Attitudes About Human Trafficking: Individual Differences Related to Belief and Victim Blame

Recommendations to Improve Services and Supports for Domestically Sex Trafficked Persons Derived from the Insights of Health Care Providers

Health care providers are highly likely to encounter persons who have been domestically sex trafficked and, therefore, possess valuable insights that could be useful in understanding and improving existing services and supports. In-depth interviews were conducted with 31 health care providers residing and working in Canada's largest province, Ontario. Results were analyzed using Braun and Clarke's analytical framework. Across providers, a key theme was identified: "Facilitators to improve care", which was comprised of two sub-themes, "Address needs in service provision" and "Center unique needs of survivors". From these results, eight wide-ranging recommendations to improve services and supports were developed (eg, Jointly mobilize an intersectoral, collaborative, and coordinated approach to sex trafficking service provision; Employ a survivor-driven approach to designing and delivering sex trafficking services). These recommendations hold the potential to enhance services in Canada and beyond by reducing barriers to access and care, facilitating disclosure, aiding in recovery, and empowering those who have been domestically sex trafficked.

Juror Decision-Making in a Child Trafficking Case: The Impact of Defendant and Victim Gender, Defendant Age, and Defendant Status

There has been an increase in human trafficking in Canada from 2018 to 2019, which suggests a rising trend in human trafficking, and as such, the number of court cases are likely increasing. Because of this, the current study sought to examine how a defendant and victim's gender, and defendant social status and age impacted mock jurors' decision-making in a child trafficking case. Participants (N = 584) read a mock trial transcript depicting a child trafficking case. They were then asked to render a verdict, answer questions relating to perceptions of the victim and defendant and rate their level of agreements on statements concerning sex and human trafficking. Although there was no effect on dichotomous verdict, mock jurors attributed higher guilt ratings to the male trafficker. Moreover, participants reported more favorable perceptions of the victim when the trafficker was female, and the victim was male compared to female. Participants also reported more favorable perceptions of the victim when the trafficker was of high social status and younger compared to older. Additionally, when mock jurors were well-informed about trafficking victim blaming did not occur. The results of the current study provide some insight into juror perceptions of child sex trafficking cases.

A protocol for a qualitative study on sex trafficking: Exploring knowledge, attitudes, and practices of physicians, nurses, and social workers in Ontario, Canada

Introduction

There has been limited research on sex trafficking in Canada from a health and health care perspective, despite U.S. research which points to health care providers as optimally positioned to identify and help those who have been sex trafficked. We aim to better understand health care providers’ knowledge about, attitudes towards, and care of those who have been sex trafficked in Ontario, Canada.

Methods and analysis

Using a semi-structured interview guide, we will interview physicians, nurses, and social workers working in a health care setting in Ontario until data saturation is reached. An intersectional lens will be applied to the study; analysis will follow the six analytic phases outlined by Braun and Clarke. In the development of this study, we consulted the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) with regards to reflexivity and study design. We will continue to consult this checklist as the study progresses and in the writing of our analysis and findings.

Discussion

To our knowledge, this will be the first study of its kind in Canada. The results hold the potential to inform the development of standardized training on sex trafficking for health care providers. Results of the study may be useful in addressing sex trafficking in other jurisdictions.

Sex Trafficking: A Literature Review With Implications for Health Care Providers

Sex trafficking often goes unrecognized, yet is a pervasive issue that disproportionately affects marginalized populations. Survivors suffer adverse health effects and often present to health care facilities while still under control of their traffickers. Health care providers, including nurses and advanced practice nurses, lack understanding of risk factors, signs and symptoms, and means of offering assistance. A comprehensive literature search was conducted utilizing EBSCOhost and WorldCat. Studies were considered eligible for inclusion if subject matter dealt directly with domestic sex trafficking and included implications for health care or health care education. There are some identified risk factors that place people at higher risk for victimization and survivors may present for care with a common symptom, including physical and mental health issues. Barriers to care include both survivor and health care system characteristics; however, health care providers can undertake specific actions to help overcome these barriers. Health care providers are in a prime position to identify and assist sex trafficking survivors. However, they need to be aware of common risk factor presentations, and they need to be trained to offer assistance. Ongoing research is needed to determine the best way to develop, introduce, and evaluate these trainings.

