Was John Wesley a Racist? Excavating the Foundations of British Methodism’s Epistemological Whiteness

The Tragedy and Horror of Human Trafficking of Children and Youth

The Transnational Illegal Market of Trafficking in Human Beings – Actors and Discourses: A Transatlantic Comparison

Review question/objective The objective of this review is to describe commercial sexual exploitation as experienced by adolescents in the United States. The specific review question is: how do adolescent victims of commercial sexual exploitation in the United States describe their experiences with regard to their abuse and their engagement with the legal, health care and social service systems? Background Human trafficking is defined as any act that involves “the recruitment, abduction,…[and] sale or receipt of persons within national or across international borders, through force, coercion, fraud, or deception.”1(para5) Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Youth (CSEY) is a component of human trafficking that refers to the sexual abuse of a child or adolescent (under 18 years of age) for financial gain. This sexual abuse can take the form of physical abuse, child pornography or prostitution.2 In Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North and South America, human trafficking is recognized as a global problem.3–7 The International Organization for Migration collects data on the individuals assisted through counter trafficking programs implemented in more than 100 countries worldwide. Of the human trafficking victims included in the database, 27% were sexually exploited and 36% were under the age of 18.8 Estimates of the true prevalence of this crime are difficult to obtain for a variety of reasons. Perpetrators are able to evade law enforcement by frequently moving child and adolescent victims across borders and by the use of discreet online advertising to market them.9 Law enforcement agencies are unable to detect many cases because the victims are young, often recruited between the ages of nine and 12 when they are particularly vulnerable and as a result are unlikely to report their abuse. Furthermore, victims might appear older than their stated age or carry false identification.10 In a report regarding CSEY in the United States, Canada and Mexico, Estes and Weiner identified several groups at risk for exploitation as minors.11 The groups included: runaways, homeless youth, gang members, transgender street youth, unaccompanied minors or those brought into the United States illegally, abandoned, forced to leave home or are living within close proximity to a Mexican or Canadian border city. Among these groups, Estes and Weiner conservatively estimate that more than 244,000 youth are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation. In California, a border state with high rates of human trafficking cases, there are nine statewide taskforces dedicated to increasing the identification of victims, investigations and arrests for human trafficking. Between the years 2010 and 2012, 1277 child and adolescent victims were identified.10 Fifty-six percent of those cases involved sex trafficking. The Human Trafficking Reporting System is an agency that compiles information gathered from local and state law enforcement agencies on human trafficking in the United States. Although there are no estimates of the overall number of child and adolescent victims, the data indicates that 82% of suspected trafficking incidents are sexual in nature and greater than 1000 of the incidents reported between 2008 and 2010 involved CSEY.12 Characteristics of victims of commercial sexual exploitation Several characteristics of CSEY victims have been identified in research literature. According to two sources, CSEY victims were most likely to be female (≥99%), 16–18 years of age and African American (66%) and to have previous involvement with either the criminal justice or foster youth systems.13–14 Internationally, poverty is a common characteristic of victims3–7 and could be a contributing reason for the racial disparity in the United States. In a study of 113 previously sexually exploited minors, 75% reported experiencing child abuse or neglect, more than half (55%) had been abandoned by parents or guardians, and many were exposed to parents' criminal/prostitution activities or substance use.15 According to the authors of the report, the experience of these disruptive family processes can lead to maladaptive coping strategies. Participants reported severe substance abuse (31%), self-injurious behaviors (35%), and having run away (62% reporting having done so multiple times each month) as some of the most destructive behaviors. Frequently, running away had led to exposure to unsafe environments and engaging in dangerous or illegal activities as well.15 Although the majority who reported substance use did not meet the criteria for a disorder, substance use is common, with 70–100% of CSEY victims using alcohol, marijuana or ecstasy as drugs of choice.16 Substance use was a common theme in multiple studies indicating that victims of CSEY are more likely to not only use substances more frequently than adolescents who are not commercially sexually exploited, but to begin use at a younger age and to sell drugs as well, thus adding to their risk for legal repercussions associated with illegal activities.17–18 Sequelae of commercial sexual exploitation and barriers to breaking the cycle In a nationwide United States study examining characteristics of CSEY victims compared to child sexual abuse victims, multiple forms of trauma were identified in both groups, including physical and emotional abuse, neglect and domestic violence in addition to sexual trauma.19 A report produced by the West Coast Children's Clinic in California identified the mental health consequences of CSEY associated with the experience of ongoing trauma. The most common disorders diagnosed among CSEY victims were depression, anxiety, anger control issues and attachment disorder, with each individual diagnosis occurring in more than 50% of the sample.15 Despite the harm caused by these exploitative relationships, CSEY victims remain captive due to their basic need for food, shelter and safety. In Carr's study of 31 sexually exploited minors, participants reported strong motivations to continue prostitution, such as fear of physical abuse for refusing, lack of money for food, clothing and shelter, supporting a drug habit, or the exploiter wanting them to do so.20 Exploiters also used a variety of tactics to manipulate the victims. This included exploiting the relationship as a boyfriend/friend, requiring the payment of a debt, or forcing the victim to commit criminal offenses with the exploiter to maintain loyalty.21 Lack of confidence in academic skills, uncertainty about housing, and difficulty finding employment further contributed to the significant barriers to ending exploitative relationships and reintegrating into the community.16 The needs of CSEY victims are broad and varied. To develop effective support and treatment programs, it is necessary to understand the experiences of individuals affected by the abuse. The purpose of this review is to synthesize qualitative evidence with regard to commercial sexual exploitation and to strengthen the