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We examine the impact of multinational oil companies’ (MOCs’) corporate social responsibility (CSR) on traditional practices recognized as violence against women and girls (VAWG) in Nigeria’s oil region. Results from the use of a combined propensity score matching and logit model indicate that MOCs’ CSR play a significant role in empowering women and girls with information and education to protect their human rights. This implies that CSR offers an opportunity for MOCs to help address prevalence of child early and forced marriage, female genital mutilation/cutting, sex trafficking, virginity testing, and taboos through a business case for stakeholders’ human right protection.

Child sex trafficking is a troubling, yet hidden, social problem in the United States. Black girls are particularly vulnerable given the intersection of their race and gender as they navigate biolo...

This article describes the Human Trafficking Indicators (HTI) dataset, a new resource for research on the causes of, and policy responses to, human trafficking. HTI includes country-year level info...

Sex trafficking is considered a public health emergency, although there is public confusion about the crime. Defendant gender has been demonstrated to affect juror decision-making within crimes of ...

This study explored public health department employees’ perceptions of, and experiences with, identifying and serving victims of domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST). A sample of 47 health departm...

This article provides insights into the cultural aspects of sexual violence against young women trafficked into the sex industry in Nepal. Participant observation, participatory clay body mapping workshops and group interviews using photography were used to explore the reproductive body of six formerly trafficked women aged 14-22 years. Intimate partner violence against women, domestic violence and violence against women were important issues raised during the research process. Societal and familial patriarchal norms are the root causes of violence against women in Nepal and can be traced back to the Hindu legal code, theiMuluki Ain of 1854/i, which was enforced for over 100 hundred years. Our findings indicate that tackling violence against women is complex for Nepali trafficked women because of its multiple forms and sources.

The need to educate youth on sex trafficking in the United States has received considerable attention; however, limited research is available to guide development of educational programming for youth. Perspectives from 32 experts in fields connected to sex trafficking and violence prevention were obtained through focus groups and interviews. Questions focused on goals/purposes of educating youth about sex trafficking, content to include in a school-based sex trafficking curriculum for middle and high school students, methods to deliver such a curriculum, and challenges to implementing a sex trafficking curriculum in schools and associated strategies. Experts recommended content on healthy and unhealthy relationships, general information about sex trafficking, factors related to sex trafficking, and identification of safe people and needed resources. Program delivery recommendations focused on delivery approach, format, facilitation, manualization, and integration throughout the school’s curriculum. Lastly, experts noted implementation challenges and associated strategies relating to time and space in school curriculum, parents’ discomfort with educating their children about sex trafficking, and buy-in from school administrators. Results build on existing literature by providing greater depth and context on educating youth about sex trafficking. Empowering youth with information and resources regarding sex trafficking is important for promoting just, peaceful, and inclusive societies.

Our understanding of the crimes associated with human trafficking, including trafficking persons for sex, are hampered by a lack of standardized information. This article reviews selected informati...

Positioned at the intersection of comics studies and gender studies, this article examines the process in which the ‘performance’ of Ram Devineni’s comic Priya and the Lost Girls (2019), with a hon...

Growing interest in preventing and addressing sex trafficking has led to an increase in the development and implementation of sex trafficking educational programing for youth. We conducted a nationwide scoping scan survey of U.S. programs focused on educating youth about sex trafficking to learn more about existing programs. Staff at 37 programs completed the survey and provided information on program development, content, structure, delivery, and evaluation. The majority of programs included youth and survivors in program development. Programs aimed to prevent and increase awareness of sex trafficking with trauma-informed content focused on trafficking dynamics, grooming, warning signs, and actions to take if trafficking is suspected. Slightly over half of the programs also addressed labor trafficking and other forms of violence. Programs targeted youth and teachers, but varied in terms of delivery setting, format, and duration. About two thirds of the programs had undergone some form of evaluation, most by program developers, implementers, or staff. Study findings highlight the current landscape of sex trafficking education programming in the U.S. Recommendations are provided for advancing practice and research, including determining the most efficacious program content and delivery. Empowering youth through education and prevention are key steps to creating safe and inclusive communities.

