in different geographical areas, including across the United States ( n = 2), in New York City ( n = 1), and in Ohio ( n = 1). Further, several studies focused on particular populations, such as street and shelter youths ( n = 1) and adjudicated males ( n = 1). Sampling methodologies of reviewed estimates included traditional random sampling ( n = 1), nationally representative sampling ( n = 2), convenience sampling ( n = 1), respondent-driven sampling ( n = 1), purposive sampling ( n = 1), and use of census data ( n = 2). Conclusion: Little research has estimated the prevalence of minor sex trafficking in the United States. The existing studies examine different areas and populations and use different categories to estimate the problem. The estimates reviewed here should be cited cautiously. Future research is needed on this important topic, including methodologies to produce more representative estimates of this hard-to-reach population.

Health and human service providers who aid traumatized individuals frequently experience vicarious trauma (VT). Although VT plays a critical role in service providers’ mental health and well-being, as well as in the quality of their service provision, little information is available concerning the development and implementation of VT interventions for service providers. To advance the development of evidence in this area, we undertook a scoping review in which we reviewed existing interventions intended to address VT among service providers working with traumatized clients. Searches of electronic databases were conducted to identify studies published in peer-reviewed journals, with no date restrictions. Over 1,315 citations were reviewed, and a total of 27 studies were included in the final review. The findings show that VT interventions in the literature can be divided broadly into four categories: psychoeducation, mindfulness intervention, art and recreational programs, and alternative medicine therapy. The VT interventions reviewed generally showed promise in their key outcomes, including reductions in secondary trauma stress, compassion fatigue, burnout, and other mental health outcomes. However, the current body of research is lacking both in rigor and in specificity regarding the definition of VT. Furthermore, existing VT interventions are generally self-care based and tend to focus on general stress management rather than addressing the specific effects of VT. Therefore, we call for an increase in efforts to tailor VT interventions to different service settings and participant characteristics, as well as greater attention to developing primary VT interventions at the organizational level.

The commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) and domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) are abusive and exploitative practices occurring to children and youth across the United States. Prevention efforts should understand the factors that increase vulnerability and how these factors interact to eventually lead to exploitation. Understanding the mechanisms of action of these factors is best done within relevant frameworks and models. This review summarizes proposed frameworks for these vulnerabilities as collected via a systematic literature review. Fifteen studies capturing 12 frameworks or theories were selected for inclusion having met the following criteria: original research studies published in English from January 2010 to September 2017 with titles or abstracts that indicated a focus on the risk factors, vulnerabilities, or statistics of CSEC/DMST; a domestic focus on CSEC/DMST (for U.S.-based journals) with findings that did not combine associations between minors and adults in the study; and inclusion or mention of frameworks or theories which considered potential vulnerabilities prior to exploitation. Highly applicable frameworks include the life-course perspective, ecological model, multilevel model, ecodevelopment model, traumagenic factors, and general strain theory. Others found by this review include the age-graded theory of informal social control, career criminal paradigm, revictimization theory, an economic model, feminist theory, and a rights-based model. By mapping known risk factors to their appropriate place in the reviewed and relevant frameworks, this article seeks to enhance our understanding of the connections between and mechanisms of these risk factors, while also clarifying areas where prevention efforts can be targeted.

This work investigates the associations between experiences of domestic minor sex trafficking and adolescent interpersonal violence victimizations, including intimate partner violence (IPV) and community violence. Abuse and violence in childhood are commonly proposed as risk factors for domestic minor sex trafficking. However, less is known about how interpersonal violence victimizations in adolescence connect to domestic minor sex trafficking experiences. The poly-victimization framework provides a means to understand domestic minor sex trafficking as a type of violence amid a web of additional interconnected violence victimizations. Efforts to better understand the interpersonal violence experienced by survivors of domestic minor sex trafficking are valuable in contextualizing trafficking experiences for adolescents. Data from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a population-based sample of adolescents in the United States ( n = 12,605) were used to examine experiences of domestic minor sex trafficking for minor respondents, as measured through questions about exchanging sex for money or drugs. A multivariable logistic regression model was used to estimate the associations between domestic minor sex trafficking and IPV or community violence, while controlling for demographic variables and adolescent risk behaviors. Minors who experience community violence had significantly greater odds of having exchanged sex (aOR: 1.86; 95% CI: 1.32 -2.64). However, IPV was not significantly associated with minors’ experiences of sex exchange (aOR: 1.14; 95% CI: 0.85 -1.54). Alcohol or drug use (aOR: 1.87; 95% CI: 1.32 -2.65) and having run away (aOR: 2.04; 95% CI: 1.53 -2.72) were also significantly associated with minor sex exchange. As experiences of domestic minor sex trafficking were significantly associated with community violence victimizations, prevention and intervention efforts targeting youth at high risk for or survivors of domestic minor sex trafficking should consider how community violence victimizations impact these adolescent populations, and programming/messaging should be adjusted to account for these additional violence victimizations.