The purpose of this study is to explore methods of intervention for domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST). Due to the secretive nature of the DMST industry, victims are not only difficult to identify, but are also difficult to gain access to in order to provide effective intervention. This study seeks to overcome these barriers by gaining the perspectives of DMST survivors. This study has a qualitative design, in which 8 survivors of DMST, who are now adults, were interviewed to determine appropriate methods of intervention for child welfare social workers. In doing so, intervention was broken down into three categories; prevention, intervention, and recovery. The findings of this study indicated the need for an interagency approach to victim identification. Furthermore, the findings of this study highlighted the need for services that incorporated spirituality and a network of support; such as mentorship, life coaching, and support groups.

Domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) is a significant issue that affects children, families, and communities throughout the United States. Due to the illegal nature of the problem, it is difficult for law enforcement to identify victims of DMST and when they are identified it is challenging to provide them with services. Because law enforcement often encounter DMST victims through first response calls or within juvenile hall, it is important to understand the collaboration efforts between social workers and law enforcement in order to provide effective services for this population. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of the perceptions of law enforcement officers regarding the involvement of social workers in DMST cases. This study used a qualitative design by collecting data through face-to-face interviews with 10 law enforcement officers from Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County. This design allowed participants the opportunity to provide a more in-depth explanation regarding the involvement of social workers in DMST cases. The study found that there is a need for social workers to collaborate with law enforcement agencies to provide and advocate for services for victims of DMST. The study also indicated the need for transitional housing or other placement options for youth because the current alternative is incarceration.

The focus for this research project was to explore the development of human trafficking mercy ministries within South Coast Presbytery. South Coast Presbytery consists of 21 churches belonging to the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), a Christian denomination with member churches throughout the United States. The study was conducted following a constructivist paradigm with a PCA church belonging to South Coast Presbytery to determine the role of the church and the presbytery in addressing human trafficking through the development of mercy ministries. Interviews were conducted with 11 church members. Five major themes emerged from analysis of the interviews: 1) Effects of the existence of human trafficking on participants; 2) The role of the church/presbytery in addressing human trafficking; 3) Service provision to victims of human trafficking; 4) Partnerships with outside agencies; and 5) Ministry development in South Coast Presbytery. An action plan was developed based on the following subthemes: raising awareness, teaming up, the need for specialists, and the need for oversight. The action plan includes the following: the development of a presentation to raise awareness, plans to visit each church of South Coast Presbytery to promote a shared vision, and building a database of available church resources to link with needs identified by service providers in the community.

In Los Angeles County, California, approximately 2,245 victims of child sex trafficking were identified between 1997 and 2012. Several authors believed that poverty was linked to child sex trafficking because it increased the vulnerability of victims. The purpose of this nonexperimental, correlational study was to explore the question of how poverty was related to child sex trafficking in Los Angeles County, California. Intersectionality from the third wave of feminist theory was used as the theoretical underpinning of this study. Using data from the United States Census Bureau and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, information was collected on 97 counties in the southwestern portion of the United States that had a minimum population of 100,000 people and at least 1 arrest of a minor for prostitution between the years of 1997 and 2012. Analysis of the nonnormal data through a Friedman test indicated that differences in the medians existed in the levels of the child sex trafficking variable, but follow up tests did not reveal the sources of the differences. Kendall's W test results indicated a lack of concordance, and Spearman's correlation did not indicate that a monotonic relationship existed between the variables when tested by year, except for 1998. These results failed to provide the evidence needed to reject the null hypothesis. The relationship between poverty and child sex trafficking at the county level could not be measured by income and through a portion of the victim population. Differing measurements of poverty, varying levels of analysis, and diverse applications of intersectionality may yield different results. Ultimately, this study was a first step, rather than a final step, in creating positive social change through increased knowledge and more effective policies against sex trafficking.

<p>This paper provides a study about human trafficking with sexual motives performed in European states and the measures taken from national, international and Non-Governmental organizations with the purpose to oppose human trafficking. According to the UN human trafficking has increased and shows tendencies to continue escalating, regardless of the measures taken by various organisations. In this study, four countries with associations to human trafficking have been chosen and organisations related to these countries are studied. The purpose is to inquire into how these organisations work against human trafficking and which objectives and guidelines these organisations strive for together with their values. The aim is to find out which result the organizations efforts gets and if, according to my hypothesis, the efforts oppose themselves. If so, what could be a possible explanation?</p><p>The central conclusions after performing this study is that the policies from international organisations given to institutions at state level are not always implemented. There are also difference in the measures taken by each state and their valuations. Every actor’s behaviour in a network is important and scarcity in one actors behaviour leads to a weakened result. One of the studied states has shown tendencies of disregarding the issue which effects collaboration between the studied organizations.</p>

