Florida has the second-highest incidence of human trafficking in the country. Sex trafficking of women into and out of the state of Florida is defined by various terms from international, national and local terms. The United Nations defines sex trafficking in Article 3, paragraph (a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime as: "Trafficking in persons: shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation". This study explores the experiences of women who have been trafficked as well as the recruitment strategies by which women are trafficked and to what extent their life changes. This study aims to understand the extent to which local nonprofits in the state of Florida have tackled the issue as well as the international, federal and state government laws are enforced. The findings will provide useful guidelines to help nonprofits in the state of Florida work together to combat the issue as well as be used as an informative research proposal for the community to push stronger legislation and raise more awareness.

This study aims to explore nursing students' knowledge and perceptions of identifying and treating victims of sexual assault and sex trafficking. Survey data was collected from second to fifth semester nursing students in Eastern Tennessee. The study aims to identify students' perceptions of medical personnel's ability to identify and treat sexual assault and sex trafficking victims, examine whether adherence to myths affects knowledge and confidence levels, determine students' confidence in identifying and treating victims, and evaluate whether demographic characteristics affect identification and treatment. Results will help improve our approach towards these issues.

Domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) is a social problem affecting children between the ages of 12 and 17 years old. The issues related to DMST present challenges for social work practitioners because they often lack knowledge regarding how to identify and provide specialized services to this population. The purpose of the qualitative study was to collect and analyze data to develop an understanding of how social workers in the northeastern region of the United States identified challenges and thereby improved their practice skills when intervening with this vulnerable population. An epistemological paradigm, with a constructivist perspective employing Nguyen's systems theory, was used to understand the phenomena. The practice-focused research question posed to 5 clinically licensed social workers (LCSW) asked about the perceived barriers hindering social work practice when identifying victims of DMST. In addition, upon recognition of DMST victims, participants described existing community services that addressed their social work practice needs. The LCSWs attended 3 hour-long audio-recorded focus groups, offering their knowledge and experiences related to DMST in the designated region. Constant comparison was used to analyze the data provided by the participants during the focus groups. The key findings indicated a lack of proper identification tools and specialized services for this community. Findings can be used to recommend social change efforts, which included increasing communication about the victims between jurisdictions and communications with policy makers and service providers regarding the need to develop and implement training on various related topics.

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The current literature on victims of sex trafficking lacks adequate research on effective therapeutic treatments for this population. This study aims to find an effective therapy for female victims of sex trafficking to treat trauma-related symptoms including PTSD, depression, anxiety, self-blame, self-esteem, and overall well-being by testing the effectiveness of eye-movement desensitization reprocessing (EMDR), trauma recovery and empowerment model (TREM), and psychoeducation. In this study, approximately 180-200 female victims of sex trafficking ages 18 or older will be randomly assigned to either the EMDR, TREM, psychoeducation, or a control-wait-list group. Trauma-related symptoms will be assessed pre-treatment (Time 1), post-treatment (Time 2), and 6- months post-treatment (Time 3) to assess the effectiveness of each intervention over time. It is expected that participants in all therapy groups will display significantly improved trauma-related symptoms compared to participants in the control-wait list group at time 2. It is further expected that participants in the TREM group will display significantly reduced self-blame and increased self-esteem and overall well-being at time 2 compared to participants in the EMDR and psychoeducation groups. Lastly, it is expected that improvement in trauma-related symptoms will be maintained from time 2 to time 3. These expected findings suggest that TREM will be the most effective long-term therapy for female victims of trafficking.

In this era of globalization, human trafficking is emerging as a major theme, with rapid movement of information, capital and people across international borders. Despite the red alert over the issue, the crime of human trafficking remains highly unreported even in the most developed countries like United States of America. This silence over the issue in this country can be attributed to the lack of awareness about its prevalence in our own back yard and the measures available against it. This silence is further compounded by economic, social, cultural and psychological factors. Acknowledging the need to break the silence over this globalized issue, A Silent Cry is an interdisciplinary response in the form of a documentary film. It combines the strengths of cinema and anthropology attempting to humanize the data available on the phenomena. This document contextualizes the issue dealt in the documentary and along with an insight into its production process.

