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Despite extant literature on individual-level risk factors for sex trafficking among children and adolescents, little is known about the impact of social and ecological contexts on risk of human trafficking victimization. The purpose of this study was to examine the correlates signaling risk of human trafficking victimization at the individual, family, social, and community levels utilizing a sample of 40,531 justice-involved male and female youth, a small fraction of whom were suspected or verified victims of human trafficking between 2011 and 2015 (N = 801, including 699 female and 102 male youth). Using this sample, we examined differences across individual, family, social, and community characteristics of youth involved in the juvenile justice system who have a history of trafficking victimization and youth without such histories. Series of logistic regression analyses were conducted using varying control groups, created through exact matching and randomized matching groups to address sample imbalances. These analyses indicate that, at the individual level, youth who had experienced childhood adversities were more likely to report human trafficking victimization. Sex differences were found regarding risk factors pertaining to the family and broader socio-ecological contexts. Female youth who had witnessed family violence had an antisocial partner or antisocial friends, or resided in a community with a greater proportion of the population being foreign-born or speaking English less than very well were at heightened risk for human trafficking victimization. Little evidence was found for community-level risk factors of victimization in this specific sample of justice-involved youth. These findings encourage more research to unpack the multilevel correlates of victimizations at the individual, family, social, and community levels, recognizing potential differences between female and male youth regarding the factors that put them at heightened risk for juvenile sex trafficking victimizations. Practice and policy should direct awareness and prevention measures to social and ecological contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every year, millions of people experience intimate partner violence (IPV) and commercial sexual exploitation (CSE), with researchers increasingly discussing the overlap between these two forms of interpersonal violence. However, researchers have not yet used quantitative methods to examine the link between IPV and CSE or to explore potential mechanisms underlying the overlap, including child maltreatment risk factors and psychological mechanisms. One potential mechanism is trauma-related shame, a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder commonly experienced by both victims of CSE and IPV. The current study explores trauma-related shame, childhood maltreatment, and IPV and their associations with CSE using a sample of 174 primarily Black women. Binomial logistic regression is used to analyze the impact of IPV, child abuse and neglect, and trauma-related shame on CSE. Results indicate that IPV and trauma-related shame are both significant predictors of CSE. Implications for future research and the incorporation of shame in trauma-related treatment are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently validated among a sample of young adults in the United States, the Trauma Bonding Scale for Adults© is a much-needed instrument for assessing trauma bonding, which refers to the emotional attachment that often develops between perpetrators and victims of violent and exploitive crimes and is common among survivors of sex trafficking. To assess its utility with other populations, this study aimed to validate the Trauma Bonding Scale for Adults© with a sample of young adults in Kenya. An anonymous survey containing demographic items, the Trauma Bonding Scale for Adults©, and 12 items from an open-source measure of posttraumatic stress disorder was administered to 538 young adults aged 18 to 29 in Kenya using Qualtrics XM. Findings from an analysis of psychometric properties suggest that the Trauma Bonding Scale for Adults© is a valid and reliable measure of trauma bonding that may be useful in a global context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about how justice-involved youth are coping with stress related to COVID-19. This study examined changes in psychological distress and antisocial behavior indicators among 557 youths on probation who completed two assessments during pre-COVID-19 conditions and two assessments during post-COVID-19 conditions. Drawing from Agnew's General Strain Theory, the study used multivariate latent growth models to examine: (a) changes in psychological distress and antisocial behavior over time, (b) the associations of the changes, and (c) differences across sex, race, and ethnicity regarding changes in psychological distress. In support of General Strain Theory, results highlight that indicators of psychological distress and antisocial behavior increased during post-COVID-19 conditions when compared to pre-COVID-19 conditions for the full sample and for subsamples of youth categorized by sex, race, and ethnicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[12] find violent, property, and dispute case crimes declined during the lockdown, while public order, domestic violence, and "other" crimes increased, and traffic-related crimes