Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Minors: Overlooked and Underreported

Abstract

Are you able to come and go as you please, or is someone always with you? Where do you sleep and eat? Is anyone forcing you to do anything that you don't want to do? Has anyone ever physically harmed you or threatened you? These are some of the questions we should routinely be asking the young people we care for, particularly in community-based settings. Every day in the United States, children and adolescents are victims of commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. Despite the seriousness of this crime, no reliable estimate is available of the prevalence of commercial sexual exploitation of minors. Largely, these crimes are overlooked and underreported because they often occur at the margins of society and behind closed doors. Children who are particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking include those who have been neglected or abused, are in foster care or detention, or are runaways or homeless. Currently, we have a relative lack of policies, protocols, and specialized training to aid professionals in identifying and assisting victims and survivors of these crimes. To raise awareness and to begin to develop research, policy, and practice guidelines in response to these crimes, the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council (NRC) formed a committee to conduct a study of these crimes and make recommendations. The Committee's report, Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States, which was released in September 2013, calls for a collaborative approach by entities from a range of sectors to better prevent sex trafficking, identify and respond to the victims, and confront persons who commit and benefit from these crimes and have largely escaped accountability (National Research Council, 2013National Research CouncilConfronting commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of minors in the United States. National Academies Press, Washington, DC2013http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2013/Confronting-Commercial-Sexual-Exploitation-and-Sex-Trafficking-of-Minors-in-the-United-States.aspxGoogle Scholar). The Committee based its deliberations and subsequent recommendations on three fundamental principles: (a) these crimes are instances of abuse and violence against children; (b) “recovered” minors who have been exploited or trafficked should not be considered criminals; and (c) the identification of these victims and survivors, as well as future interventions, should do no further harm. Overall, the Committee's report outlines steps to increase awareness and understanding, strengthen the response of the legal system, promote research leading to effective prevention and intervention strategies, support multisector and interagency collaboration in all of these efforts, and create a digital information-sharing platform. The Committee also concluded that there is an extremely small evidence base related to the prevention of and appropriate intervention for this criminal activity. Rather than devoting a large of amount of resources to the effort to identify the overall prevalence of such crimes, the Committee suggests a national research agenda with the aims of advancing knowledge and understanding of commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of minors in the United States, developing effective, youth-centered multisector interventions, and evaluating the effectiveness of prevention and intervention laws, policies, and programs. The Committee also noted that an effective response to these crimes requires collaboration and cooperation across numerous groups: social service agencies, health care providers, legislators, law enforcement officials, educators, and the commercial sector. In the public's mind, efforts to address child exploitation and recover children are often associated with high-profile public events. In the week prior to the recent Super Bowl held in northern New Jersey, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as part of its Innocence Lost Initiative, mounted an extensive crackdown on child trafficking: 16 teenagers ranging in age from 13 to 15 years were recovered, and 45 pimps and their associates were arrested (Cloherty and Thomas, 2014Cloherty, J., & Thomas, P. (2014). Teens as young as 13 rescued from super bowl sex trafficking. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/US/teens-young-13-rescued-super-bowl-sex-trafficking/story?id=22361909.Google Scholar). To date, the FBI has recovered more than 3,100 children and has conducted investigations leading to 1,400 convictions. Although such high-profile initiatives serve to raise the public's awareness, sex trafficking of minors continues to occur every day in our communities. Efforts to prevent the commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of children in the United States are largely lacking. Although awareness of the problem is growing, current efforts to prevent and address these practices are generally insufficient, uncoordinated, and unevaluated. The input and active involvement of pediatric health care providers is key to raising awareness, establishing best practices in prevention and intervention, and strengthening emerging efforts to address this form of abuse through a coordinated, comprehensive approach.