Bought and Sold: Recognizing and Assisting Youth Victims of Domestic Sex Trafficking
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children/Sex Trafficking
Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States
This report from
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) examines the commercial sexual exploitation of minors within the United States. It offers recommendations concerning strategies for responding to commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of minors in the United States, new legislative approaches, and a research agenda. The report concludes that efforts to prevent, identify, and respond to the commercial sexual exploitation of minors in the United States require better collaborative approaches. These efforts need to confront demand and the individuals who commit and benefit from these crimes. The recommendations in the report have the potential to advance and strengthen the nation’s emerging efforts to prevent, identify, and respond to commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of minors.
Download
Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States.
Faces of Human Trafficking Video Series
This video series from the U.S. Department of Justice’s
Office for Victims of Crime is intended to be used for outreach and education efforts of service providers, law enforcement, prosecutors, and others in the community. The series includes information about sex and labor trafficking, multidisciplinary approaches to serving victims of human trafficking, special considerations for youth victims, victims’ legal needs, and voices of survivors. Accompanying the video series is a discussion guide, four fact sheets, and four posters that can be used to augment trainings and generate discussion.
Visit the
Faces of Human Trafficking Video Series webpage.
Human Trafficking Awareness for the General Public
This free 1-hour online course from
Stanford University Online provides basic training on human trafficking, aiming to educate people on how to spot it and what to do about it in their own communities. The training covers the definition of human trafficking, its prevalence, and the places and industries in which it occurs. It examines whom it affects and the techniques used to force people into trafficking and hold them there. The training assumes no prior knowledge of human trafficking.
Visit the
Human Trafficking Awareness for the General Public training webpage.
Human Trafficking for Runaway and Homeless Youth Serving Programs: A Resource Guide
Human Trafficking in America’s Schools
Human trafficking currently is one of the world’s most profitable criminal enterprises. Trafficking is not only occurring overseas; it is occurring right here in the United States, with schools becoming a target area for recruitment. This pioneering guide, funded through the U.S. Department of Education’s
Office of Safe and Healthy Students, will help school officials understand how human trafficking impacts schools; recognize the indicators of possible child trafficking; and develop policies, protocols, and partnerships to address and prevent the exploitation of children.
Download
Human Trafficking in America’s Schools.
Human Trafficking in Youth-serving Programs
The Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) and the Runaway and Homeless Youth Training and Technical Assistance Center (RHYTTAC) are pleased to announce the release of “Human Trafficking in Youth-serving Programs: A Blueprint for Organizations Working with Street Youth, Homeless Youth, and Youth at Risk.” This guide serves as an introduction to important information for any youth-serving organization considering providing services to homeless youth who have been trafficked. The resource addresses issues such as:
- Common Misconceptions
- Recruitment into Labor and Sex Trafficking
- Understanding Risk and Protective Factors
- Prevention and Intervention
- Approaches to Work with Trafficked Youth
Download Human Trafficking in Youth-serving Programs.
Human Trafficking Prevalence and Child Welfare Risk Factors Among Homeless Youth: A Multi-City Study
Labor and Sex Trafficking Among Homeless Youth
National Educators to Stop Trafficking (NEST)
NEST aims to serve as a comprehensive clearinghouse to empower and equip educators by providing youth-focused human trafficking prevention resources. NEST provides age-appropriate human trafficking prevention curricula with the goal of teaching youth how to avoid being trafficked, stand up for victims of trafficking, and spread the word in their communities so that sexual exploitation and human trafficking become a thing of the past.
Visit the
National Educators to Stop Trafficking (NEST) website.
National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC): 1-888-373-7888
Operated by
Polaris Project, the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) is a national, toll-free hotline, available to answer calls from anywhere in the United States, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year. The NHTRC is not a government entity, law enforcement or an immigration authority. Call for confidential help and information.
Polaris Project
Polaris Project is one of the leading organizations in the global fight against human trafficking and modern-day slavery. Named after the North Star “Polaris” that guided slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad, Polaris Project is transforming the way that individuals and communities respond to human trafficking in the U.S. and globally. By successfully pushing for stronger federal and state laws, operating the
National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline (1-888-373-7888), conducting trainings, and providing vital services to victims of trafficking, Polaris Project creates long-term solutions that move our society closer to a world without slavery.
Pretesting a Human Trafficking Screening Tool in the Child Welfare and Runaway and Homeless Youth Systems
Despite the fact that youth involved in the child welfare (CW) and runaway and homeless youth (RHY) systems are particularly vulnerable to being trafficked, there is no consensus screening tool to identify trafficking experiences among such youth. This study from the
Urban Institute, developed a Human Trafficking Screening Tool (HTST) and pretested it with 617 RHY- and CW-involved youth. This research established that the screening tool is accessible to youth and easy to administer, and that both the full-length tool and a shorter version were effective in identifying youth who are trafficking victims in RHY and CW systems, though additional research with more youth is needed.
Download
Pretesting a Human Trafficking Screening Tool in the Child Welfare and Runaway and Homeless Youth Systems.
Shining Light on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children: A Toolkit to Build Understanding
Wichita State University Center for Combating Human Trafficking and Youth Collaboratory, in partnership with the Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention, offer this toolkit as a resource for multidisciplinary professionals, policy makers, volunteers, faith communities, and others involved in anti-trafficking work. It provides information on a variety of topics related to human trafficking with a specific focus on mentoring for commercial sexual exploitation victims.
Read Shining Light on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children: A Toolkit to Build Understanding.
Surviving the Streets of New York: Experiences of LGBTQ Youth, YMSM, and YWSW Engaged in Survival Sex
In this report from the
Urban Institute, 283 LGBTQ youth share powerful stories of being homeless in New York City, interfacing with peers, customers, service providers, law enforcement officials, and criminal justice personnel, and finding ways to survive despite the layers of adversity they face. They also make suggestions regarding the policy options they would like to see, and provide their opinions on what they perceive as harmful or helpful for their lives.
Download
Surviving the Streets of New York: Experiences of LGBTQ Youth, YMSM, and YWSW Engaged in Survival Sex.