nearly disappeared. Using multivariate latent growth curve modeling, Reid and colleagues found significant increases in aggressive behaviors, poor frustration tolerance, school conduct problems, and drug use from pre-COVID-19 conditions to post-COVID-19 lockdown conditions. Keywords: COVID-19; crime counts; corrections EN COVID-19 crime counts corrections 1127 1136 10 07/11/22 20220701 NES 220701 The economies and social systems of communities and nations have been altered by COVID-19 ([6]; [30]). While violent crime trends were increases in the period after the stay-at-home order and before the phase I re-opening in Dallas, TX, the actual daily violent crime counts after the stay-at-home order leading up to the initial phase I re-opening remained lower than pre-pandemic levels. [Extracted from the article]

The current study castssome of the first light into the initial impacts of the largest global health crisis in a generation on family and domestic violence, the long-term repercussions of which may take decades to unpack. Statewide trends in juvenile arrests for domestic violence (DV)-related offending are examined, taking into account school closures for in-person learning in March 2020 and the subsequent mandate for an in-person learning option in Florida in August 2020. Additionally, trends by sex, race/ethnicity, and severity of the offense are examined. Contrasting with growing studies demonstrating an increase in DV-related arrests among adults, we find a significant decrease upon school closures then subsequent increase when schools reopened with an in-person option. Results held across examined subgroups, yet the extent of increase following mandatory in-person learning availability was not as uniform, with Hispanic youth showing the smallest increase and Black youth the largest. Implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has consistently linked two forms of childhood antisocial behavior, physical aggression and nonaggressive rule-breaking, to adolescent delinquency. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the development of problem behavior during the latter years of childhood and early adolescence (ages 6 to 14). The current study utilized longitudinal data that followed 756 at-risk males and females from early childhood into early adolescence to identify trajectories of physical aggression and nonaggressive rule-breaking and the association between documented risk factors with class membership. The findings supported a four-class model for both physical aggression and nonaggressive rule-breaking. Both models produced high, moderately high, average, and abstaining classes. However, the physical aggression models decreased as participants aged, while the nonaggressive rule-breaking classes increased. Family adversity, protective neighborhoods, negative child temperament, premature birth, race, and gender were associated with class membership. The study findings may inform targeted, problem-specific strategies aimed at early intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few researchers have examined sex trafficking of girls with intellectual disabilities (IDs). Drawing from 54 juvenile sex trafficking (JST) cases, this exploratory, mixed methods study compared 15 JST cases involving girls with ID with 39 JST cases involving girls without ID. Findings revealed a disproportionate risk for exploitation in JST for girls with ID, endangering circumstances creating vulnerability among this population, as well as the perpetrator-victim dynamics that complicate prevention and intervention. Complicating dynamics included victim lack of awareness of exploitation and its endangerments, inability of victims to self-identify, and the relative ease with which traffickers manipulated these girls. The disproportionate risk faced by girls with ID substantiates the need for enhanced safeguards to prevent sexual exploitation of girls with ID including stiffer penalties for those who exploit and buy sex with youth with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging research suggests that sex traffickers/pimps control the majority of trafficked girls in the United States. The youthfulness of these victims and their lack of psychosocial maturity severely diminish their ability to detect exploitative motives or withstand manipulation of traffickers. A review of 43 cases of sexually exploited girls involving non-relative traffickers and 10 semi-structured interviews with social service providers revealed numerous scripts and schemes used by sex traffickers to entrap and entangle victims including boyfriend/lover scripts, ruses involving debt bondage, friendship or faux-family scripts, threats of forced abortion or to take away children, and coerced co-offending. These findings inform potential prevention efforts and highlight the need for multi-systemic, victim-centered approaches to intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using latent class analysis (LCA), this study identified a dyadic taxonomy of delinquent youth categorized by varying types of maternal-youth reporting discrepancies (i.e., youth < maternal, youth > maternal) within a sample of 764 14-year-old high-risk youth. Four distinctive subgroups of youth were identified, two of which reported more than a minimal degree of informant discrepancy across all domains of delinquent behavior. One subgroup exhibited higher maternal-reported delinquency in comparison with youth