Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking is a crime happening right in our own backyards. Social Workers are seeing this vulnerable population fall through the fingers of social services and into the clutches of traffickers at alarming rates. This research project analyzed San Bernardino and Riverside County Foster Family Agency Social Workers' Awareness of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking. This project was a quantitative exploratory research design. A paper survey was distributed to Foster Family Agency Social Workers within San Bernardino and Riverside County, California using a snowball sampling. A bivariate analysis was conducted to evaluate the relationship that social work experience in the field and the amount of DMST trainings attended have on social work awareness of DMST. The results of this research show that high number of DMST trainings result in a lower level of DMST awareness. Data also showed no significant relationship between how participants scored on the Awareness of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking survey and years of social work experience. The results of this research can be used as a baseline to study Foster Family Agency Social Worker awareness with San Bernardino and Riverside County, California and how to best implement effective DMST trainings; as federal and state laws are predicted to make Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking training mandatory within social service fields.

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This dissertation was completed in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Public Health program at East Tennessee State University. The dissertation follows the Manuscript Format which includes three manuscripts, these manuscripts regard familial sex trafficking and are as follows, a scoping review, an empirical study on regional familial sex trafficking, and a policy implications paper on criminal record relief for survivors of familial sex trafficking. The scoping review includes eight peer reviewed studies on familial sex trafficking and a summary of grey literature. Thematic analysis was used to map the existing literature onto the Three Ps of human trafficking: Prevention, Protection, Prosecution, and a 4th crosscutting element Partnership. The scoping review summarized these characteristics and found that familial sex trafficking remains widely understudied and needs better data, awareness, training, and collaborations. The empirical study interviewed 10 individuals who had expertise or lived experience working with perpetrators or victims/survivors of familial sex trafficking in East Tennessee. This study found that like previous literature, the social determinants of health influence this form of abuse. Further, it contextualized the experience of traffickers, their vulnerabilities, and how these vulnerabilities tempted them into familial sex trafficking to meet their basic needs. This study highlights gaps in awareness, training, and programming for prevention and survivor support. The final paper, the policy implication paper, leverages data collected from the empirical study to demonstrate the reality of forced criminality during familial sex trafficking victimization and how criminal records impact recovery. This paper further explores the implications for developing policy and promising practices to further inform policy development. In summary, these manuscripts were carried out in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Public Health program at East Tennessee State University.

<p>Sex sells. A lot. But who exactly is on the market? </p><p>What kinds of bodies are calibrated for traffic and consumption, and how exactly do they get there? When it comes to “sex” trafficking—which comprises a minority percentage of human trafficking, yet dominates the moral imagination as an “especially heinous” crime—the rise in predominantly white, evangelical Christian American interest in the trafficked subject galvanizes an ethical outrage that rarely observes critiques of race, ethnicity, sexuality or class as conditions of possibility. Though a nuanced mandate to fight trafficking is all but cemented in the contemporary American political and moral conscience, Virgin Territory accounts for the ways Christian ideas of purity annex both gender and sexuality inside the legacies of racialized colonial encounter, and foreground the market expansion of the global sex trade as it exists today. </p><p>In Part I, I argue that the narratives of virginity tied to Mary’s body simultaneously foregrounded the gendered, sexed Other as sparked disdain for the religious Other, for the Jewish body and for Mary’s Jewish identity. Through this analysis I explore the connections of racial identity to the Christian theological elision of Jewish election. I demonstrate how the questions of sexual ethics materialized at the site of the Virgin Mary, and align the moral attachments of sex and purity in the production of whiteness. These machinations, tied to the emerging European identity of empire, irrupt horrifically into the narrative ontology of dark flesh in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.</p><p>In Part II, I highlight the function of these narratives inside of the moments of colonial encounter, demonstrating how the logics of purity and virginity were directly applied to manage dark female flesh. I map the visual iconography of the Black Madonna first through a Dutch painting entitled The Rape of the Negress. I read this image through the social theological imagination instantiating the idea of the reprobate body and white imperial gaze. This analysis foregrounds a theological reading of Sarah Baartman, the “Hottentot Venus,” as the center of a complex sex trafficking investigation, outlining the genealogy of race, as well as the ideologies of the racial, ethnic and national Other, as mitigating factors in the conditions of possibility of a global sex trade. By restoring these narratives and their theological undertones, I reiterate the ways Christian thought is imbricated in the global sex trade, and propose theological strategies for rethinking humanitarian responses to sex trafficking.</p> / Dissertation

This thesis employs the most recent and best available data on human trafficking, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Trafficking in Persons Global Report 2006, as well as nine independent variables to determine what their effects are on countries’ volumes of human trafficking outflows. By completing a cross-sectional analysis via an OLS regression, I found statistically significant support for three factors that I hypothesize lead to greater outflows of human trafficking. My findings suggest that countries that are less corrupt, have more seats in parliament held by women, and score higher on Cho, Dreher, and Neumayer’s Anti-Trafficking Policy Index are less likely to experience high outflows of human trafficking. Additionally, while they narrowly avoid statistical significance, this study also suggests that states that have a legal stance on prostitution and have fewer women employed in the non-agricultural sector experience less human trafficking outflows.