Denna studie undersöker fenomenet sexhandel och prostitution. Genom intervjuer med myndighetspersoner och ideella organisationer som arbetar för att bekämpa sexhandel och prostitution i Sverige, ville vi undersöka vilka perspektiv dessa organisationer och myndigheter har på fenomenet. Vi tittade på hur dessa beskriver situationen och hur de ser på utvecklingen av arbetet mot sexhandel och prostitution, samt hur de arbetar och vilka utmaningar de ser i Sverige. Liksom tidigare forskning visat så är detta ett växande problem med stora mörkertal där förövarna tenderar att vara anonyma och offren vanligtvis kommer från utsatta situationer, vilket driver dem in i prostitution och sexhandel. Majoriteten av offren är kvinnor från fattigare länder som säljs till Sverige genom hallickar. Då svenska män betalar betydligt mer än männen i kvinnornas hemländer, blir Sverige ett attraktivt land för sexhandel. De svenska sexköparna har övervägande god ekonomi, även om det förekommer att män från alla samhällsklasser köper sex. I och med den svenska lagstiftningen och den fria rörligheten inom Europa så köper majoriteten av de svenska sexköparna sex utomlands. Sexhandeln ger mest inkomst till hallickarna vilka behåller största delen av pengarna själva samtidigt som kvinnorna ofta sätts i beroendeställning till hallickarna genom skuldsättning och bristande språkkunskaper. Det framkom att sexhandel och prostitution drivs av krafter som förvriden människosyn, pengar, makt, sexdrift, och diskriminering. En stor bidragande orsak till att problemet fortfarande existerar och växer är efterfrågan vilken också stimuleras av pornografin. Porren harstark koppling till sexhandel och prostitution då den normaliserar en förvriden kvinnosyn, dessutom går porrkonsumtionen ner i åldrarna i dagens Sverige. Både frivilligarbetare och myndighetspersoner arbetar på olika sätt för att förebygga och bekämpa prostitution och sexhandel, genom opinionsbildning, förebyggande arbete, operativt och uppsökande arbete samt rehabilitering. De intervjuade efterfrågade mer resurser och underströk vikten och nödvändigheten av samverkan för att kunna bekämpa sexhandeln och prostitutionen.

This thesis is a content analysis of news about sex trafficking published in the US from 2001 to 2013. The focus of the research is the portrayal of sex traffickers in the news. The project discovered that in the news, the public image of sex traffickers is overwhelmingly people of color who are described to be violent, deceptive and forcible. In addition, sex traffickers are portrayed to make sense of the simplistic representation of powerless female trafficking victims. The portrayal of sex traffickers in the news is simplistic and is driven by the state's response to sex trafficking: punishment of sex traffickers.

Sex-trafficking has been known as an international crime of violence against women and children. Social work professionals unknowingly encounter sex trafficking victims among their clients for potential identification and intervention. In a crisis setting, social workers play a fundamental role in assessing and providing treatment services to the victims of sex-trafficking that range in age, gender, and socioeconomic status. Victim identification presents a challenge for social workers because victims are a part of a hidden population. Although the sex-trafficked individuals can be reported to authorities if identified, attention needs to be focused as to how social worker professionals identify the sex-trafficking victims they may potentially to encounter.

This qualitative study sought to explore the personal experiences of those who have been victims of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST), the challenges they faced as they transitioned into survivors, and the factors they attributed to their resiliency. DMST victims are among the marginalized populations enduring social injustices within our communities. Social workers seek to serve these individuals, and yet they are just one part of the system of helping professionals that will encounter these victims. The interactions that DMST victims have with each entity of the system makes a difference in the recovery process as they become a survivor. Much of the research that had previously been conducted focused on the therapist’s perspective of DMST as experienced through their own therapeutic relationships with the victims. In contrast, the primary goal of this research was to focus on the perspective of those who had been victims of DMST so those in the helping professions can more effectively help these individuals. In order to achieve such goals it is essential to build a foundation of knowledge. This involves providing educational aspects to understand the scope of the problem and the dynamics of the trafficking relationship. In the case of this research, the victims themselves provide the knowledge that was gained through their participation. In addition, the research participants were able to express their perspective of both effective and ineffective aspects of their recovery, as well as what modifications could be made to improve the experiences of those who have been DMST victims in the process of becoming a survivor. Despite the differences in the experiences of the participants, this research revealed major themes in terms of dysfunctional family dynamics in childhood, a lack of recognition of the signs of trafficking, a lack of appropriate recovery services, and provided insight into helpful strategies that could be implemented to improve the process as these individuals transition from victim to survivor. The personal experiences within the specific themes and categories provide beneficial knowledge for those involved in the helping professions as they encounter victims of DMST.