knowledge base for providers who treat the adolescent victims. A preliminary search of the Joanna Briggs Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports, the Cochrane Library, CINAHL and PubMed was conducted. While there was one abstract identified in the Cochrane Library that addressed internet-specific sexual exploitation of youth,22 there were no systematic reviews or protocols identified that addressed the experience of commercial sexual exploitation among adolescents in the United States from the perspective of the victim nor any focusing on qualitative evidence. Much of the research literature focused on screening and identification in primary care and emergency settings. Inclusion criteria Types of participants This review will consider studies that include participants who are or were victims of human trafficking, specifically commercial sexual exploitation, aged 18 years of age or younger at the time they experienced it. Types of abuse experienced in commercial sexual exploitation include, but are not limited to, physical abuse, child pornography and/or prostitution. Victims of child or adolescent sexual abuse or human trafficking who have not been commercially sexually exploited will not be included in this review. Phenomena of interest The phenomenon of interest is the self-reported experiences of victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Of particular interest is the effect of repeated traumatic experiences on mental and physical health as a result of the abuse and the identification of short- and long-term care needs for victims. Additionally, educational achievement, employment, and meeting basic needs for food and housing in the community are public health needs of this population and will also be considered. Ongoing involvement of victims with law enforcement will also be included in this review as continued engagement with the law enforcement system is prohibitive to meeting their other developmental needs. Context The geographic context for this review is commercial sexual exploitation that has taken place in the United States. Since commercial sexual exploitation is a covert and illegal activity, research involving victims might occur in a variety of social and cultural contexts, and health or community settings. Types of studies The review will focus on qualitative data from studies including, but not limited to, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, action research and feminist research. Search strategy The search strategy aims to find both published and unpublished studies. A three-step search strategy will be utilized in this review. First, we will conduct a limited search of PubMed, CINAHL, and PsycINFO to identify and analyze text words contained in the title and abstract, as well as index terms used to describe the article. Second, we will search all databases using all identified keywords and index terms. Third, we will search the reference list of all identified reports and articles for additional studies. Studies published in English since the year 2000 (the year the Federal Bureau of Investigation established the Crimes Against Children Program23 ) will be considered for inclusion in the review. The databases to be searched include: PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES and ERIC. The search for unpublished studies will include: Google Scholar, PsycEXTRA, MedNar, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses and conference proceedings. Initial keywords to be used will be: commercial sexual exploitation, sex trafficking, human trafficking, prostitution, and sexual slavery in combination with adolescent, teen, youth, juvenile or minor. Assessment of methodological quality Two independent reviewers will assess the selected studies for methodological validity prior to inclusion in the review using the Joanna Briggs Institute Qualitative Assessment and Review Instrument (JBI-QARI), a standardized critical appraisal instrument (Appendix I). Any disagreements that arise between the reviewers will be resolved through discussion or with a third reviewer. Data extraction Data will be extracted from papers included in the review using the standardized data extraction tool from JBI-QARI (Appendix II). The data extracted will include specific details about the phenomena of interest, population, study methods, and outcomes of significance to the review question and objectives. Data synthesis Qualitative research findings will, where possible be pooled using JBI-QARI. This will involve the aggregation or synthesis of findings to generate a set of statements that represent the experience of commercial sexual exploitation for adolescents. The findings will be aggregated and assembled according to the quality of studies and categorized on the basis of their similarity in meaning. These categories will then be subjected to a meta-synthesis in order to produce a comprehensive set of synthesized findings that can be used as a basis for evidence-based practice. Where textual pooling is not possible the findings will be presented in narrative form. Conflicts of interest The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Human trafficking is not a new issue in the United States. However it was not until the year 2000 that the United States made human trafficking punishable by law with the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (TVPA). After the passing of the TVPA, media interest in human trafficking as a crime increased. Past research on human trafficking frames in print media revealed that portrayals of human trafficking were for the most part oversimplified and inaccurate in terms of human trafficking being portrayed as innocent White female victims needing to be rescued from evil human traffickers (Barnett, 2015; Charynsh, Lloyd, & Simmons, 2014; Farrell & Fahy, 2009; Gulati, 2010; Gulati, 2011; Johnston, Friedman, & Shafer, 2014; Johnston, Friedman, & Sobel, 2014; Kinney, 2015; Szörényi & Eate, 2014; Sobel, 2014). Even though research on human trafficking in the media provides an understanding about how human trafficking is framed in print media, human trafficking frames in other forms of media such as movies, documentaries, and television episodes have rarely been examined. The existing content analyses that do explore themes in films are qualitative assessments on only one or two select films. This study uses Entman (1993) and Snow and Benford's (1988) theoretical framework on the purposes and types of frames and Christie's (1989) theoretical framework on the ideal victim construction to analyze a larger sample of human trafficking videos across movies, documentaries, television episodes, and region. The results of the content analysis revealed that human trafficking frames in movies, television episodes, and media that took place in the United States also oversimplified human trafficking with the rescue narrative. This analysis also revealed that even though the rescue narrative was also present in documentaries, documentaries were still more likely to present the complexities of human trafficking such as human rights concerns, diverse victims, and coercive forms of victimization. Suggestions for future research on human trafficking in visual media and the implications for these findings are discussed.