There has yet to be universally-accepted model of child sex trafficking recruitment tactics. Research suggests that child sex traffickers may use strategies to recruit and retain minors that mirror...

Sex trafficking in the United States has emerged as a critical social issue that negatively impacts the health and mental health of victims. The existence of sex trafficking in Hawaiʻi has been que...

Women involved in commercial sex rings are often isolated, with only each other as their primary social supports. Such relationships are marked by competition and distrust, promoting women’s belief...

In this paper, we discuss the unique trauma experiences of victim-survivors of sex trafficking. In discussion of current counseling practices and the complex trauma endured by these victim survivor...

The measure promoted as England's first law against sex trafficking, the Criminal Law Amendment Bill, journeyed through Parliament in 1912. Amid mounting extra-parliamentary protest over votes for women, workers' rights, and Home Rule for Ireland, the country's suffrage and socialist groups chose to engage with the somewhat ancillary Bill and the issue of trafficking (or ‘white slavery' as it was popularly known) through the powerful medium of their periodicals. They did so largely because they saw the value to their wider campaigns of using trafficking - a phenomenon often cast by reformers as involving the sexual exploitation of working-class women - to forge connections (or highlight disjunctures) between the suffragist and socialist movements. Ideas of race, national identity, and empire attached to configurations of ‘slavery' were central to their rhetoric, and to the links the groups made between trafficking and the political emancipation they sought. These ideas give a valuable insight into influential representations of trafficking in 1912 and the campaign against ‘white slavery' during what was a fundamental, transnational moment in the history of trafficking. They also illuminate suffragist and socialist rhetoric of the day, and the conflicting ideas of ‘Englishness’ therein. This article strives to unlock some of these insights.

During the last decade, over 160,000 people were forcibly displaced internally because of narco-violence in Mexico. Displaced families suffer social and economic vulnerabilities that make them easy...

Despite the literature on the existence of networks in sex trafficking operations, few studies exist using social network analysis to analyze the crime. To help fill this gap, this study focuses on...

Indicators of sex trafficking are widely disseminated by organizations in the criminal justice, social service, healthcare, and community sectors. Drawing from a larger pilot study examining survey...

This study explores the types and extent of potentially traumatic events that youth who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking (CSE/T) report, and how these experiences influence mental health. CSE/T youth (N = 110, 11-19 years old) referred to Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral therapists affiliated with Project Intersect provided self-report data between August 2013 and March 2020 at the start (baseline), mid-point, and completion of therapeutic services. This study focuses on the baseline data collected. Bivariate relationships were analyzed, and where bivariate associations were statistically significant, associations were assessed in adjusted regression models. Two logistic regressions were performed: one for the adjusted associations between types of potentially traumatic events reported by CSE/T youth and the outcome PTSD, and a second for the outcome emotional distress. Results indicated that polytrauma was significantly associated with PTSD diagnosis among CSE/T youth. Direct violence victimization and polytrauma were significantly associated with CSE/T youth emotional distress. Results inform behavioral medicine practitioner considerations for how to appropriately assess the potentially traumatic experiences of CSE/T youth, and how these experiences may differentially impact the mental health presentations of youth in clinical treatment. Effective treatment may include precision-based customization of evidence-based practices to ensure that the diverse traumatic experiences and related symptomatology of CSE/T youth are effectively addressed.

Commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) involves sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, leading to traumatization. Interventions show promise in preventing revictimization and facilitating the integra...

Within the red-light area of Kamathipura in Mumbai, India, the majority of female sex workers (FSWs) arrive as victims of sex trafficking. Many of these FSWs are mothers who must care for their chi...

The purpose of the present qualitative interpretive meta-synthesis (QIMS) is to explore, categorize, and confront one of the powerful narratives present within the counter-trafficking movement—that...

