Scholars and practitioners have drawn attention to the issue of commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) of minors, yet we continue to lack a clear understanding of which factors increase a minor’s risk to this type of victimization. The current article reviews the literature about the impact of sexual, physical, or emotional abuse on the risk of CSE. The study utilizes quantitative meta-analytical techniques to estimate an overall impact of prior abuse. Nineteen studies were selected after a comprehensive search of electronic databases covering the fields of social science, criminology, psychology, or related fields. To be included in the analyses, all articles had to measure the direct impact of sexual, physical, and/or emotional abuse on minor’s risk to CSE, utilizing multivariate techniques and presenting statistical metrics to assess the impact of prior abuse. Key findings demonstrate that sexual abuse considerably increases the risk of exploitation, especially among female youth in the United States. Physical and emotional abuse show negligible or no significant independent impacts, even though a few studies have begun to suggest that experiencing multiple types of childhood abuse may aggravate a risk of sexual exploitation. Our findings can guide further research on the impact of prior victimizations and inform screening instruments that are being developed to identify youth at risk of CSE.
Despite an increasing awareness about the existence and harms of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), the identification of victims remains a challenge for practitioners, hindering their ability to provide appropriate services. Tools that gauge risk of CSEC support the identification of victims but are underdeveloped because most tools assess risk of CSEC within a general youth population. An understanding of what predicts actual CSEC victimizations among youths at higher risk of CSEC due to experiences of childhood adversities has been left unassessed. Research in this area is limited in part because traditional methods do not allow for an assessment of the unique impact of childhood adversities that tend to co-occur. To address these difficulties, the current study applied predictive regularization methods to identify the most decisive risk items for CSEC. Proximal risk of CSEC was assessed among 317 youths who were referred to a specialized program in the Northeast of the United States due to suspicion of CSEC. With an innovative methodological approach, this study seeks to prompt other scholars to examine risk utilizing novel techniques and provides a foundation for the development of concise tools that assess risk of CSEC among populations of youths at higher levels of risk.
The aim of this analysis was to evaluate whether cultural factors and mental health variables distinguish Latino youth who are delinquent-victims, primarily victims, or primarily delinquent. This study used data from the Dating Violence among Latino Adolescents (DAVILA) Study, which surveyed 1,525 Latino youth and queried participants about past year victimization, delinquency, psychological distress, and cultural factors. Using multinomial logistic regression, we evaluated whether these variables differentiated youth who were delinquent-victims, primarily victims, primarily delinquent, or neither delinquent nor victims. Results suggest that delinquent-victim Latino youth are differentiated from other groups primarily by the degree of familial support and anger/hostility. Other cultural and mental health variables do not appear to differentiate the groups, suggesting a greater degree of similarity among them based on the variables used in the analysis. The results indicate that Latino youth that are victimized and engage in delinquent behavior are primarily differentiated by the degree of anger/hostility they experience. Familial support, as has been seen with non-Latino groups, appears to present a significant protective quality and likely can serve as a prevention strategy, particularly for delinquent-victim youth. Study limitations include challenges with retrospective self-report and sampling using RDD methodologies.
This study examines the empirical research on legal representation in delinquency proceedings and situates it in the broader investigation of how states provide legal assistance to juvenile defendants. Our review of empirical studies found that attorney presence was an aggravating factor in dispositional decisions. After closely examining state statutory provisions on legal representation in juvenile delinquency proceedings, we suggest that the penalty effect of attorney presence is an artifact of the variation in state laws governing access and oversight of juvenile counsel. We conclude with suggestions for future research, policy, and practice.
Objective: The aim of this analysis was to evaluate whether dating violence is a risk factor for other forms of victimization, or if other forms of victimization, including polyvictimization, are a risk factor for dating violence. Method: This study used data from both waves of the Dating Violence Among Latino Adolescents study, which surveyed 574 Latino youth using the random-digit-dial methodology, and queried participants about past-year dating violence victimization, other forms of victimization, help-seeking behaviors associated with dating violence victimization, and cultural factors. Using logistic and negative binomial regression, we evaluated whether dating violence at Wave 1 predicted other forms of victimization at Wave 2 and whether Wave 1 victimization predicted Wave 2 dating violence victimization. Results: The results suggest that child maltreatment, conventional crime, and polyvictimization (measured at Wave 1) are predictive of dating violence victimization at Wave 2. In contrast, dating violence victimization at Wave 1 is not predictive of any of the other forms of victimization or polyvictimization at Wave 2. In addition, familism is also consistent in being predictive of decreased risk for victimization experiences across a number of victimization types. Conclusion: The results indicate that dating violence victimization does not function as a risk factor for other forms of victimization for Latino youth, but rather, other forms of victimization and polyvictimization are risk factors for dating violence victimization. This suggests that other forms of victimization may contribute to perceived vulnerability or protective mechanisms associated with dating violence.
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