Human Trafficking in Correctional Institutions: A Survey of Correctional and Anti-Trafficking Leaders

Growing awareness of the overlap between justice involvement and human trafficking victimization has led to calls for correctional institutions to prevent, identify, and respond to trafficking. However, it is unclear how correctional facilities (i.e., jails and prisons) are responding to such calls to action. To examine current efforts to address human trafficking in U.S. correctional facilities, this study surveyed correctional and anti-trafficking leaders (n = 46) about their perceptions and experiences with human trafficking screening, response, and training in correctional facilities. Although the majority of leaders (89%) agreed individuals in their state's correctional facilities have experienced human trafficking, they generally did not perceive that correctional staff were prepared to respond. Bivariate tests revealed that correctional and anti-trafficking leaders differed on their perceptions regarding correctional staffs' knowledge about human trafficking risk factors (p = .014), identification ability (p = .006), and response knowledge (p = .036), with anti-trafficking leaders perceiving correctional staff to be less prepared in these areas. Approximately 16% of leaders reported strategies to identify and respond to trafficking in correctional facilities, and about 27% reported human trafficking training for corrections staff. To promote a just society, study findings offer preliminary guidance for anti-trafficking correctional initiatives and future research.

Understanding Public Attitudes to Hate: Developing and Testing a U.K. Version of the Hate Crime Beliefs Scale

Against the backdrop of an increase in reported hate crimes, we present the development of a U.K.-focussed instrument designed to evaluate the nature of public beliefs about hate crime, legislation, offenders and victims. In Study 1, 438 participants completed an Anglicized version of the Hate Crime Beliefs Scale (HCBS). Factor analyses revealed three subfactors: Denial (high scores represent a denial of hate crime severity and need for legislation), Compassion (high score reflect compassion toward victims and affected communities) and Sentencing (higher scores reflect more punitive attitudes). In Study 2 (N = 134) we show that scores on Denial are positively associated with those on Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), ideologies known to be associated with prejudice. Compassion was negatively associated with these ideologies. Mediation analyses showed that Big Five personality traits Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness predicted Denial and Compassion via RWA, whereas Agreeableness and Openness predicted scores via SDO, consistent with a dual-process motivation model of hate crime beliefs. Results are discussed in terms of the nature of hate crime beliefs and the importance of understanding public attitudes which may support undesirable social norms and influence jury decision making in trials of hate related offenses.

‘Business can't stop.’ Women engaged in prostitution during the COVID-19 pandemic in southern Spain: A qualitative study

A detailed analysis was made of the experience of women engaged in prostitution during the state of emergency due to the COVID-19 virus through a phenomenological study. Eleven telephone interviews were conducted with women engaged in prostitution. It was found that confinement had increased the vulnerability of these women. Business has not stopped and they continue to work fearful of being infected and with increased abuse from the ‘clients’. Economic necessity and pressures from the organisations that exploit them are the main reasons for engaging in prostitution during the pandemic.

Child Sex Trafficking: Strategies for Identification, Counseling, and Advocacy

The human rights violation of sex trafficking continues to occur in the United States at alarming rates. Although sex trafficking affects individuals across various demographic groups, this crime disproportionately affects children. Counselors who work with children and adolescents are uniquely positioned to identify, support, and advocate on behalf of sex trafficked youth who may experience barriers to emotional and physical wellness. Extant literature on counseling sex trafficking survivors remain scarce and illuminate the need for victim identification, trauma-informed interventions, and advocacy strategies that support the unique needs of child sex trafficking survivors. To address these disparities, this article describes victim identification techniques, outlines trauma-focused interventions for counseling sex trafficked youth, and presents advocacy strategies. The implications for counseling child sex trafficking survivors are illuminated through a case study.

Sex Trafficking in the United States: A Scoping Review

PURPOSE

Human trafficking is a public health social work issue. This review aimed to present the current state (nature and extent) of sex trafficking research, categorize best practices, and identify recommendations for professionals.

METHODS

Comprehensive literature searches of online databases were conducted to identify eligible articles from January 2000 to March 2019.

RESULTS

The search yielded 467 studies, 87 met the predetermined criteria for inclusion. Seven themes identified: awareness, identification, at-risk populations, health issues, implementation of trafficking legislation, service and program implementation, and exploiters.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Findings indicate the need for additional research to determine the most effective practices to increase awareness and identification, widespread TVPA implementation, reduce risk factors and resulting health disparities, offer services to survivors and prevention of potential victims.