Despite the global epidemic of sex trafficking, laypeople and professionals possess little knowledge about trafficking. Lack of awareness engenders failed victim identification, victim-blaming atti...

Sex trafficking involving children is a human rights issue of growing concern, with immediate and lasting impacts on victims. Although victimization is consistently associated with prior maltreatme...

Knowledge about labor trafficking (LT) lags behind extant understanding about sex trafficking due to the ability of LT to exist within legal frameworks, and it impacts some of the most oppressed an...

This review examines the global literature concerning HIV/STI risk among trafficked female sex workers (FSWs), in relation to sex trafficking and drug use. The compound effects of sexual and drug-related risk merit a systematic literature review to grant a better understanding of their role in HIV/STI transmission. The current review synthesizes the results of 21 studies conducted in multiple cultural settings. Though the selected studies similarly found heightened HIV risks faced by trafficked FSWs, the focuses varied from the effect of trafficking on HIV, to the effect of entry age to sex work on HIV, to the effects of various forms of violence on HIV, to the effect of HIV risk behaviors on HIV, and to the relationship between HIV and other STIs. While focuses and findings varied, they are in consensus that various forms of violence and diminished autonomy, as a result of sex trafficking, accelerate the FSWs' risks of HIV/STIs even in comparison to women who voluntarily enter the sex trade. Variations in findings may be attributed to specific socio-cultural settings and various research methods as well as differences in the risk factors being studied. This points to the need for more empirical studies - particularly those that specifically target trafficked FSWs and the mechanisms of HIV/STI transmissions among the highly vulnerable population..

We provide theoretical and practical perspectives on children, women, and sex trafficking during the COVID-19 pandemic. Process tracing is employed as a primary research instrument. It is an analytical technique used for either theory-building or theory-testing purposes that is employed to elucidate causation and change as well as to develop and evaluate extant theories in social sciences. We illustrate that a policy is needed that will strengthen the capacity of existing structures in the fight against the underlying trafficking so that these attendant structures are efficiently used to stop the trafficking and avoid the corresponding threats to public health safety.

The sexual exploitation of LGBTQ+ young adults and how to best serve this population is an emerging field of knowledge. In July 2015, a cross-sectional purposeful sampling design was used to recrui...

Since the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act nearly 20 years ago, there have been relatively few human trafficking (labor or sex) arrests, charges, and convictions, which casts doubt...

Theoretical frameworks have been developed for utilizing intersectionality theory in empirical social science research. This article 1) examines how one theoretical framework can be used to assess ...

Public opinion frequently assigns some degree of responsibility to victims of human trafficking for their “voluntary” engagement in the phenomenon, thus denying the existence of “innocent victims” ...

The majority of trafficked persons report seeing a healthcare provider at least once during their exploitation. Implementing training on human trafficking for healthcare providers could improve ide...

The attitudes of others towards individuals who sell sex (ISS) can have a significant impact on how the population is treated in interpersonal interactions and social systems. The current study out...

In spring 2018 the U.S. federal government forced Craigslist's sex forums closed. A new anti-sex trafficking law, FOSTA-SESTA, made exceptions to the Communications Decency Act, holding websites accountable for online "prostitution." This study used critical discourse analysis to trace how U.S. newspaper articles reported on Craigslist sex forums (

Human sex trafficking has gained greater awareness in recent decades. The literature surrounding sex trafficking has largely applied a model of supply and demand or model of sexual aggression to th...

Background: While it is common for trafficked persons (TPs) to access healthcare, few health professionals have had training and lack confidence in their ability to respond effectively. Additional...

Health-care providers are in a unique position to identify and respond to the needs of trafficking survivors, yet research has revealed a lack of training for work with this population. The primary...

This interview with Nigerian writer Chika Unigwe, conducted by email over the course of three months in early 2020, addresses the ethics and aesthetics of representing sex trafficking and transnati...