A Path Forward: Florida’s Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking

After its illegal occupation and annexation of Crimea in 2014 and continued military support for separatists in the Donbas, Russia escalated its war against Ukraine in February 2022 with direct ground attacks by Russian military forces on Ukraine's eastern, northern and southern borders, a blockade of Ukraine's coast and aerial attacks throughout the country. Millions of Ukrainians fled, including thousands of international students residing in Ukraine. Countries around the world responded to the resulting refugee crisis with varying policies. Many of Ukraine's neighboring countries enacted model immigration laws and developed various support schemes. Some governments, such as in Poland and the European Union (EU), immediately granted Ukrainian refugees the right to live, work, obtain access to education and receive benefits comparable to those to which their own citizens are entitled and created a generous and protective immigration model that attempts to prevent human trafficking and other forms of exploitation. Other countries geographically removed from the conflict used different models, including some with a private sponsorship component that, despite the best of intentions, may in retrospect be exposing refugees to the dangers of human trafficking and exploitation.<br/> Ukrainian refugees – also referred to as internally displaced persons (IDPs) if still remaining in Ukraine or as parolees if attempting to enter the United States (US) – seeking entry into the United Kingdom (UK) or US are required to find a private sponsor who accepts financial responsibility for them during their stay in their host country. In the UK, private sponsors are paid a monthly stipend, while in the US, private sponsors are not paid but actually contract with the US government to be financially responsible for the persons whom they are sponsoring. By contrast, Ukraine's neighbors, including Poland, with notably less economic and fiscal resources than either the UK or the US, have no private sponsorship requirement.<br/> Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukrainians have been a vulnerable population subjected to human trafficking – a situation exacerbated by Russia's current war against their country. In the first weeks of the war, credible firsthand and in-real-time reports by Ukrainian- and Russian-speaking attorneys and human rights advocates quickly emerged that describe Ukrainian women refugees utilizing online dating platforms, social media sites and online chat rooms to find private sponsors in the UK and the US. While this government policy requiring private sponsorship appeared to be a prudent means for vetting refugees, burden-sharing and shifting the hosting costs away from taxpayers and governments' ledgers, the policy has unintended consequences. Refugee and human trafficking experts state that the private sponsorship requirement compels Ukrainian refugees, 90-plus percent of whom are women and children, to 'market' themselves – often online – to potential private sponsors in the UK and US, thereby exposing themselves to human traffickers. This policy has potentially – albeit unintentionally – increased, exacerbated and even facilitated the human trafficking of Ukrainian refugees, an already vulnerable population experiencing a precariously heightened risk for physical, sexual and economic exploitation due to their growing desperation for physical safety.<br/> This article, written from the practitioners' perspective, discusses how the private sponsorship requirement for Ukrainian refugees is potentially increasing the risk of human trafficking for an already at-risk population, unnecessarily jeopardizing their safety and further stripping them of their human dignity. The unintended consequences of private sponsorship demonstrate that such a requirement in a wartime scenario is ill-conceived, inappropriate and dangerous public policy and, dare it be said, potentially exploitative.

