Baseline Characteristics of Dependent Youth Who Have Been Commercially Sexually Exploited: Findings From a Specialized Treatment Program

Abstract

Commercial sexual exploitation of children has emerged as a critical issue within child welfare, but little is currently known about this population or effective treatment approaches to address their unique needs. Children in foster care and runaways are reported to be vulnerable to exploitation because they frequently have unmet needs for family relationships, and they have had inadequate supervision and histories of trauma of which traffickers take advantage. The current article presents data on the demographic characteristics, trauma history, mental and behavioral health needs, physical health needs, and strengths collected on a sample of 87 commercially sexually exploited youth. These youth were served in a specialized treatment program in Miami-Dade County, Florida, for exploited youth involved with the child welfare system. Findings revealed that the youth in this study have high rates of previous sexual abuse (86% of the youth) and other traumatic experiences prior to their exploitation. Youth also exhibited considerable mental and behavioral health needs. Given that few programs emphasize the unique needs of children who have been sexually exploited, recommendations are offered for providing a continuum of specialized housing and treatment services to meet the needs of sexually exploited youth, based on the authors' experiences working with this population.

Exploring Mental Health and Substance use Treatment Needs of Commercially Sexually Exploited Youth Participating in a Specialty Juvenile Court

“…Landers and colleagues recently described the mental health needs and trauma history among CSE youth receiving care in a specialized treatment program in Florida. They found that almost 87% of the youth reported a history of sexual abuse in their lifetime, 62% had depression, and almost 47% had evidence of substance use that appeared to interfere with functioning 26 . However, the youth surveyed were involved in an intensive trauma-informed therapeutic program for youth in the child welfare program, and not a specialty court system 26 .…”

Risk Factors and Indicators for Commercial Sexual Exploitation/Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking of Adolescent Girls in the United States in the Context of School Nursing: An Integrative Review of the Literature

“…(Fraley & Aronowitz, 2019, p. 12)Vulnerability to CSEC victimization may also manifest in a child’s disengagement and deviant behavior, as evidenced by a study of CSEC victims ( N = 25) that revealed suspensions from school for more than half of the participants (Shaw et al, 2017). Landers and colleagues (2017; N = 87) support these findings; more than two thirds of CSEC victims exhibited moderate to severe behavior problems in school, thus risking expulsion, and about one third missed at least 2 days of school per week on average. Thus, while low educational attainment was not a strong risk factor for CSEC, academic difficulty, as well as behavior problems in school, was found to constitute noteworthy predictors of CSEC.…”

“…Similarly, in a study by Reid and colleagues (2015), in 58% ( n = 11) of 19 familial sex trafficking cases, the biological mother was the trafficker. In alignment with these findings, another study ( N = 87) found that about half of the family members were not supportive of the CSEC survivor’s disclosure (Landers et al, 2017).…”

“…An analysis of a large national probability sample ( N = 814 of which 38 reported CSEC) identified no racial differences (O’Brien et al, 2017). The majority of studies, however, found African American girls at greater risk than White girls (e.g., see Cecchet & Thoburn, 2014; Chohaney, 2016; Fedina et al, 2019; Havlicek et al, 2016; Kenny et al, 2020; Landers et al, 2017; Naramore et al, 2017; Reid, 2014). Differences ranged from 53% versus 35% in a study of 419 children evaluated for CSEC (Havlicek et al, 2016) to 65% versus 26% in a study of 115 participants who had been sex trafficked as a child (Fedina et al, 2019).…”

“…Witnessing domestic violence , more generally, was also suggested to increase children’s likelihood of CSEC victimization (Cimino et al, 2017; Landers et al, 2017; Reid et al, 2015, 2017). For example, Reid and colleagues (2017) confirmed a significantly greater odds of family violence ( OR = 1.51, 95% CI [1.09, 2.09]) among their sample of 801 female CSEC victims compared to a matched sample of nontrafficked delinquent girls.…”