Accounts of human trafficking suggest music’s uniquely insidious role for victims forcibly trafficked into strip club-based sex work, wherein music is ubiquitous. In sociological fieldwork, sex wor...

I have been conducting empirical research on child trafficking in the United States ever since the passage of the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000. I began by “studying up”:1 ...

Research from prostitution, sex trafficking, and commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) literature have found risk factors that can lead to both male and female youth becoming involved in this sex trade. These behaviors have been clearly defined and institutions have begun to address known risk factors. Youth who have reported involvement in trading/exchanging sex still remain hidden with limited information known about this group. The exchanging/trading sex literature has failed to explore correlates of involvement for adolescent males. This study explores factors found in prior research related to prostitution, sex tracking, and CSE to begin to understand adolescent males who exchanged sex for drugs or money. A secondary data analysis was used to examine the exchange of sex for male youth aged 12 to 18 in the United States. Results reveal that sexual activities were significant in predicting exchanging sex indicating a need for a more in-depth analysis of current and potential correlates for males.

The crime of sex trafficking is a phenomenon that affects almost every region of the world. The crime is fundamentally a process of convergence between different individuals with distinct character...

Domestic minor sex trafficking is often thought of as a crime that happens somewhere else (outside of Australia), with most conceptualizations involving a child who is internationally trafficked. T...

The nature of freedom has been discussed extensively by Paul Ricoeur in his book Freedom and Nature. This article critically engages with this notion of freedom in the context of survivors of sex t...

There is growing interest in educating youth about sex trafficking, coupled with a recognition that both traditional and alternative schools are promising venues for addressing sex trafficking and ...

Methodological obstacles limit most estimates of trafficking among sex workers in the United States. The diversity of activities and interactions in the erotic labor market (ELM) demand an empirica...

Over the past decade, the majority of states in the United States have enacted laws that include legal protection and/or rehabilitative services for juvenile victims of human trafficking. This mixe...

This article analyses the relationships between the colonial government in the Federated Malay States (FMS), international social movement organisations, the League of Nations and sex trafficking. ...

The Internet (e.g., social networking, online marketing, and encryption technologies) has been identified as a means to facilitate domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST; a.k.a., commercial sexual ex...

Researchers in the field of modern slavery and human trafficking have faced significant challenges in estimating the prevalence of victimization since the emergence of the field in the 1990s. 1 Human trafficking is a hidden crime, which for several reasons is not amenable to the most widely applied approaches to measuring crime and victimization, especially in wealthy nations such as the U.S. where trafficking is less prevalent and more hidden. Recent studies in U.S. cities or regions have tended to target specific populations with perceived vulnerabilities to trafficking, including homeless youth, 2 youth engaged in trading sex, 3 youth involved in the child welfare system, 4 undocumented laborers, 5 sexual minorities, 6 or minor girls. 7 Researchers typically do not venture estimates of prevalence from these studies, and are careful to note that any estimates that might be drawn from those studies are clearly limited to those particular populations and cannot be extrapolated to determine prevalence estimates for entire communities or the nation. Nonetheless, in the absence of more accurate estimates, journalists and scholars often inappropriately employ these limited findings as prevalence estimates. Without knowing the prevalence of human trafficking, it is difficult to frame appropriate policies or effectively allocate resources. This study therefore set out to address these research challenges by employing Multiple Systems Estimation (MSE), a statistical model that builds from lists of known cases to estimate the number not known, with the ultimate goal of estimating the total number of enslaved or trafficked persons in a particular geographical location. The research detailed in this essay provides an estimate, derived from MSE analysis, that reflects a first attempt at utilizing local data to determine the prevalence of trafficking in an American city-in this case, in the New Orleans metropolitan area. Additionally, it reports on the factors that aided and impeded an accurate and reliable MSE estimation of trafficking in New Orleans, such as definitional variance and the likelihood of political and cultural dynamics affecting the reporting of trafficking crime and victimization by different types of organizations. Based on this initial foray into employing MSE at a regional level in the United States, we provide some recommendations for data collection