This case was designed for emergency medicine interns and residents. Human trafficking is unfortunately an ever-growing and wide-reaching problem in the United States as well as the rest of the world. The International Labor Organization estimates 49.6 million people were affected by this modern-day slavery worldwide in 2021.1,2 The emergency department represents an opportunity to identify and provide aid to victims of human trafficking. Studies have shown that 63.3% of survivors interacted with the emergency department during their time of exploitation; however, most of these patients are not identified as human trafficking victims and opportunities for intervention are missed.3,4. By the end of this simulation, participants will be able to: (1) Identify signs of human trafficking. (2) Demonstrate the ability to perform a primary and secondary assessment of a patient when there is concern for human trafficking. (3) Demonstrate the ability to appropriately separate an at-risk patient from a potential trafficker. (4) Identify resources and a reliable course of action to permanently remove the patient from the harmful situation. A hybrid teaching model was employed that included both a lecture and a standardized patient simulation session followed by a structured debriefing session. A simulation with a standardized participant was implemented at an urban academic emergency department with a three-year EM residency program. Participants were evaluated with a survey prior to and after the simulation, where they responded to questions regarding human trafficking patients on a scale of 1 to 5, where 5 represented the greatest level of agreement. Nineteen emergency medicine interns and residents participated in this project. Prior to simulation training, and after the lecture, residents were surveyed on their confidence in identifying and treating patients who are affected by trafficking, their level of previous training in this topic, and whether they considered trafficking an important issue in emergency medicine. When asked if human trafficking is an important issue faced by the emergency department, 15 of the 19 of residents who completed the survey rated the importance a 5/5 on a Likert scale ranging from 1-not important to 5. Residents were also asked if they had received prior training in human trafficking on a scale of never (1) to often (5). Eight residents responded with either never or close to never. Two months after the simulation, the residents were again sent an optional survey. Ten residents responded. All who participated in the simulation now rated themselves a 4/5 on a scale from not confident to very confident. Of those who did not attend the simulation, the median value was a 3/5. Out of the residents who attended the simulation training, every resident rated the experience 5 out of 5 in terms of usefulness. One hundred percent of residents would recommend simulation training on human trafficking to other emergency medicine residents. This was an effective educational initiative because this education model allowed the residents to feel more comfortable identifying individuals affected by human trafficking, and all the residents who responded to the survey stated that they would recommend the use of simulation to others for education on human trafficking. High-fidelity simulation, human trafficking identification, human trafficking response.

