Balancing clinical needs and probation requirements within CSEC specialty courts

Abstract

As juvenile justice systems across the country explore ways to best serve youth who have been commercially sexually exploited, challenges may arise between youths' clinically indicated needs and the probation‐driven requirements of CSEC specialty court involvement. This article explores some of the clinical‐probation dualities CSEC specialty courts may encounter, conceptualized as tensions related to issues of confidentiality, responses to behaviors that jeopardize youths' safety, and the timing of healing. Future directions for consideration to better meet the needs of youth involved in the justice system who have experienced sexual exploitation are also discussed.

The utility of trauma evaluations in judicial decision‐making in child sex trafficking cases: A qualitative analysis

“…This is problematic as best practice standards recommend that trafficking-sensitive courts be proficient in identification and assessment of CSEC cases, trauma-informed court procedures, resource linkage to appropriate services, monitoring compliance, building community collaborations and capacities, and evaluating service performance indicators. Consistent with other studies, judges cited a lack of providers to meet the need, long wait times for youth to obtain these assessments, information sharing and confidentiality barriers, or elopement issues, which interfered and led to judges' receiving assessments and recommendations too late in the court process to guide decision-making (Dierkhising et al, 2020;Gale-Bentz, et al, 2022). Of those who were either consistently or intermittently receiving information concerning a youth's psychological status and functioning, judges noted that the reports were sometimes of limited usefulness because they were (1) of poor quality;…”