Child Sex Trafficking in the United States: Social Work Practice

Introduction and Social Justice Overview

Although the social justice issue of child sexual trafficking is widely regarded by the American public as a problem faced by other nations — particularly impoverished developing countries — the harsh reality is that child sex trafficking routinely occurs in the United States as well. While exact figures about its prevalence in the United States are unavailable, it is known that sex trafficking, including of men, women, and children, occurs in all 50 states.

Although precise figures are unavailable, one of the most pressing human rights issues facing the nation today is the prevalence of child sexual abuse and trafficking, as well as the active grooming of young children for these illicit purposes. Current estimates indicate that at least 4.5 million people are victims of sex trafficking globally. Moreover, it has become increasingly apparent that even affluent nations such as the United States are not immune from these criminal activities. In this regard, the Polaris Project emphasizes that, "While the prevalence of sex trafficking in the United States is still unknown, we do know that women, children, and men are being sold for sex against their will in cities and towns in all 50 states. A shocking number of these victims are citizens of the United States" (Sex Trafficking in the United States, 2019, p. 1).

As the research that follows shows, a serious threat to vulnerable populations — most especially women and children — exists in this country, but it remains largely out of the public discourse for multiple reasons, most especially the wide array of other existential threats already arrayed against Americans. A recent report by Saric (2022) pointed out that, "Overlapping crises — from the COVID-19 pandemic to climate change to armed conflicts — have caused unprecedented disruption to employment and education and increased extreme poverty, unsafe migration and gender-based violence, leading to a heightened risk of modern slavery" (para. 3).

Grooming Practices and Vulnerable Populations

Besides the lack of precise numbers and clear jurisdictional boundaries, the problem of sex trafficking and abuse of children is further exacerbated by the varied strategies through which young people are overtly forced or covertly groomed for these purposes. In some cases, young people become victims of sex trafficking after becoming romantically involved with individuals who exploit them by either forcing or otherwise manipulating them into sex work. In other cases, young people are actually sold into sexual slavery by family members, including their parents. In addition, some young people are tricked into sex work through false promises of legitimate employment such as modeling or entertainment (Sex Trafficking in the United States, 2019).

In the context of sex abuse and trafficking, the term "grooming" refers to situations in which young people are exploited by others who have established some type of emotional relationship — such as in the above-mentioned cases of romantic involvement or by family members. In some cases, young people are groomed by professionals with whom they have established a close relationship. Grooming is an especially insidious antecedent of outright sexual abuse and trafficking since it takes advantage of young people's vulnerabilities to manipulation, their naivety due to a lack of relevant life experience, and their overall inability to prevent these outcomes. Furthermore, children are groomed by both adult men and women of all ages, and children may not realize what is being done to them or that these practices constitute abuse (Human trafficking, 2022).

Although every young person's experience is unique in some ways, there are general patterns used to groom children for sexual exploitation. The stages described below represent some of the general practices used for this purpose.

Stage 1 — Targeting the Victim: The initial stage involves offenders evaluating potential victims for various vulnerabilities such as isolation, diminished self-confidence, and emotional neediness. Children who have sporadic or inconsistent parental oversight are particular targets.

Stage 2 — Gaining the Victim's Trust: Many sexual offenders seem to possess an intuitive ability to discern what actions will most effectively facilitate trust-building with a young child — identifying their needs and determining how best to satisfy them. Because every child and situation is different, sexual predators require a finely tuned sense of what actions are most appropriate. Truly successful sexual predators are naturally charismatic and are also capable of gaining caregiver trust in order to gain greater access to the child.

Stage 3 — Filling a Need: After sexual predators begin satisfying a child's needs, the adult offender becomes increasingly important to the child, to the point where they are idealized. Children's perceived needs may include greater attention, gifts, or affection. This level of adult involvement in a child's life also represents a red flag of potential abuse for parents or other caregivers.

Stage 4 — Isolating the Child: During this stage, sexual predators leverage their burgeoning close relationship with children in order to devise opportunities to be alone with them — through tutoring, babysitting, coaching, and outings. This stage reinforces the close relationship between the adult predator and the targeted child, an outcome that is accelerated when parents or caregivers express appreciation for these efforts. The net effect is to inculcate a sense that a special relationship exists that is worthy of continuance.

Stage 5 — Sexualizing the Relationship: Based on growing levels of trust, the relationship becomes increasingly sexualized through various strategies such as looking at pictures together, having intimate conversations, and arranging situations where both are either nude or nearly so. These encounters desensitize the child to the point where the sexual predator can take advantage of the child's natural curiosity by initiating preliminary sexual activities.

