Critical Factors in Childhood Resulting in Vulnerability to Human Trafficking
Human trafficking, with its main sub-category of sex trafficking, thrives globally in the 21st century. However, women and children are the most susceptible to sex trafficking victimization. Critical factors in childhood may increase the likelihood of adolescents becoming victims of sex trafficking. Therefore, this presentation addresses four current research themes of childhood maltreatment in pre-sex trafficking victimization. First, physical abuse and sexual abuse may predict later trafficking victimization. Second, influence perpetrated and modeled by family and friends engaged in the sex trade may increase the likelihood of victimization. Third, adolescents who experience homelessness and foster care may become future victims. Finally, later victimization may be predicted by childhood substance addiction. These factors may be the dominant elements of maltreatment that increase children’s vulnerability to traffickers. Researchers reported that both physical and sexual abuse factored heavily in the participants’ childhoods. Furthermore, researchers found similar findings regarding the latter three topics and their relations to childhood experiences. These factors may have increased victimization, because childhood maltreatment skewed the adolescents’ understanding of love and security, which lack may drive children to seek them from exterior sources. Future directions will be discussed, such as creating a cohesive and universal scale for measuring the vulnerability of sex trafficking victimization in children.
PSY 499, Capstone
Mary Ann Winter-Messiers
SPS 101
1 – 1:30 PM
Return to schedule