La Strada Documentation Center

The National Report on Domestic MInor Sex Trafficking. America’s Prostituted Children

Document number
2248
Date
2009
Title
The National Report on Domestic MInor Sex Trafficking. America’s Prostituted Children
Author/publisher
Linda A. Smith Samantha Healy Vardaman Melissa A. Snow, Shared Hope International
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Corporate social responsibility, Multi-stakeholder partnerships: Child Trafficking, Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, Best Interests Principle, Child Victims of Trafficking, Separated Migrant Children, Unaccompanied minors, Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Child protection systems,
Summary
The assessment process investigated the three areas of Prevention, Prosecution, and Protection "three Ps") as the key components necessary to effectively combat trafi cking in persons. The assessments involved qualitative interviews of professionals likely to come into contact with victims of domestic minor sex trafi cking, as well as quantitative data collection when available. Seven professional groups were identii ed as likely to come into contact with victims of domestic minor sex trafi cking and targeted for interviews: Federal, State, and Local Law Enforcement; Federal and State Prosecutors; Juvenile Court; Juvenile Probation and Detention; Public Defenders; Child Protective Services; and Social Services/Non-Governmental Organizations. A total of 297 interviews were conducted. Statistics were requested but were not always available. In many cases, statistics provided did not disaggregate data on domestic minor sex trafi cking - a term and crime most interviewees were not familiar with yet; in these cases the statistics were reviewed for extrapolation in determining numbers of suspected domestic minor sex trafi cking victims. For example, juvenile detention facility statistics rel ecting numbers of youth detained under charges of prostitution could be properly counted toward the number of domestic minor sex trafi cking victims in that facility as juveniles in prostitution are victims of sex trafficking  under the federal Trafi cking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA). The reliance on extrapolated data rel ects  the glaring lack of identii cation of domestic minor sex trafi cking victims and highlights the need for training as well as data collection on this victim population.
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