<p>In the wake of state borders becoming more porous the flows of people crossing them in search for opportunities have increased. This trend is evident in Greater Mekong Sub region where the economic boom of Thailand attracts thousands of migrant workers every year from neighboring countries making Thai industries dependent on the cheap labor. Alongside these developments, human trafficking, the slave trade of our time, has emerged as an increasing challenge.</p><p>In Lao PDR the historic ties to Thailand make for a long history of cross-border relations and flows. With the relative economic differences, labor migration to the richer neighbor is becoming an accepted way of improving family conditions. However, the risks involved, exploitation and trafficking, are not widely known in the communities.</p><p>Counter-trafficking work in Lao PDR has been evolving over the passed 10 years. This study has, through an ethnographic approach to organizational work combined with reflections and observations, tried to create a picture of the counter-trafficking work on the ground. Using semi-structured interviews projects, aims and assumptions could be derived and three main problems identified: Trafficking is hard to separate from labor migration, thus making it hard to effectively target; there is a dissonance between perceived and actual inter-sector communication, and; the trafficking sector is isolated from other sectors as dialogue across sector borders appear to be nonexistent. Reasons given for these discords mainly came down to dependency on donors and a need to meet their requirements. Essentially it seems that organizations working with this open-border phenomenon are rigidly closed to each other.</p>

The aim of this thesis is to explain the identity narratives of three different Colombian ‘girl handlers’ in Hong Kong and how these form a nexus to a wider context of human trafficking and organised crime. This investigation takes form in the analysis of their impression management utilising the concepts of front-stage, back-stage, facework, techniques of neutralisation they utilise to justify their behaviour, and their links to organised crime syndicates operating both within and outside of Hong Kong. I also look at the way in which they go about doing their business of ‘girl handling’ in practice. The research was conducted to gain a better understanding of this particular criminal subculture. The context of the aforementioned forms of analysis; and attempts to offer original insight into this criminal group. It is a relatively small operation functioning within the greater scheme of the sex trade and as such, most of the people involved in this trade were interviewed. This investigation was conducted through in-depth interviews of the Colombian ‘girl handlers’ and in-depth interviews with a priest who is familiar with this scene. In addition I have analysed both Colombian court documents which verify certain claims made by the research participants and documents released by the United Nations in relations to a particular case which will be mentioned in the third chapter of this thesis. The empirical findings of this research demonstrate that Colombian girl handlers have to manage different façades to operate in this trade and keep it secret from people they do not trust; this works both ways as they would lose credibility in both their legal and illegal jobs. Another finding is that they utilise various techniques of neutralisation to justify their behaviour and actions in the trade. The last finding illustrates that all three girl handlers have some ties to an organised crime syndicate (if they are not fully affiliated) as they would not be allowed to operate within this field without such connections. Those who do, conform to the ‘outer layers’ or ‘fringes’ of the Colombian cartels. The interviewees therefore could be defined as small cogs working in the “outer layers” of an international machine of crime syndicates far away from Hong Kong. This study therefore allows for the understanding of Colombian ‘girl handlers’ in different forms which make each unique in the way that he conducts his business. / published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

The identification of victims of human trafficking and consequential service provision is characterized by a significant disconnection between the estimated prevalence of this issue and the number of cases identified. The current dissertation introduces the Inclusive Human Trafficking Checklist (IHTC) as a screening measure, evaluates the appropriateness of the instrument, evaluates whether there are differences in assessment based on the participant’s profession, level of knowledge, and training, and assesses if users of the instrument perceive it as useful. A total of 201 participants were asked to rate three vignettes predetermined by experts to qualify as a either human trafficking case or not. The participants were placed in three conditions: business as usual (use of the Rescue and Restore instrument), utilization of the IHTC with and without training. The results revealed a statistically significant level of agreement between the expert’s diagnostic and the application of the IHTC. While there was an improvement in identification in the group with training, the difference was found to have a small effect size. The results also revealed an improvement on identification of cases when utilizing the IHTC. Participants who utilized the IHTC showed an increased ability to identify elements of identity-based vulnerabilities as well as elements of fraud, which according to the results, are distinctive variables in cases of human trafficking. In terms of the perceived utility, the results revealed higher mean scores for the groups utilizing the IHTC when compared to the business as usual condition. These findings suggest that the IHTC improves appropriate identification of cases and that it is perceived as a useful instrument. The application of the IHTC as a counseling and legal instrumentation utilized for conceptualization and intervention of human trafficking cases is discussed as an opportunity for enhancement of victim well-being, engagement and activism.

<p>Human trafficking has emerged over the past three decades as an issue of considerable concern for the international community, and governments around the world have committed themselves to enacting legislation to combat the trade in humans. This has resulted in the adoption of international standards and important obligations of governments, to address the trafficking in persons (TIP) and in particular child trafficking which appears as a worldwide form of modern-day slavery, and a facet of transnational organized crime. This study investigated the potential causes of this state of affairs, which could be the inadequacy of legal texts and absence of implementation mechanisms, lack of co-ordination amongst the actors implicated, the insufficiency of political will to respond to the problem, the permeability of borders, or the lack of information in the accounts of victims and their parents. The principle objective aimed to address and ensure safety, special protection and security to child victims of trafficking. In so doing this study identified the existing legal framework in the international and regional environment.</p>

Thesis (M.A. in in National Security Studies (Far East, Southeast Asia, Pacific))--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2009. / Thesis Advisor(s): Malley, Michael. "June 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on July 10, 2009. Author(s) subject terms: Human trafficking, Southeast Asia, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, sex tourism, poverty, globalization, women's rights, education levels, uneven regional economic development, labor trafficking, corruption. Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-92). Also available in print.