CONCLUSION

There should be significant efforts to enhance all sex trafficking research in the United States to implement effective, sustainable and evidence-based interdisciplinary interventions.

Multiplicity of stigma: cultural barriers in anti-trafficking response

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the social understanding of stigma as a societal and cultural barrier in the life of a survivor of human trafficking. The findings illustrate several ways where stigma is internal, interpersonal and societal and impacts survivors’ lives, including the care they receive.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used qualitative methods. Data collection occurred during 2018 with efforts such as an online survey (n=45), focus groups (two focus groups of seven participants each) and phone interviews (n=6). This study used thematic analysis of qualitative data.

Findings

The research team found that a multiplicity of stigma occurred for the survivors of human trafficking, where stigma occurred across three levels from micro to meso to macro contexts. Using interpretive analysis, the researchers conceptualized how stigma is not singular; rather, it comprises the following: bias in access to care; barriers of shaming, shunning and othering; misidentification and mislabeling; multiple levels of furthering how survivors are deeply misunderstood and a culture of mistrust.

Research limitations/implications

While this study was conducted in a single US city, it provides an opportunity to create dialogue and appeal for more research that will contend with a lens of seeing a multiplicity of stigma regardless of the political climate of the context. It was a challenge to recruit survivors to participate in the study. However, survivor voices are present in this study and the impetus of the study’s focus was informed by survivors themselves. Finally, this study is informed by the perspectives of researchers who are not survivors; moreover, collaborating with survivor researchers at the local level was impossible because there were no known survivor researchers available to the team.

Practical implications

There are clinical responses to the narratives of stigma that impact survivors’ lives, but anti-trafficking response must move beyond individualized expectations to include macro responses that diminish multiple stigmas. The multiplicity in stigmas has meant that, in practice, survivors are invisible at all levels of response from micro, meso to macro contexts. Therefore, this study offers recommendations for how anti-trafficking responders may move beyond a culture of stigma towards a response that addresses how stigma occurs in micro, meso and macro contexts.

Social implications

The social implications of examining stigma as a multiplicity is central to addressing how stigma continues to be an unresolved issue in anti-trafficking response. Advancing the dynamic needs of survivors both in policy and practice necessitates responding to the multiple and overlapping forms of stigma they face in enduring and exiting exploitative conditions, accessing services and integrating back into the community.

Originality/value

This study offers original analysis of how stigma manifested for the survivors of human trafficking. Building on this dynamic genealogy of scholarship on stigma, this study offers a theory to conceptualize how survivors of human trafficking experience stigma: a multiplicity of stigma. A multiplicity of stigma extends existing research on stigma and human trafficking as occurring across three levels from micro, meso to macro contexts and creating a system of oppression. Stigma cannot be reduced to a singular form; therefore, this study argues that survivors cannot be understood as experiencing a singular form of stigma.

Exploring the relationship between domestic minor sex trafficking myths, victim identification, and service provision

BACKGROUND

The onus of sex trafficking victim identification currently falls to professionals in youth-serving organizations. Accurate identification of domestic minor sex trafficking victims (DMST) and subsequent delivery of services can be impeded by common myths related to human trafficking.

OBJECTIVE

Determine if human service professionals understand the difference between myths and facts pertaining to sex trafficking and if their knowledge affects subsequent service provision.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

Professionals (n = 69) represented youth-serving organizations from a large metropolitan city in the Southwestern United States.

METHODS

Data was collected in a cross-sectional survey from March 2016 to April 2016.

RESULTS

A minority of professionals working in youth-serving organizations believed DMST myths, though administrators most commonly believed the myth that force, fraud, or coercion are required in DMST. Most professionals could not provide an accurate number of victims identified and felt their organizations would benefit from further training. A statistically significant relationship (p < .05) was observed between the belief that "elements of physical force, restraint, bondage, and/or violence" must be present in DMST and participants' ability to identify victims served by their organizations in a given year. Organizations reported that they failed to provide services requested by DMST victims.

CONCLUSIONS

The persistence of DMST myths likely hampers victim identification and tailored service delivery. Cross-sector collaborations are needed to ensure victims' needs are met. Trainings are needed that cover the legal definitions of domestic minor sex trafficking and victim identification and train on accurate identifiers. Training initiatives should include survivors to ensure practices are trauma-informed.