Global slavery includes human trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor, commercial sexual exploitation of children, and organ trafficking. Despite its official abolishment within the international community, global slavery continues to thrive in many parts of the world. The various types of slavery do not restrain themselves in a mutual exclusive manner; rather, they transcend and merge to create inter-connectedness within the illegal world of slavery. For instance, a person that is trafficked for the purpose of labor -- domestic or forced -- can also become sexually exploited and prostituted. This thesis discusses the nature and scope of the different faces of contemporary slavery, including human trafficking, debt bondage, and the sex tourism industry. While pervasive worldwide, human trafficking remains a major problem, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, the former republics of the Soviet Union, and Asia. Higher levels of unemployment, the demand for "exotic" women and the existence of well-organized trafficking routes and international criminal organizations has led to the development of this slavery. In short, human trafficking is said to exist in virtually every country of the world. The abundance of beautiful beaches and resorts, as well as the supply of cheap women and children in Southeast Asia and Latin America has led to a thriving sex tourism industry. In Central Asia and Africa, a high demand for manual labor, as well as certain religious and cultural factors, has given rise to the largest type of slavery in the world: debt bondage. An empirical aggregate-level analysis using OLS regression is performed to examine why certain countries have more indigenous people (native to that country) who become enslaved than others. Overall, a lack of human development proves to be a major factor in determining the number of enslaved peoples across countries.

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) is the sexual exploitation of minors for commercial profit. The intersection between sex trafficking victimization and substance use has not yet been explored in clinical research and is not reflected in current clinical treatment of survivors when they exit their exploitation. The research question explored in this study focused on the substance use treatment considerations and challenges clinical social workers face when treating survivors of CSEC living in Massachusetts. Subquestions included understanding how cumulative trauma from CSEC impacts substance use treatment and how the coercive use of substances aimed at maintaining victim submission impacts substance use treatment. Contemporary trauma theory was the theoretical basis that informed this action research study. The sample included 5 clinical social work practitioners who had experience working with victims and survivors of CSEC. Data collected through a focus group was coded, compared, and analyzed for major and emergent themes using the constant comparison method. The key findings of the study include the lack of training and experience specific to the population, the impact of trauma, the effect of CSEC on substance use treatment, and the need for specialized treatment services. The findings of the study may create positive social change by increasing knowledge of the dynamics of substance use treatment with CSEC survivors, informing best practices for social worker professionals working with this population, and advising the development of trauma-informed substance use treatment for CSEC survivors.

Human trafficking exists domestically and internationally, and each year thousands of men, women, and children are trafficked into lives of involuntary servitude. Law enforcement efforts to investigate human trafficking across the United States are similar in nature; yet, prior research had not investigated the possible causes of these similarities. Utilizing institutional theory, this research investigated whether institutional isomorphic pressures have any impact on the formalization of human trafficking investigations. Data were collected from 26 municipal police organizations in a mid-Atlantic state on departmental human trafficking policies and practices via Farrell's understanding law enforcement responses to human trafficking survey instrument. Logistic regression analysis was used to predict the probability of human trafficking investigations occurring when institutional coercive, mimetic, and normative isomorphic pressures are introduced. The results indicated no significant relationship between institutional isomorphic pressures and the formalization of human trafficking investigations for the 26 municipal police departments in a mid-Atlantic state. Nonetheless, this study provides an understanding of municipal police department responses to human trafficking and investigatory practices. Accordingly, the social change implications of the study may encourage municipal policing institutions to develop and implement responses based upon human capital and interagency collaboration.

Human sex trafficking of minors is generally thought of as a problem that occurs in third world countries; however recent incidents have begun to shine a light on domestic sex trafficking happening in the United States. Qualitative interviews were conducted with seven participants who work with this population and explored treatment approaches they have observed to be effective when treating victims. The common theme was the use of Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), especially when gathering information surrounding the trauma. It is important to note that although TF-CBT has been observed to be effective it does not meet all of the complex needs of the victims as reported by the participants. This population can be challenging to treat, but positive changes have been observed, such as increased use of coping skills to manage symptoms. There is a great need to educate service providers and the general public on this matter in order to boost advocacy, and improve and increase resources for this group.

Human trafficking of adolescents is estimated to be a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States and adolescents (ages12-18) are at a high risk for being the victims of human trafficking and being sexually exploited during the process of human trafficking. Social workers are ones of the human services practitioners who often encounter potential or actual victims of human trafficking in their social work practice. Thus, it is very important for social workers to be able to identify, intervene, and advocate for this population. The purpose of this study was to examine social workers’ knowledge about human trafficking and their awareness to identify human trafficking of young women and adolescents in the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside. The study utilized a survey questionnaire design with the use of online software, Qualtrics. Data were collected from 30 social workers who belonged to the National Association of Social Workers, Region F. Participants were asked of their knowledge and awareness about human trafficking and some demographic variables. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data collected. Participants in the study indicated various levels of knowledge regarding human trafficking, with 80% of the participants identifying forced labor or forced prostitution as a major part of human trafficking. Just over half of participants (53.3%) indicated that young children were not the most trafficked persons in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The study also found that there was an ethnicity difference in the level of knowledge about human trafficking. White participants were likely to have more knowledge about human trafficking than those of other ethnicities. In order to have better understanding of this crime, and to be better able to detect, and identify these victims, the findings of the study suggest that social workers need to increase their knowledge about human trafficking, as well as their skills to better build rapport, and trust. Another recommendation is that more training, and advanced comprehensive education should be provided to social workers to increase their knowledge, awareness about human trafficking, competence, and effectiveness.