Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST) is a severe form of child sexual exploitation. Thus far, DMST studies have been qualitative or relied on secondary data. There has been no quantitative attempt to directly identify victims in a methodical way in order to determine the prevalence of DMST at a local level or the nature and strengths of its correlates. The present study used a three-tiered screening process to identify victims of DMST in a juvenile detention center. All youth taken into custody over a three and a half month period (N = 738) received a short assessment to identify those most at risk and in need of additional screening. During the study, six youth were identified as DMST victims and statistically significant differences were found between youth referred for additional screening (N = 47) and youth who were not. The results suggest that detention and probation staff identified the presence of DMST risk factors in youth screen interviews and were making referral decisions based on the presence of those risk factors. Practical implications of the findings are discussed along with suggestions for future research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pdx.edu/oai:pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu:open_access_etds-1304 |
| Date | 01 January 2011 |
| Creators | Dabney, Jonathan Dickinson |
| Publisher | PDXScholar |
| Source Sets | Portland State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Dissertations and Theses |
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