Human Trafficking and the Emergency Nurse

The topic of modern-day slavery or human trafficking has received increased media and national attention. However, to date there has been limited research on the nature and scope of human trafficking in the United States. This article describes and synthesizes nine reports that assess the U.S. service organizations' legal representative knowledge of, and experience with, human trafficking cases, as well as information from actual cases and media reports. This article has five main goals: (a) to define what human trafficking is, and is not; (b) to describe factors identified as contributing to vulnerability to being trafficked and keeping a person entrapped in the situation; (c) to examine how the crime of human trafficking differs from other kinds of crimes in the United States; (d) to explore how human trafficking victims are identified; and, (e) to provide recommendations to better address human trafficking in the United States.

Human Trafficking is modern slavery. Its size, global scope, and potential to threaten national security warrants appropriate Department of Defense attention. However, the existing U.S. government institutions tasked to respond to Human Trafficking fail to account for the Department of Defense as an effective partner in addressing this global blight. This monograph asks whether the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has a role in addressing Human Trafficking. Human Trafficking mimics and compliments other illicit activities that destabilizes regions and creates environmental opportunities for violent extremist organizations. Activities such as illicit arms trafficking and narco-terrorism are known to destabilize regions, and have some causal links to violent extremist organizations. USSOCOM currently addresses those particular illicit activities operationally through the Theater Special Operations Commands (TSOCs); however, USSOCOM does not appear to address human trafficking. Tasked to synchronize global efforts to counter violent extremist organizations, U.S. Special Operations command is in a unique position to address Human Trafficking, as a compliment to existing U.S. government efforts to counter human trafficking. Using a most similar systems design methodology, the monograph compares two illicit activities with human trafficking, in order to demonstrate the necessity for USSOCOM attention. This monograph posits that USSOCOM should address human trafficking to augment existing U.S. Government efforts. Specifically, USSOCOM may use a similar operational approach taken to counter narco-terrorism, as well as increased intelligence synchronization with the U.S. Department of State Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center.

This article, the first of a two-part series, introduces the topic human trafficking in the United States. Based on the literature review, the author delineates definitions of “human trafficking,” the extent and types of human trafficking in the United States, characteristics of trafficked victims and perpetrators, the human trafficking data reporting system, and examples of cases in the United States and its territories. The goal is to provide an introduction to this topic for library staff to use in their research and instruction services. Part II, to follow, is a survey of United States government web resources on human trafficking in the United States for publications and data.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 24.9 million people are victims of forced labor globally. In addition to being a tragic human rights and security issue, trafficking in persons (TIP) is a high-profit, low-risk type of organized crime that generates an estimated $150 billion in illicit profits per year. Trafficking in persons is prevalent throughout all countries in the world and transcends both regime types and levels of development. Considering the size of the problem - both in terms of the number of victims as well as the monetary size of this particular type of illicit trade - it is puzzling why progress in enforcement of the laws in place remains limited. Conviction rates remain low, the number of victims identified compared to the total victim estimate of 24.9 million is negligible, the estimated total illicit profits produced annually by trafficked forced laborers is on the rise, and the estimated number of victims of trafficking is increasing. Why are governments failing to effectively address the issue of trafficking in persons? What role does agency of the street-level bureaucrats and low state capacity play in limiting enforcement of applicable TIP laws? The first article in this series of three finds that one potential explanation as to why TIP persists is because of the intentional non-enforcement by those public officials in charge of enforcing the laws in place. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that non-enforcement is a result of a lack of resources, it could also be an active strategy based on corrupt officials' pursuit of private benefits. While there is a centrally-made policy to combat trafficking, the street-level bureaucrats appear to be acting in accordance with their own private interests. By applying a principal-agent lens to the issue, a piece of the larger puzzle of understanding the lack of enforcement of trafficking laws seems to be that there is a divergence between street level action and central policy, where the agency appears to be located at the individual or street level. The second article examines whether a state's capacity to address trafficking in persons varies depending on the bureaucratic functions public officials have been tasked to perform, or across the governance issues the state intends to address - meaning in the specific case of trafficking the purpose of exploitation or industry in which the trafficking victims are exploited. Contrary to current research on state capacity, the findings indicate that state capacity may indeed vary depending on the type of crime that needs to be prevented and enforced against, and the type of bureaucratic function that intersects with the trafficking crime. This means that we cannot treat human trafficking as a single phenomenon or apply a one-size-fits-all policy response to address it. Instead, the response will have to vary (i) depending on the sub-category of trafficking (i.e. trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, forced labor or domestic servitude) that is being addressed, and (ii) where in the trafficking process or on which bureaucratic function governments focus their anti-trafficking efforts. The third and final article focuses in on the United States in general, and New York City in particular. Through semi-structured interviews with a wide range of representatives from NGOs, government agencies, journalists and politicians active in the anti-corruption and anti-trafficking space in NYC, a first-ever in-depth investigation of the trafficking in persons and corruption landscape in a large metropolitan city, located in a highly developed, democratic country, is conducted to provide an empirically based starting point for future research on this topic. While numerous reasons have been raised as to why trafficking is as prevalent as it is in NYC, the corrupt involvement by law enforcement was a recurring theme in the interviews. When the drivers of greed and a pursuit of power are present in an environment with a strong blue shield, insufficient whistleblower protection, and a lack of efficient oversight, we observe non-enforcement of TIP laws by those public officials who have been tasked with preventing this crime.--Author's abstract