reports, and one subgroup exhibited higher youth-reported delinquency in comparison with maternal reports. Additionally, risk factors (e.g., peer delinquency, caregiver monitoring) and delinquency-related difficulties (e.g., police contact) were associated with youth placement in the LCA-identified subgroups. Study findings suggest that youth with higher levels of self-reported delinquency compared with maternal reports may be at greater risk for delinquency-related difficulties due to problems related to inadequate monitoring by caregivers combined with greater involvement with peer delinquency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarly research on commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) of youth has been impeded due to difficulties in researching hidden and vulnerable populations. Drawing from Agnew’s general strain theory, this study utilized multigroup structural equation modeling to explore similarities and differences in vulnerability to CSE across gender. The strain reactive pathway, linking caregiver strain to youth susceptibility to CSE, was tested with data from 1,354 serious youthful offenders, 8.4% of whom indicated CSE. Findings revealed that caregiver strain, such as arrests and substance use, similarly impacted nurturing of boys and girls. Across both genders, poor nurturing was linked to higher negative psychosocial emotion, running away, and initiating substance use and sexual relationships at earlier ages. For males, negative psychosocial emotion and earlier initiation of sexual relationships were significantly related to CSE. In contrast, vulnerability of females was more strongly linked to earlier substance use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have consistently linked commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) of youth and involvement in prostitution with substance dependency and delinquency. Yet, important questions remain regarding the directionality and mechanisms driving this association. Utilizing a sample of 114 CSE/prostituted youth participating in the Pathways to Desistance study—a longitudinal investigation of the transition from adolescence to adulthood among serious adolescent offenders—the current study examined key criminal career parameters of CSE/prostitution including age of onset and rate of recurrence. Additionally, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to explore concurrent associations and causal links between CSE/prostitution and drug involvement. Findings show a general sequential pattern of the ages of onset with substance use and selling drugs occurring prior to CSE/prostitution, evidence that a small group with chronic CSE/prostitution account for the majority of CSE/prostitution occurrences, and high rates of repeated CSE/prostitution. SEM results suggest CSE/prostituted youth persist in drug involvement from year to year but infrequently experience perpetuation of CSE/prostitution from year to year. Concurrent associations between CSE/prostitution and drug involvement were found across the length of the study. Additionally, drug involvement at one year was linked to CSE/prostitution during the subsequent year during early years of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Due to inaccessibility of child victims of commercial sexual exploitation, the majority of emergent research on the problem lacks theoretical framing or sufficient data for quantitative analysis. Drawing from Agnew’s general strain theory, this study utilized structural equation modeling to explore: whether caregiver strain is linked to child maltreatment, if experiencing maltreatment is associated with risk-inflating behaviors or sexual denigration of self/others, and if these behavioral and psychosocial dysfunctions are related to vulnerability to commercial sexual exploitation. The proposed model was tested with data from174 predominately African American women, 12% of whom indicated involvement in prostitution while a minor. Findings revealed child maltreatment worsened with increased caregiver strain. Experiencing child maltreatment was linked to running away, initiating substance use at earlier ages, and higher levels of sexual denigration of self/others. Sexual denigration of self/others was significantly related to the likelihood of prostitution as a minor. The network of variables in the model accounted for 34% of the variance in prostitution as a minor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although juveniles are known to experience relatively high levels of violence and abuse, study of their victimization is underdeveloped. Using data from a nationally representative survey of 1,000 youth, this study used latent class analysis to construct a typology of juvenile victims and latent class regression to explore previously proposed correlates to juvenile victimization based on lifestyle or routine activity theory of victimization. An analytically derived typology was identified with three classes: minimally victimized youth, victims of bullying, and universally victimized youth. Parental supervision, school violence, family adversity, and age were found to significantly affect the placement of youth into the various classes. Implications for juvenile justice and other service providers include the importance of attending to the harmful effects of peer victimizations and providing trauma-recovery treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]