Stage 6 — Maintaining Control: The final stage involves the sexual offender emphasizing the need for secrecy about the relationship and attempting to place blame for it directly on the child in order to coerce continued silence and participation. This is regarded as essential by sexual predators since outright sexual activities can result in children attempting to end the relationship.

Source: Adapted from Sex Trafficking in the United States, 2019.

Although the stages of grooming described above resemble actions one might find in a covert recruitment manual, sexual predators do not operate from a formal guide. It is nonetheless reasonable to suggest that these stages represent the general fashion in which young children become victims of sexual abuse and trafficking through grooming. Despite the time and effort that sexual predators invest in recruiting victims, the process is not especially difficult for those individuals bent on exploiting children who are particularly vulnerable and who possess personal attributes that facilitate these activities.

In many cases, the relationship that develops through grooming is a mix of incentives and threats. The specialists at the Trafficking in America Task Force (2022) make it clear that, "Children in these entangled relationships — and at this point they are entangled — confront threats to blame them, to end the relationship and to end the emotional and material needs they associate with the relationship, whether it be the dirt bikes the child gets to ride, the coaching one receives, special outings or other gifts" (Human trafficking, 2022, para. 5). Furthermore, beyond any positive incentives children may receive for participating in sexual relations with offenders, these young people may come to believe that revealing the relationship will result in their humiliation and make them feel even more unwanted (Human trafficking, 2022).

It is also important to note that despite the stereotypical image of a sexual predator as male, a small but likely severely underestimated percentage of women also engage in sexual predation and grooming in the United States. For example, the results of a study by Kaylor et al. (2022) found that, "Two percent of those who commit sex crimes are women, most of which involve child victims. However, victimization surveys suggest the true rate of female-perpetrated child sexual abuse is significantly higher than official statistics, and that it is under-detected and under-reported" (p. 503). In sharp contrast to the growing body of knowledge concerning male sexual predators, far less is known about the methods used by women to groom children for sexual exploitation (Kaylor et al., 2022). Nevertheless, the limited research in this area indicates that women use many of the same tactics described above, most especially in the cases of child sex traffickers and female educators (Kaylor et al., 2022).

As also noted throughout, there are multiple factors involved in creating and sustaining an environment conducive to child sex trafficking, including each victim's individual circumstances. This complexity means that a conventional theoretical framework lacks the robustness needed to develop a complete understanding of the antecedents of sexual trafficking and abuse. These limitations also mean that a multidisciplinary, integrated approach drawing on rational choice theory, economic theory, victim vulnerability theory, and constitutive theory is needed (Mandisa & Lanier, 2012). Mandisa and Lanier (2012) emphasize that, "An integrated model to explain human trafficking appears to be a logical step towards an understanding of the crime. An integrated model should help enhance the prevention and control strategies utilized to reduce human trafficking" (p. 27). This guidance suggests that a theoretical framework accounting for social, economic, and emotional factors is best suited to understanding the sexual trafficking of children and formulating appropriate interventions.

Federal Policies and Legislation

In the United States, beyond the fundamental Thirteenth Amendment protections against involuntary servitude, human trafficking is addressed by a range of federal laws and regulations, the most significant of which are described below.

U.S. Code, Title 22, Chapter 78 — Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA): The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act combats trafficking in persons, especially into the sex trade, slavery, and involuntary servitude. It has been reauthorized three times since its initial passage.

Customs and Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Reauthorization Act of 2009: Sections 307 and 308 of this Act amend the original Tariff Act of 1930 to include provisions prohibiting the importation of goods to the United States produced through human trafficking or forced labor.

PROTECT Act of 2003: The PROTECT Act (Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to End the Exploitation of Children Today) is intended to protect children from abuse and sexual exploitation, a common element of child human trafficking.

Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA): This Act provides notice to property owners whose properties have been identified as being used to facilitate smuggling or harboring of undocumented persons. It is an important tool because many employers and property owners turn a blind eye to the facilitation of criminal activity on their premises.

Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004: Section 7202 established the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center to achieve greater integration and effectiveness in U.S. government enforcement efforts, and to work with foreign governments to address alien smuggling, trafficking in persons, and criminal support of clandestine terrorist travel.

The Mann Act of 1910: The Mann Act and its subsequent amendments make it a felony to knowingly persuade, induce, entice, or coerce an individual to travel across state lines to engage in prostitution or to attempt to do so. It remains an effective tool for prosecuting human traffickers.

Source: Human Trafficking Laws & Regulations (2022), U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Although exact figures are unavailable, it is estimated that several thousand foreign national children are sexually trafficked into the United States, and hundreds of thousands of American children are at risk of sexual trafficking within the country each year (Human trafficking, 2022).