Background Human trafficking (HT) survivors are at risk for substance use disorder (SUD), although assessing the SUD epidemiology of HT survivors is difficult. This study used data from the 2019 to 2021 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample to estimate the prevalence of SUD for HT survivors utilizing emergency departments (ED) in the United States of America (US). Methods We included visits for patients aged 12–64 years with any International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) codes documenting HT as a cause of morbidity (N = 1,688, SE = 141) or history of HT (N = 2,524, SE = 218). We estimated the prevalence of HT-related visits with SUD, associations between SUD and trafficking type, and demographic variation by SUD. Results Any non-nicotine SUD was frequently documented among patients with HT as a cause of morbidity (37.64%, n = 635) and for patients with any history of HT (42.42%, n = 1,071). SUD was more frequently documented in cases of sex trafficking (43.47%, n = 579) relative to labor trafficking (15.79%, n = 56) (p < 0.001). Having any non-nicotine SUD was associated with higher rates of hospitalization for ED visits with HT as a cause of morbidity (53.31% [n = 339] vs. 12.39% [n = 130]; p < 0.001) and for those with a history of HT (76.78% [n = 822] vs 50.43% [n = 733]; p < 0.001). Conclusions HT patients presenting to the ED have high rates of SUD and HT patients with SUD having a greater likelihood of hospitalization. ED clinicians can play an important role in supporting SUD recovery among HT survivors.

The trafficking of women has been a lucrative moneymaker for transnational organized crime networks, ranking third, behind drugs and arms, in criminal earnings. The U.S. military bases in South Korea were found to form a hub for the transnational trafficking of women from the Asia Pacific and Eurasia to South Korea and the United States. This study, conducted in 2002, examined three types of trafficking that were connected to U.S. military bases in South Korea: domestic trafficking of Korean women to clubs around the military bases in South Korea, transnational trafficking of women to clubs around military bases in South Korea, and transnational trafficking of women from South Korea to massage parlors in the United States.

Description of the Problem: Human trafficking is a critical public health threat in the United States, yet education on human trafficking for pharmacy students has not been evaluated despite pharmacists being the most accessible health care professionals. Description of the Innovation: To evaluate the most valuable aspects of an introductory module on human trafficking, pharmacy students participated in a human trafficking module, and their perception of human trafficking was evaluated after the module. Content on human trafficking was delivered through an asynchronous online presentation followed by a synchronous Zoom class discussion. Fifty-three third-year pharmacy students from the Women's Health elective in the fall semester of 2020 at the University of Minnesota - College of Pharmacy were included. Consensual Qualitative Research methodology was used for qualitative data analysis. Critical Analysis: Students' perceptions of the value of this learning module was evaluated through consensual qualitative research. The findings suggest the module held significant value for students to better understand human trafficking and the role of pharmacists. Implications: A hybrid model on human trafficking involving discussions, case examples, and questions posed by students was found to have a positive impact on their knowledge on human trafficking. The results of this study will provide direction for future modules, classes, or adaptations to the curriculum on human trafficking for pharmacy students and may prove beneficial for other health care professionals.